If you value privacy yet use a smartphone, you are at risk. It’s because Apple and Google constantly collect data on you. Research from Vanderbilt University found that Android sends data to Google even if your phone is on idle mode. It’s possible with Chrome actively running in the background 340 times daily.
Murena and Mandrake Linux creator Gael Duval was bothered by these findings in 2017. He wanted his data to be private and an open-source software alternative. Five years later, Duval and his colleagues created the Murena One X2. It’s the first high-end Android phone to use the open-source /e/OS Android and will soon arrive on the market.
Murena One is running on /e/OS Version 1. There have been many attempts to produce an alternative to Google-based Android and Apple’s iOS. There are Ubuntu One, FirefoxOS, and Windows Mobile, but they all failed. Duval’s goal isn’t to reinvent the mobile operating system wheel but to prohibit Android from its squeaky Google privacy-invading functionalities and replace them with privacy-respecting ones.
To achieve this, Duval started with LineageOS, an Android-based operating system. It descended from the failed CyanogenMod Android fork.
What are the Features of Murena One?
LineageOS blends features from the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) source-code trees.
- In the /e/OS, most Google services have been taken down and changed with the so-called MicroG services. It replaces Google’s libraries with purely open-source implementations without links to Google’s services. This comprises libraries and apps which provide Google Play, Messaging services, Maps, and Geolocation.
- The /e/OS does its best to free you from higher-level Google services. For example, Google’s default search engine has replaced Murena’s meta-search engine.
- The Google-free applications include a web browser, an email client, a messaging app, a calendar, a contact manager, and a maps app that depends on Mozilla Location Service and OpenStreetMap. While it’s not available, Murena is also working on its take on Google Assistant, Elivia-AI.
- With this open-source Android OS, you can also run several Android apps. These apps are included in the operating system’s App Lounge.
- Murena also replaced Google Cloud’s services with its Murena Cloud. Murena Cloud is powered by 1 GB of free storage. It also provides inexpensive storage plans starting at 20 Euros per year for 20 GBs of storage.
- Hardware-wise, Murena One is a nice but not exceptional 4G LTE smartphone. It has an eight-core MediaTek processor backed with 4GBs of RAM and 128 GBs of storage, expandable by adding an external SD card. The phone comes with a 6.5 inches display.
- The cameras are good. On the front, you get a 25-megapixel camera, while on the back are three cameras with 5, 8, and 48-megapixel resolutions.
- It also includes a dual SIM slot to enjoy two phone lines with a single phone. Murena One is compatible with European and most US and Canadian carriers.
There’s still one big problem, though. The App Lounge of Murena One still depends on logging in with your Google account. In short, the App Lounge is mainly a gateway to Google Store apps. Murena assures you that the Lounge anonymizes your data — except if you use apps that require payment. Still, this isn’t very enjoyable for people who want to become independent from Google.
The primary concern is that Murena does all it can to separate its OS and applications from Google. But it can’t replace Google’s e-commerce and software store system as of this moment.
The Murena One will be available in June in the US, Canada, Europe, UK, and Switzerland at $369.
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