[fsflover]

This is not as simple as you're saying. Making a new phone not relying on proprietary drivers tied to Android is impossible without a huge effort: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21656355

[immibis]

Obviously you'd only choose hardware that works the way you want it to.

[fsflover]

Hardware relying on free drivers is almost non-existent in the mobile world. There is nothing to choose from, obviously.

[immibis]

Then aim for freely distributable drivers. You can share copies of Raspbian, so it seems possible.

[butvacuum]

You mean the Linux distro that exists because it needs to contain broadcom drivers/blobs/etc that are under NDA?

[fsflover]

Then your hardware will turn into e-waste as soon as the vendor decides so and stops updating the drivers.