So my roommate has informed me that Android and Motorola donate to Republicans more than Democrats whereas Apple does not, claiming this as a reason that the iPhone is better than an Android phone.

So I'm not sure from where your roommate is getting their information, but according to Open Secrets, Alphabet, Inc. (parent company of Google) donated $27M to Democrats during the 2020 cycle, compared to $1.4M to Republicans. The 2022 cycle is shaping up to be the same. I haven't been able to find much information on Motorola Mobility or its parent company Lenovo.

It reminds me of the argument that beehaw made on keeping lemmy over switching to kbin and that is that we use technology every day built on terrible practices and terrible people. "The Good Place" TV show also made this a major plot point. Essentially the argument boils down to that there is no ethical consumption under capitalism.

This isn't to say throw everything to the wind and support the worst of the worst terrible practices but it is to say that even when you try, you probably can't make a net positive out of a phone purchase. From the metals mined to the component manufacturing. Overall the end of the day you are still putting money into the GOP pockets because Apple still donates to the GOP. Also Apple still donates more to the GOP than Motorola. Apple gives 200k to GOP and 1 million to the dems https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/apple-inc/totals?id=D000021754. Motorola gives 8k to GOP and 6k to dems https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/motorola-solutions/summary?id=D000000355 So it's fairly silly to praise Apple for it. In fact, I'd say donating at all to one or the other party (bribing) overall is negative.

But either way, there isn't any ethical phone in the world. There are "better" options but it's kind of silly as you can put far more positive things into the world by focusing your efforts into positive actions rather than researching to death which company might give the GOP less money. At the end of the day, these are large corporations and they aren't giving money to government officials because they believe in their policies. It's because they need to influence the laws. I'd frankly say because Motorola has less money and thus gives the government fewer bribes that they are probably more ethical. Which isn't to say if they had tons they wouldn't bribe more or less than Apple. It's just that they can't or don't right now because it doesn't benefit them as it does Apple.

So TL;DR: Buy whatever phone you want. There is no ethical consumption under capitalism. If there was, Apple is still far less ethical than Motorola even by their own measurements. Overall on top of that, the less money going towards lobbying the better, and Apple lobbies far more than Morotola and thus you can stuff that in their pipe next time they try to look down on you because you bought a different phone.

I didn't know this, I'm not from US. Why companies donate money to politics parties?

I am very satisfied with my Fairphone 3. I still get monthly security updates. I can easily unlock the bootloader and install any alternative ROM I desire. I can repair any broken part without having to unglue something. But it also seems to be the most robust phone I have used in years. There's a reason a used Fairphone is as expensive as a new one.

If you really want to go all-in on privacy a Pinephone or Librem 5 would be options but they have their own bag of problems. They are better suited for tinkering.

And regarding the comment on firmware updates of the parts themselves, that is a general computing problem that seems to be the worst with single board computers like smartphones. The solution would be parts with support for open firmware but they are almost impossible to find. I think Fairphone is going a good middle ground. I don't expect there to be any phone where this is better.

wow!

e-waste is unethical, try keeping your phone if you can. keep an eye out for LineageOS and see if they end up making a port for your device. if your plan is to de-google your life, stock android can also do that just fine for you. iirc, there are no google services on stock android.

i stand by my comments about fairphone. there is no ethical consumption under capitalism. if you are dead-set on a new device, look into getting a used/refurbished pixel phone and installing GrapheneOS. you won't find a more private/secure phone mobile system, it's vouched for by Edward fuckin Snowden. try get one of the newer models (6 or 7 series) because you'll get longer software support life.

the fairphone still isn't a bad option if you want the hardware to be as ethical as you can realistically manage, fairphone uses several fairtrade gold sourced parts, has open schematics and is almost fully repairable. just bear in mind that it is not designed to last on the software side and fairphone's priority is straying towards profit; it's the 'lesser of two evils' in my mind, i guess.

Buy a used phone off eBay, then you aren't supporting any manufacturer, and you can get whatever phone you want.