Yes it will make it more secure (and faster!), but it is already receiving only bare EOL updates, but will definitely give it some life extension. See: https://grapheneos.org/faq#supported-devices
You won't get the full set of security measures (those require newer Google Tensor chipsets with ARM Memory Tagging Extensions, so Pixel 8 and later), but it's still going to be far more secure than any Android or even iPhone.
Regarding NFC payments, the apps themselves refuse to run on non-vanilla OSes due to spurious security concerns and Google's maneuvers behind the scenes, but there are reports that Curve Pay works, at least in the UK.
That shouldn't be much of an issue. I didn't plan on NFC payments going forward. If I use the web minimally and toggle the internet off when not in use, that should be pretty secure, right?
I'll give it an install tonight. I'm curious to play around with it anyway and if I make minimal use of it, it should be pretty secure by it's use case.
Yes definitely more secure than stock, it is actually staggering to compare some of the features like ability to give apps access to only a selected set of contacts/files which as far as i know is still not on base android. whatsapp for example gets ALL of your address book or nothing (limiting usability) on other OS but on Graphene i can give it just 10 whatsapp-only contacts. I dont know how long the 5 will keep getting updates but for all I know it will be some years. the installation process is surprisingly the easiest of any mobile os I have ever encountered, you will be impressed!
