The degoogled /e/Phone project today announced their first custom built, dedicated phone, along with a new/improved Cloud service, app store, etc. This review, tl;dr version is, they did a pretty...
The degoogled /e/Phone project today announced their first custom built, dedicated phone, along with a new/improved Cloud service, app store, etc. This review, tl;dr version is, they did a pretty good job trying to accomplish an impossible task.
I've been an active supporter of this project literally since the day it was announced, originally called Eelo, then /e/, now drifting towards Murena. I'm writing this on my 2nd /e/Phone, both of which have been my primary phone, for a total of over 3 years now.
For me, everything on both phones (first a Galaxy S7+, now a Nord) has been at least adequate, and most things have been downright good. Real issues have been rare, and mostly early in the project.
That said, I'm in that micro-niche market ... I've never used a "regular" Google-Android (nor Apple) phone, so bluntly, IDK what I'm missing. I use a couple of Play apps — my banking app, a public transport app and a govt Corona-check app — acquired thru the anonymized Aurora Store ... everything else on my phone comes from F-droid or built from source.
I think it is absolutely good enough for non-tech people to use. To me, it sounds like the reviewer's negative comments are much ado about nothing ... you can use Google apps on the phone as much or as little as you like, and for a sub-$400 phone, it sounds like everything else is decent.
The degoogled /e/Phone project today announced their first custom built, dedicated phone, along with a new/improved Cloud service, app store, etc. This review, tl;dr version is, they did a pretty good job trying to accomplish an impossible task.
I've been an active supporter of this project literally since the day it was announced, originally called Eelo, then /e/, now drifting towards Murena. I'm writing this on my 2nd /e/Phone, both of which have been my primary phone, for a total of over 3 years now.
For me, everything on both phones (first a Galaxy S7+, now a Nord) has been at least adequate, and most things have been downright good. Real issues have been rare, and mostly early in the project.
That said, I'm in that micro-niche market ... I've never used a "regular" Google-Android (nor Apple) phone, so bluntly, IDK what I'm missing. I use a couple of Play apps — my banking app, a public transport app and a govt Corona-check app — acquired thru the anonymized Aurora Store ... everything else on my phone comes from F-droid or built from source.
I think it is absolutely good enough for non-tech people to use. To me, it sounds like the reviewer's negative comments are much ado about nothing ... you can use Google apps on the phone as much or as little as you like, and for a sub-$400 phone, it sounds like everything else is decent.