They might think that they are upholding open source secure communication but what they are really achieving with it is fortifying the US big tech duopoly. There are other aims than theirs, of maximum security, in the EU we are facing the real and very relevant issue of digital sovereignty, which is separate from the ambition for getting hardened mobile systems. Sure, possibly legislation would be preferable to regulate and open up what Google’s Play Integrity API is doing, but as long as that legislation does not exist, creating alternative systems is crucial.
I can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t really about the UA but the private feud of Graphene OS developers with pretty much every single other alternative OS or degoogled android. Yes, they are all less secure than Graphene OS, primarily because Graphene OS relies on huge man power effort by Google to keep the firmware at the cutting edge with swift security updates. That is all good and fine, for their cause but it is not the only legitimate cause out there.
The Volla Quintus appears to be almost identical, to the Daria Bond that is sold in the UAE. Specs look identical from what I could see and the only difference I can make out are very minor design changes in the back side shell. Volla’s marketing and statements are pretty misleading about that. I am not saying they should not work with Chinese OEMs but they create the impression there was meaningful customisation going on from their side, maybe there was but it looks very much off the shelf from an OEM model.
At the same time Volla also sells Plinius. It is actually a stronger phone, for a lower price than the Quintus but looks very much like the strongest Gigaset phone (which is lower mid-range), so should be actually manufactured in Germany (as much as any phone in Europe could possibly be I think). It is bewildering that they don’t put the Gigaset model square and centre.