GrapheneOS Security Updates for 4a & Above Phone Comparison?

I am a potential customer and am comparing the Ghost phone with the Above Phone which also uses Pixel. Ghost phone appears much more reasonably priced. I understand the updates from the operating system but wasn't sure about security updates from the phone itself. I believe each pixel phone has a duration of security updates that are provided. After a certain date no security updates will be issued is my understanding. So the older the phone/model the sooner there will be no more security updates provided. Could you please reply to this concern or if it even matters? If you can provide an objective pro/con between Ghost and Above Phone that would be cool too. I hope to make a decision soon.

Hey Peter, great questions. Will take them 1 at a time:

Question #1 What's the difference between the Above Phone and the MARK37 Ghost Phone?
DEVICES
Ghost Phone - Our offering is currently limited to the Pixel 4a (and soon the Pixel 5 and 5a). We believe these devices have more than enough features and functionality to keep 98% of those who need/use smart phones productive. We also only sell mint condition used devices that have been tested for battery life and a variety of other parameters to ensure they work "like new" because we feel buying brand new phones is entirely not necessary. There are literally billions of used mint conditions phones in the market right now and the planned obsolecense economy is not one we wish to support.
Above Phone - They offer a bunch of options and if you're wanting/needing the latest and greates Pixel device and willing to pay a premium for it, go for it. We're all about utility, and as mentioned above, we believe the 4a will getterdone just fine.

SECURITY UPDATES
As new versions of Android are released these will be pushed to the phone regardless if GrapheneOS will be sending their own "harm reduction releases" to the phone. So the real question is if we feel that a phone that may no longer receive a harm reduction release is going to have a significant (or even nominal) disadvantage or be exposed to future threats. Our team believes the threat to a device (the Pixel 4a for example, which is set to no longer receive these "harm reduction releases" in Aug of 2023) no longer "supported" is nominal, at best. We have a few Pixel 3 devices, for example, that have not been supported for some time and they operate just fine with no known security threats to said device.

AFFORDABILITY
From a business perspective we understand why the Above Phone attempts to push customers into a monthly recurring $15/month or $100/year "seucrity" plan, however, we simply feel all of it is entirely unnecessary as there are free and open source apps that can accomplish everything they are claiming is in their "Privacy Suite".
We also provide migration assistance for FREE vs the $200 Above Phone charges for said service.
If you use the coupon code "TRUTH" you will also receive 17% off your order, making our 4a $327.85 vs their $450 just for the phone itself.

ETHOS
For us, MARK37 and our offering of the Ghost Phone is truly designed to scratch our own itch, in that we went hunting for the most secure open source smart phone available to start providing to patriots who were operating on the front lines of the various Anti-Mandate, Anti-CRT, Election Integrity, Defending 2A, Defending Free Speech battles going on... and we couldn't find a solid solution that made sense that was owned by people we trusted were on the same mission as we were. So we started a business to deliver "Technology you can Trust" to the people trying to protect and defend our physical and digital sovereignty AND game changing solutions and products for everyone hoping to start operating outside the matrix. This is a labor of love and necessity for our team, not just a business and we believe in radical transparency in everything we do.

Who is behind the Above Phone? What are their intentions? What are their goals? It's pretty hard to tell...

Regardless which path you choose, I am thrilled you've decided to make the transition off of BigTech!!! Hoping once you make the switch you can become an advocate encouraging others to do the same.

Blessings to you and yours,

Sean

Biggest advantage to Mark37 Ghost phone (Pixel 4a specifically) is the cost, Above phone has a different mission/ethos, their primary goal appears to be making money from products and services, and nothing wrong with that. Their phones are nearly double the price, and their goal is to sell monthly services also. The Ghost phone and the people behind it are on a different mission to breath life into an America First push, which involves taking control of our own tech. GrapheneOS continues to provide the harm reduction updates for a while after OEM support ends (OEM support through Aug this year), the 4a is supported for likely a year and a half or longer currently. As mentioned, older phones will run just fine even without updates.
With the Ghost phone you have full control by default, Above phone seems to aim towards selling you services and installing the apps they want by default; this may be attractive to some, we just like the free software options, as we feel those are still very easy to install and use on your own.
Great question though, and an important one. Here is the page showing the timespans: https://grapheneos.org/faq#device-lifetime
Cheers

To add more context/clarity to this thread, I've added some more of my thoughts below;

Nutshell is we aren't too worried about the expiration on the 4a. If/when any vulnerabilities are found on these devices patches are still pushed out. Note that having these support updates does not completely prevent your device from being exploited. Pixel 6, for example, had a zero day exploit uncovered just recently - https://twitter.com/wtogami/status/1636576611599282177?s=46&t=L54OV7El05lc3AS6-Z-P-Q with some vulnerabilities found even being withheld from disclosure. The GrapheneOS team pushed out a patch update quickly while Google lagged and Samsung has lagged even longer.

As the operating system is the same on any/all Pixel devices we offer and will offer, our primary concern with the Pixel 6 was that this device rolled out Google's processor for the first time, called "Tensor", which was specifically designed to support Google's specific AI capabilities within the device. Our concern was/is that this processor would provide some kind of backdoor access to both Google and our alphabet agencies just as Intel and Nvidia processors provide backdoor access for said agencies. Our research and testing has not provided any conclusive evidence that the Tensor processor is providing such access... however, I wouldn't put it past Google or said agencies to still have a way to do so that the public still has not been able to discover. This also raises the question if Qualcomm, MediaTek or Samsung processors provide backdoor access in other android devices in general, to include all prior Pixel versions... to which my answer is the same as what I just mentioned. I wouldn't put it past these companies or our intelligence agencies to have secured deals with these companies for said access.

Hence, all I can do is give you some data points to consider. You need to decide for yourself if you're comfortable or not making the upgrade to the Pixel 6, or even using a smart phone at all! Regardless, we can say without question that using a de-googled phone is FAR BETTER than using a Google Android device and that GrapheneOS is the most secure and private mobile operating system available right now.