I was forced to go this route do to hardware compatibility issues. I am happy to get lots of OTA security updates after I read about a zero-day on the hardware. I'm using LineageOS with no gapps, adaway, and AFWall+. I would love to use /e/OS tho.
Like the privacy, dislike the hardware. Quality issues aside, I expect more user choice like a headphone jack and removable battery. The latter will be a requirement in the EU soon enough, too.
I can't even use bluetooth; my biolectric signature interferes with it unless it's at maximum efficiency; i.e. 80% charge or higher usually, so no headphone jack is a bust for me. On the fun side, if I walk between most people and their devices, it makes headphones go all static and I can sometimes even disconnect the bluetooth. Pisses my wife off to no end. :D
Thank you Nick for your balanced review of Murena 2! As you pointed out, this is a prototype. We are still working on the final case to be shipped with the Murena 2. The revised case will be fully compatible with the two switches. Plus we are working on other software improvements to make the whole experience even better. Should you have any inquiries, please don't hesitate to reach out to us :)
I love the concept you guys created with the additional buttons to control hardware functionality on the device. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better privacy respecting concept on any modern phone. If the phone just had better hardware installed I would pick one up in a heartbeat after they are officially released. But I have some contentions about this product: Headphone jack. Not a dealbreaker for me but I know a lot of older family members not well versed in tech that won’t buy a phone without one. 1tb sd card support. Kinda a dealbreaker for me. 512gb is not enough. I don’t care much about on board memory size but sd card size is very important to me for professional work. The slow processor. It’s not even half the processing capability of the chip in the older google pixel 7a phone and that phone costs less. This is a dealbreaker. If you guys sold a phone with a processor within ~25% of the performance of competitor phones around the same price range I’d consider sacrificing performance for privacy but here it isn’t even close. 120hz display (or 144hz). Definitely a dealbreaker for me. If there is ever a Murena 3 I hope it has at least this. I won’t buy any phone without this. I’m sure there are unreasonable reasons for your team to consider not using a headphone jack but to call it outdated on your kickstarter is just plain wrong (I did appreciate the QnA on the kickstarter though). You guys aren’t Apple and don’t profit from selling bluetooth devices to end users so why not advertise your product to a wider market? I have a lot of family members I would have shared this product with if it had a 3.5mm audio jack (I still probably will during the Holidays) but I know they won’t even consider a phone without one unless they are desperate to upgrade their hardware. Some of them still hate that they have to use phones without sd card slots or audio jacks but they still cough up thousands of dollars on Apple phones just because android is basically as bad as Apple now. I can talk to them all day about how a phone has “this” and “that” but the second they see it’s missing just one thing they’ve already made up their mind. Audio jacks are not outdated and whoever thought that on your team is ill informed and fell into Stockholm syndrome caused by big tech propaganda. All that being said what you guys did here was very inspirational. I’ll probably check your website or kickstarter a few years from now to see if you guys came out with any new innovations. Hopefully by then you’d have come up with a phone that caters to my high demands. Thank you for your contribution towards a more privacy respecting internet. And while your product doesn’t suit my needs or the needs of my close family members I’ll be happy to fork over my cash the day you release a product that does.
As @lesscommonsense1804 already mentioned some hardware choices made by the team can be a real deal breaker for (privacy oriented) customers even though this is probably one of the best privacy phones out there. Maybe it would be nice to divide the phones into three categories like most big tech companies do; budget, midrange and high range where high range not only has the best specs but also the most features (such as a headphone jack, higher SD Card GB support, better processor, 5G support etc).
Honestly, I‘m a bit hyped. It is in line with what I have set as my experience with Debian, stepping away from Windows and macOS. Shipping a phone with a privacy focused OS by default feels great. Nice to see this. I‘ll keep it in mind once my current phone dies👍
If it's an Android phone you might be able to install /e/OS on your current phone. I've been running it on a Pixel for a long time now and really like it. It's not without annoyances as Google really don't like you trying to hide from them and you give up some things in the name of privacy but I wouldn't go back and it's the best de-googled option for me.
I usually use my phone as a phone, so 4G is fast enough for me. I really hope they reconsider the headphone jack! I think I'd be sold if they had that.
@@MrNikVadik Funny you say that because it has started to go downhill for me. Small annoyances have been creeping up in the design of both hardware and software. So much so I am looking to ditch iPhone when it's time to replace my phone.
There is nice channel: Side of Burritos, a lot of grate information about OS. If not GrapheneOS, any think based, using GrapheneOS. I don't understand why they use eOS, unsecured...
@@HeinekenLasse Pixel doesn't mean most expensive Pixel in existence. Get a cheaper model, it's going to be far better specced than the Murena at a similar or lower price.
I'm familiar with the gaming industry so I never preorder anything that doesn't yet exist. That said, if I saw these at stores next time I need to replace my phone I would absolutely want to give them a try. I switched to the Google ecosystem in 2011 to escape the Microsoft monopoly, I now need a way to escape the Google ecosystem and there are no good options within my price range so far. I'm surprised Linux phones are so behind in development, you'd think Ubuntu or someone else would have jumped at the chance to work with Huawei once they lost the Google license.
@@WilburJaywright bro, I just asked because it's rare for elders to care about phone privacy. The concept of internet privacy is hardly something people grasp especially moms and dads which is why I was curious. I'm not pretending to be anything
No headphone jack already means I'll pass. I'll de-google a Sony phone with one or choose a phone with more features if I'm going to sacrifice my headphone jack.
The Mediatek SoC is a surprising choice, but that's only to me as a user, I have a Mediatek phone currently, and when looking for custom OSes to run on it such as PostmarketOS or Lineage, all I can find for it are people complaining about how hard it is to develop for Mediatek SoCs. I wonder what Murena is doing to make this easier for developers, if it's not just a storm in a teacup that is.
@@floppa9415 Which are in my experience a real letdown in terms of performance and battery life, like if you just got downgraded one tier in terms of SoC.
Very nice video! Good work with "finding" a degoogled phone! 😉 Hope there will be some higher mid tier phones (for smooth scrolling etc.) with much, MUCH better microphone!
Here's an idea for Murena phone: remove curved screen corners and camera hole! Give us standard phone with 9:16 or 9:18 screen with no holes for front camera, just like phones were some 5-10 years ago.
@@AninoNiKugi Makes sense. The display/screen really reminds me of the one from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro. So it might indeed be a component which was already available.
Loved the video (and channel( I sub'd straight away. Came for the Asahi Fedora Linux distro video and stayed for the privacy, quality content and ethical reviews. Do you have an idea when the Morena 2 will be commercially available?
I see this as a way for the developers to finance their work which is perfectly fine. But I wonder how big the group of people is that care enough about privacy that they would wanna put up with a de-googled ROM but at the same time wouldn't just custom ROM a better speced and cheaper base phone.
That was exactly my thought. You could accomplish the very same thing minus a physical switch disabling the camera and mics with a better, cheaper phone and LineageOS. If you're not running GApps, you shouldn't have to worry much further about privacy.
custom ROMs like LineageOS don't come as soon as the phone is released and usually take a year, if not more to come, if the team behind it chooses to develop on the phone you own, which isn't often the case. So buying a new phone with a preinstalled custom ROM on it would definitely be preferable, at least in my opinion. Does that mean I would still be ready to buy such expensive phones just for that: of course not. But I can understand the appeal.
Год назад+1
Well, that's exactly the point and purpose of /e/OS: it's made for people who don't have the skils/don't have the time/... to make such things themselves. And here, customization means changing a lot of low-level stuff, changing default apps, default services... that you can hardly do without recompiling the ROM entirely.
@ The people who care about privacy know what they're doing with custom ROMs though. The majority of people just want a phone that works and they can install all of the apps they want/need. I've tried /e/OS and wasn't a fan. I don't like how they have their own cloud service that you have to log in to. How do I know their servers are secure? How private is it if all of your data is on their servers? Sure you can turn cloud syncing off but you can also do the same thing with a typical Android phone. If I want a phone with privacy, the only "cloud" service would be my own server. I also don't like how they're trying to emulate iOS.
I was interested at first, but the connection button being just a simple airplane mode toggle, and the lack of a headphone jack kind of killed it for me. Probably better off getting a phone I like and flashing graphene OS into it.
I love Murena and /e/. I helped port /e/ to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (Lavender). The camera was the only thing stopping me from using it daily back then. The community is also amazing. Having said that, I also experienced some UI slow-down issues when compared to other roms.
I Have been asking this kill switch for a very long time, finally someone listened. If its mapped via software it doesnt make any switch, apps would still bypass the software mapping.
Hello! Let us give you more details on 2 buttons that we integrated in Murena 2, hope it helps: - the Privacy Switch button (on the left) disables the camera and microphone *physical circuits*, making the OS unable to access them. This cannot be overriden in any case by a software activity. - the other Disconnection Switch triggers software actions. In our case we have chosen to make it disable network and sound. We're also planning to offer customization options to the user for this second button.
I saw in the background it looks like there’s a box for an iPad mini. How well does it work with your NextCloud account? What do you use it for? Why did you choose an iPad over a Windows or Linux tablet? What do you like or dislike about it?
Really expensive for what it is tbh. Makes sense given the company, but from a customer standpoint it makes more sense to just buy a Fairphone. Though still far from great, the old mid-range Snapdragon in the Fairphone probably blows the cheap Mediatek in this one out of the water. The fact that they don't specify the SoC probably means that it's very bad. The Fairphone also has better repairability, a partnership with /e/, long support and other good ROMs like CalyxOS as well. You don't get the hardware switch, but that's not enough to be compelling. Another, and arguably better if repairability and software support isn't as much of a concern, option for privacy is just getting a Pixel with GrapheneOS.
@@avadrumm Yeah, it's more permanent, but at least you can do it without too much difficulty. That said, a switch is nicer, but it is nto enough to make this phone worth it imo.
@@thomasmeunier8669 It's not really shady imo, but it is lacking compard to Calyx or Graphene. It has some known outdated software with vulnerabilities and they tend to be quite slow with updates in general.
I just got a fairphone 5 with e/OS. Honestly, upgrading from a mid-range 4 year old phone, it's a delight. I understand that the phone isn't perfect, but I don't need it to be. All I really need is a usable phone that I can keep for a long time, that doesn't track me completely. I don't want complete stealth, just more privacy. I don't need high end specs, just good enough to take a photograph that is sharp. I don't need the apps with the most features, I really only need a few apps and most of them are already more privacy focused. In fact, it's brilliant that this app store has access to apps like NewPipe from the getgo. Previously I had to manually install. I have no doubt that people who use their phone a lot more extensively than I will be disappointed, though, and the pricetag might be pretty high for the fairphone too. (I took that because I care about repair.)
As I do not play games on my phone this is tempting. The features that I need most are video messaging and a stable internet connection for hotspot tethering; along with being able to act as a phone with the usual caveats for sim support and charging. I'd happily give up most apps except ones that allow for traveling, booking tickets, or hotel rooms and other planning functions. Map apps are the other big feature that many people use and you can't get away from how good Google Maps are for finding and connecting to local businesses, however they are useless for planning a walk around a local area. Bing use to come with OS maps in the UK, so if something like that was available then this could be a real marketing feature.
I'll be keeping my Zenfone 8 with /e/OS. Better in every spec, (refresh rate, SOC, camera, etc.) and has a headphones jack! The only thing Murena has on this is the hardware camera/microphone switch. Everything works great since I switched the camera app to a degoogled one from the Pixel. It might even take better pictures than with the original ASUS camera app.
Maybe it's not the right place to ask, but is there a way to have your /e/ account on premises ? Like, host your own backups on your home server or something ?
Hello. Can you do a future video to compare the major de-googled ROMs? Try to review the following categories: usability, security, future updates, installation, trade-offs vs stock android, etc.
I tried to check which exact processor they used in the phone, but failed. Can someone try to dig in a bit more to have a better idea on the performance?
It’s not difficult, it’s become undesirable. It’s an extra port, that uses depth on the phone and makes laying out internals harder, it’s another hole in the design that breaks waterproofing, and also, you can’t sell Bluetooth headphones if you have one
If the airplane mode switch was hardware it would be more compelling to me. If the OS cant handle radio hardware disconnection while live, maybe hardware disconnect the antennas ? No headphone jack requires bluetooth - odd choice on a security focused device. For me, personally, a real privacy focused device should let me easily open it and take the camera module physically out if i want.
Mediatek is a BIG no-no, we know that they have quite literal on-chip backdoors that are quite literally even leveraged by certain fully open source projects to quite literally control whatever anybody wants with the phone. They are also known to overclock the chips way over their limits just to enumerate the results on benchmarks, i believe a few devices even died trying to push themselves so hard. I love /e/ but it's really fucking weird and even arguably dangerous that they chose mediatek.
I used to be all-in on /e/OS and I've been using it for about 18 months on my main phone. But it's gone so far downhill. I haven't received an update in months due to some bug that they're apparently working to fix (but seriously, who takes months to fix something as important as not receiving updates?). At the moment you have to flash the phone manually to update, which of course I won't do to my main phone, in case of issues. There's also been many weird bugs popping up in the last few updates I did receive. Like the touch screen randomly going nuts until the screen is turned off and on again. Or the app store randomly not being able to connect. I think it's a nice idea but I've given up on it. I now believe the only way to fight companies like Google, is through stricter privacy laws.
For me, I would never be able to deal with the super low quality sounding microphone, I want as few things making calls sound worse as I can possibly manage. The concept seems awesome, and if they make it better at being a phone, I'd buy it
Bit weird they dont say what MediaTek SoC or what ARM cores it is using (very common it is standard ARM cores being used). It is possible all the cores are the same but just clocked differently, lol.
Take off the notch put a forehead and chin with stereo speakers Put a 3.5mm headphone jack Simply copy the sony Xperia 5 v that's the perfect phone just change the aspect ratio to 18:9 if not possible then 19:9
9:08 what even is post processing?! Is it adding data to the photo? Because that doesn't sound appealing to me... I don't want my camera to fill in stuff... I'll do that on software
It looks nifty, but I'd need a protector shell that accommodates the privacy buttons, and I'd have to be sure that the phone could run a couple of apps that I need.
I’m very interested in getting one of these. I have a question though, I’m totally blind, do you know if this has a screen, reader built-in? On regular android, it’s under the accessibility settings you would be able to turn on talk back.
i live in a smaller city so 5G is overkill and 4G is more than good enough. 5G is only peak speeds in general, 4G is constant high speed so the 4G is better overall. More stable as well
I stick with my Librem 5 but I think it looks like a great option given that it's a Google-free Android phone with hardware kill-switches from my understanding. However I'm not fully convinced by Murena's services to replace the Google services. Is it possible to use a self-hosted Nextcloud server instead? (I assume it is possible given e/OS is open-source but it would be great to know how easy that option would be to setup...)
Nice video as always. Yet I am wondering, how is brick device (like modern iPhones or Galaxy S2 to lesser degree) with no smooth curved sides that sweep from sides to bottom plate can be a good fit for hand? I feel like for example modern Pixel or Nokia N9, Galaxy S3 is inherently better fit to your hand.
I doubt that Chromecast would work with such a device. Chromecast needs Google play services on the phone. I think that Murena Os ships with Micro G which is probably not compatible with Chromecast.
To be honest I don't like iPhone style. What about bank apps? Especially if they must be downloaded from an app store? Btw, is there any OS that instead of getting rid of google contains it in a "bubble"?
No headphone jack... Bluetooth 4... 4000 mA battery... This phone sounds awesome but the specs are a little disappointing... Might prefer to keep using Lineage OS with the minimum Google apps
Grab a brand new laptop or desktop running Linux: www.tuxedocomputers.com/en#
Can you do a video on Mobile Linux?
Will buy russian without USA inside
It's ironic that best "de-googled" phones are Google Pixels, because they have the best support for privacy roms
I was forced to go this route do to hardware compatibility issues. I am happy to get lots of OTA security updates after I read about a zero-day on the hardware. I'm using LineageOS with no gapps, adaway, and AFWall+. I would love to use /e/OS tho.
Who knows how many backdoors are left in the Pixels....
stick to LOS it's much better than /e/@@greenfoxes5903
TRUE
@@flashrandom How is that after you installed GrapheneOS?
Like the privacy, dislike the hardware. Quality issues aside, I expect more user choice like a headphone jack and removable battery. The latter will be a requirement in the EU soon enough, too.
Pinephone Pro has a headphone jack and can run GNOME/KDE
Still hearing people talk about removable batteries in 2023. Never seen anyone use one ever.
Yeah, I feel the same.. Love the Fariphone too, but no headphone jack for some reason..
You can sincerely live without jack port or removable battery, useless in 2023. Privacy is essential and become so rare nowadays.
@@Freshbott2because no phones have them. Even I used that on my first phone, and I'm SIXTEEN years old
And the hunt continues for a small privacy focused device with a headphone jack. Using a ZenFone 8 and it's seemingly hard to replace
I'm still using my seven year old OnePlus 3... the battery is dying, but I don't know what phone to replace it with.
I'm in the exact same boat. The Zenfone 9 and 10 still seem like good options, though /e/OS doesn't have support for them yet
I can't even use bluetooth; my biolectric signature interferes with it unless it's at maximum efficiency; i.e. 80% charge or higher usually, so no headphone jack is a bust for me. On the fun side, if I walk between most people and their devices, it makes headphones go all static and I can sometimes even disconnect the bluetooth. Pisses my wife off to no end. :D
They make converter attachment's for jacks on any 📱 phone...
@@Stalthdanreplace it with the OnePlus 13 😎 you'll love it...
Thank you Nick for your balanced review of Murena 2! As you pointed out, this is a prototype. We are still working on the final case to be shipped with the Murena 2. The revised case will be fully compatible with the two switches. Plus we are working on other software improvements to make the whole experience even better.
Should you have any inquiries, please don't hesitate to reach out to us :)
PLEASE include a headphone jack, I will instantly buy the phone.
I love the concept you guys created with the additional buttons to control hardware functionality on the device. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a better privacy respecting concept on any modern phone. If the phone just had better hardware installed I would pick one up in a heartbeat after they are officially released. But I have some contentions about this product:
Headphone jack. Not a dealbreaker for me but I know a lot of older family members not well versed in tech that won’t buy a phone without one.
1tb sd card support. Kinda a dealbreaker for me. 512gb is not enough. I don’t care much about on board memory size but sd card size is very important to me for professional work.
The slow processor. It’s not even half the processing capability of the chip in the older google pixel 7a phone and that phone costs less. This is a dealbreaker. If you guys sold a phone with a processor within ~25% of the performance of competitor phones around the same price range I’d consider sacrificing performance for privacy but here it isn’t even close.
120hz display (or 144hz). Definitely a dealbreaker for me. If there is ever a Murena 3 I hope it has at least this. I won’t buy any phone without this.
I’m sure there are unreasonable reasons for your team to consider not using a headphone jack but to call it outdated on your kickstarter is just plain wrong (I did appreciate the QnA on the kickstarter though). You guys aren’t Apple and don’t profit from selling bluetooth devices to end users so why not advertise your product to a wider market? I have a lot of family members I would have shared this product with if it had a 3.5mm audio jack (I still probably will during the Holidays) but I know they won’t even consider a phone without one unless they are desperate to upgrade their hardware. Some of them still hate that they have to use phones without sd card slots or audio jacks but they still cough up thousands of dollars on Apple phones just because android is basically as bad as Apple now. I can talk to them all day about how a phone has “this” and “that” but the second they see it’s missing just one thing they’ve already made up their mind. Audio jacks are not outdated and whoever thought that on your team is ill informed and fell into Stockholm syndrome caused by big tech propaganda.
All that being said what you guys did here was very inspirational. I’ll probably check your website or kickstarter a few years from now to see if you guys came out with any new innovations. Hopefully by then you’d have come up with a phone that caters to my high demands. Thank you for your contribution towards a more privacy respecting internet. And while your product doesn’t suit my needs or the needs of my close family members I’ll be happy to fork over my cash the day you release a product that does.
If it supported 5G, I would buy this for sure.
As @lesscommonsense1804 already mentioned some hardware choices made by the team can be a real deal breaker for (privacy oriented) customers even though this is probably one of the best privacy phones out there. Maybe it would be nice to divide the phones into three categories like most big tech companies do; budget, midrange and high range where high range not only has the best specs but also the most features (such as a headphone jack, higher SD Card GB support, better processor, 5G support etc).
It would be interesting to know if banking apps work on this smartphone. They are essential for daily work.
Honestly, I‘m a bit hyped. It is in line with what I have set as my experience with Debian, stepping away from Windows and macOS. Shipping a phone with a privacy focused OS by default feels great. Nice to see this. I‘ll keep it in mind once my current phone dies👍
Oh hey fellow person doing the same thing as me who also has excellent taste in webcomics 😂
But your fbi agent will be sad and miss you
@@ItsMrLee and just think of the marketing industry and about all the targeted advertising that this will eliminate
If it's an Android phone you might be able to install /e/OS on your current phone. I've been running it on a Pixel for a long time now and really like it. It's not without annoyances as Google really don't like you trying to hide from them and you give up some things in the name of privacy but I wouldn't go back and it's the best de-googled option for me.
I just hope it'll ship to Norway, without absurd import charges..
I usually use my phone as a phone, so 4G is fast enough for me. I really hope they reconsider the headphone jack! I think I'd be sold if they had that.
eOS already looked like iOS but now with their own hardware the resemblance to an iPhone is UNCANNY.
iOS has a damn well-designed UI, gotta give them that.
I'm all for staying ahead in the digital world, especially when it comes to privacy.
@@MrNikVadik Funny you say that because it has started to go downhill for me. Small annoyances have been creeping up in the design of both hardware and software. So much so I am looking to ditch iPhone when it's time to replace my phone.
@@MrNikVadikit’s annoying as hell and very clunky
e is to this day still the worst custom rom you can find out there if you are looking for security and privacy....
This is exciting! I really dislike current privacy options so this is pretty appealing. Thanks for covering this. :3
Another option can be Pixel + Graphine OS.
Still cool idea 😎
@@HeinekenLassebuy a used Pixel
There is nice channel: Side of Burritos, a lot of grate information about OS.
If not GrapheneOS, any think based, using GrapheneOS. I don't understand why they use eOS, unsecured...
@@HeinekenLasse My Pixel 7a was less than 400 USD new
@@HeinekenLasse Pixel doesn't mean most expensive Pixel in existence. Get a cheaper model, it's going to be far better specced than the Murena at a similar or lower price.
@@HeinekenLasse Not giving google 800 bucks won't change a single thing lol. They earn 100x that every minute.
Finally something for me thanks for covering such an awesome android device looking forward for more products
the video is biased
I'm familiar with the gaming industry so I never preorder anything that doesn't yet exist. That said, if I saw these at stores next time I need to replace my phone I would absolutely want to give them a try. I switched to the Google ecosystem in 2011 to escape the Microsoft monopoly, I now need a way to escape the Google ecosystem and there are no good options within my price range so far. I'm surprised Linux phones are so behind in development, you'd think Ubuntu or someone else would have jumped at the chance to work with Huawei once they lost the Google license.
android runs on linux, I don't know what you mean by linux phones are behind in development
@@eps-nx8zg dont be asinine, you know what they mean.
@@eps-nx8zgother than android there is no other linux based operating system that even comes close in terms of performance and app compatibility
@@eps-nx8zgi think you know exactly what he means
huawei is still banned in the US, GMS or not. Huawei's engineers moved to Honor, so huawei isn't making phones worth talking about anyway.
My mom is using a Murena One at the moment. Not much of a thing, but it sounded like from the intro that this was the very first all Murena phone.
Is your mom privacy conscious
@@AyushGupta-wn6zdshe sure is at night 🥵🥵
@@WilburJaywright bro, I just asked because it's rare for elders to care about phone privacy. The concept of internet privacy is hardly something people grasp especially moms and dads which is why I was curious. I'm not pretending to be anything
@@AyushGupta-wn6zd my most sincere apologies! 😭 I knew I shouldn’t have said that. Yes, she is *very.*
@@AyushGupta-wn6zdrare? Really big generalisation. Maybe "elders" are the ones who can remember what privacy was?
No headphone jack already means I'll pass. I'll de-google a Sony phone with one or choose a phone with more features if I'm going to sacrifice my headphone jack.
i hope open source cameras get better. taking pictures is an important feature but so far the best processing is in closed sourced apps
Yeah... Unfortunately, all of the FOSS camera apps I tried suck. For that reason, I use GCam and disable the network access with AFWall.
This is such an understatement!
It is cool, that there are people that are moving towards non-Google Android phones!
Thanks for the video!
The Mediatek SoC is a surprising choice, but that's only to me as a user, I have a Mediatek phone currently, and when looking for custom OSes to run on it such as PostmarketOS or Lineage, all I can find for it are people complaining about how hard it is to develop for Mediatek SoCs. I wonder what Murena is doing to make this easier for developers, if it's not just a storm in a teacup that is.
I have installed custom roms on a few Mediatek devices already. It usually boils down to installing a GSI ROM (generic system image).
@@floppa9415 Cool! That's good to know.
@@floppa9415
Which are in my experience a real letdown in terms of performance and battery life, like if you just got downgraded one tier in terms of SoC.
Very nice video! Good work with "finding" a degoogled phone! 😉 Hope there will be some higher mid tier phones (for smooth scrolling etc.) with much, MUCH better microphone!
Here's an idea for Murena phone: remove curved screen corners and camera hole! Give us standard phone with 9:16 or 9:18 screen with no holes for front camera, just like phones were some 5-10 years ago.
Thank you for your feedback :)
Sadly, these small companies can only use components that suppliers offer which nowdays have a cutout.
@@AninoNiKugi Makes sense. The display/screen really reminds me of the one from the Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 Pro. So it might indeed be a component which was already available.
Loved the video (and channel( I sub'd straight away. Came for the Asahi Fedora Linux distro video and stayed for the privacy, quality content and ethical reviews. Do you have an idea when the Morena 2 will be commercially available?
I WILL NEVER EVER BUY A PHONE WITHOUT A HEADPHONE JACK
AND YOU CANT MAKE ME
EVEN THOUGH THIS LOOKS AMAZING
I see this as a way for the developers to finance their work which is perfectly fine.
But I wonder how big the group of people is that care enough about privacy that they would wanna put up with a de-googled ROM but at the same time wouldn't just custom ROM a better speced and cheaper base phone.
That was exactly my thought. You could accomplish the very same thing minus a physical switch disabling the camera and mics with a better, cheaper phone and LineageOS. If you're not running GApps, you shouldn't have to worry much further about privacy.
custom ROMs like LineageOS don't come as soon as the phone is released and usually take a year, if not more to come, if the team behind it chooses to develop on the phone you own, which isn't often the case.
So buying a new phone with a preinstalled custom ROM on it would definitely be preferable, at least in my opinion.
Does that mean I would still be ready to buy such expensive phones just for that: of course not.
But I can understand the appeal.
Well, that's exactly the point and purpose of /e/OS: it's made for people who don't have the skils/don't have the time/... to make such things themselves. And here, customization means changing a lot of low-level stuff, changing default apps, default services... that you can hardly do without recompiling the ROM entirely.
@ The people who care about privacy know what they're doing with custom ROMs though. The majority of people just want a phone that works and they can install all of the apps they want/need. I've tried /e/OS and wasn't a fan. I don't like how they have their own cloud service that you have to log in to. How do I know their servers are secure? How private is it if all of your data is on their servers? Sure you can turn cloud syncing off but you can also do the same thing with a typical Android phone. If I want a phone with privacy, the only "cloud" service would be my own server. I also don't like how they're trying to emulate iOS.
I was interested at first, but the connection button being just a simple airplane mode toggle, and the lack of a headphone jack kind of killed it for me. Probably better off getting a phone I like and flashing graphene OS into it.
I love Murena and /e/. I helped port /e/ to the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 (Lavender). The camera was the only thing stopping me from using it daily back then. The community is also amazing. Having said that, I also experienced some UI slow-down issues when compared to other roms.
Perfect microphone is a _minimum_ requirement for a phone.
The microphone is indeed very disappointing
I Have been asking this kill switch for a very long time, finally someone listened. If its mapped via software it doesnt make any switch, apps would still bypass the software mapping.
The best single feature on this phone. And it's a simple toggle switch.
Hello! Let us give you more details on 2 buttons that we integrated in Murena 2, hope it helps:
- the Privacy Switch button (on the left) disables the camera and microphone *physical circuits*, making the OS unable to access them. This cannot be overriden in any case by a software activity.
- the other Disconnection Switch triggers software actions. In our case we have chosen to make it disable network and sound. We're also planning to offer customization options to the user for this second button.
@murenacorp excellent. Thanks
@@murenacorp Thanks a lot for your detailed explanation, truly appreciate it. kudos to your team.
I saw in the background it looks like there’s a box for an iPad mini. How well does it work with your NextCloud account? What do you use it for? Why did you choose an iPad over a Windows or Linux tablet? What do you like or dislike about it?
Privacy phone without a 3.5 jack? Are they for real?
Really expensive for what it is tbh. Makes sense given the company, but from a customer standpoint it makes more sense to just buy a Fairphone. Though still far from great, the old mid-range Snapdragon in the Fairphone probably blows the cheap Mediatek in this one out of the water. The fact that they don't specify the SoC probably means that it's very bad. The Fairphone also has better repairability, a partnership with /e/, long support and other good ROMs like CalyxOS as well. You don't get the hardware switch, but that's not enough to be compelling. Another, and arguably better if repairability and software support isn't as much of a concern, option for privacy is just getting a Pixel with GrapheneOS.
It's very easy to physically disconnect the cameras from a fairphone, although that's a bit more permanent than a switch
@@avadrumm Yeah, it's more permanent, but at least you can do it without too much difficulty. That said, a switch is nicer, but it is nto enough to make this phone worth it imo.
@@avadrummso cover them up if it's an issue.
/e/ is the worst in the privacy scene to be honest, very shady and far from the quality of other custom ROMs
@@thomasmeunier8669 It's not really shady imo, but it is lacking compard to Calyx or Graphene. It has some known outdated software with vulnerabilities and they tend to be quite slow with updates in general.
So grateful for your channel!
I just got a fairphone 5 with e/OS. Honestly, upgrading from a mid-range 4 year old phone, it's a delight. I understand that the phone isn't perfect, but I don't need it to be. All I really need is a usable phone that I can keep for a long time, that doesn't track me completely. I don't want complete stealth, just more privacy. I don't need high end specs, just good enough to take a photograph that is sharp. I don't need the apps with the most features, I really only need a few apps and most of them are already more privacy focused. In fact, it's brilliant that this app store has access to apps like NewPipe from the getgo. Previously I had to manually install.
I have no doubt that people who use their phone a lot more extensively than I will be disappointed, though, and the pricetag might be pretty high for the fairphone too. (I took that because I care about repair.)
Setting aside the device / phone brand used.
How does e/ compare with iodeOS? What are the pros and cons of one over the other?
how big a difference does the .1 Ghz make? thought the difference to the performance cores would need to be higher to be useful
As I do not play games on my phone this is tempting. The features that I need most are video messaging and a stable internet connection for hotspot tethering; along with being able to act as a phone with the usual caveats for sim support and charging. I'd happily give up most apps except ones that allow for traveling, booking tickets, or hotel rooms and other planning functions. Map apps are the other big feature that many people use and you can't get away from how good Google Maps are for finding and connecting to local businesses, however they are useless for planning a walk around a local area. Bing use to come with OS maps in the UK, so if something like that was available then this could be a real marketing feature.
it's nice but I'm sticking with my motorola since I can't leave the headphone jack, I use it every day and I'm not going to budge on that
I'm not buying a phone without a headphone jack until phones come with 2 USB C ports so I can charge and used wired sound at the same time.
This comment mande my week. Thanks😅🎉
3:23 hell yeah Warhammer, looks like the eldar
Dark Eldar, the cooler kind ;)
I'll be keeping my Zenfone 8 with /e/OS. Better in every spec, (refresh rate, SOC, camera, etc.) and has a headphones jack! The only thing Murena has on this is the hardware camera/microphone switch.
Everything works great since I switched the camera app to a degoogled one from the Pixel. It might even take better pictures than with the original ASUS camera app.
Maybe it's not the right place to ask, but is there a way to have your /e/ account on premises ? Like, host your own backups on your home server or something ?
The fact that new copilot in windows 11 is privacy destroyer..btw the OS looks damn clean to next level
How do you think /e/os compares to GrapheneOS? Would love to see you cover GrapheneOS as another privacy focused mobile OS on Android phones.
I like the new FairPhone, was thinking about getting that one with /e/OS... Would you mind to make a comparison video, perhaps?
Hello. Can you do a future video to compare the major de-googled ROMs? Try to review the following categories: usability, security, future updates, installation, trade-offs vs stock android, etc.
I tried to check which exact processor they used in the phone, but failed. Can someone try to dig in a bit more to have a better idea on the performance?
Even the Game Boy has a headphone jack, why has it become so difficult to add one to a modern smartphone?
It’s not difficult, it’s become undesirable. It’s an extra port, that uses depth on the phone and makes laying out internals harder, it’s another hole in the design that breaks waterproofing, and also, you can’t sell Bluetooth headphones if you have one
Thanks for this review.
Spread the news!!
no headphone jack = no buy
Brother you're never buying a phone again
@@flarebear5346skill issue
@@flarebear5346brother my phone has sd750g, 50 mp cam, wide angle, 5g and a headphone jack
@@flarebear5346 What's the logic behind not making them with jacks? I don't follow phone tech news so that was a surprise to hear.
yep, first thing I thought of too...
0:59 lol at waving the phone around, loosely holding it, saying that you have to send it back XD #LivingOnTheEdge
hey. is the power button is a killswitch for the battery ?
I loved the Bixby button. One app and an adb command and it was a fully customizable button
If the airplane mode switch was hardware it would be more compelling to me. If the OS cant handle radio hardware disconnection while live, maybe hardware disconnect the antennas ? No headphone jack requires bluetooth - odd choice on a security focused device.
For me, personally, a real privacy focused device should let me easily open it and take the camera module physically out if i want.
I'm kinda waiting until Fairphone releases a better phone than my iPhone 12 and I would use it with /e/OS
Mediatek is a BIG no-no, we know that they have quite literal on-chip backdoors that are quite literally even leveraged by certain fully open source projects to quite literally control whatever anybody wants with the phone. They are also known to overclock the chips way over their limits just to enumerate the results on benchmarks, i believe a few devices even died trying to push themselves so hard. I love /e/ but it's really fucking weird and even arguably dangerous that they chose mediatek.
You got a source for that?
@@AlanTwoRings Jesus RUclips keeps on deleting the reply
@@oclasos yt doesn't like links in comments. give us a keyword to search.
Also interested
@@jacquelineliu2641 i actually wasn't even sending links lol, search "mediatek benchmark cheating"
I used to be all-in on /e/OS and I've been using it for about 18 months on my main phone. But it's gone so far downhill. I haven't received an update in months due to some bug that they're apparently working to fix (but seriously, who takes months to fix something as important as not receiving updates?). At the moment you have to flash the phone manually to update, which of course I won't do to my main phone, in case of issues.
There's also been many weird bugs popping up in the last few updates I did receive. Like the touch screen randomly going nuts until the screen is turned off and on again. Or the app store randomly not being able to connect.
I think it's a nice idea but I've given up on it. I now believe the only way to fight companies like Google, is through stricter privacy laws.
I haven't had any of those issues. What phone are you using? I'm on a Moto Revvlry+.
Question, how do you get your Banking app from the playstore on e/os? Do you still have the option to get the playstore on that?
what's the SoC? what are the cameras?
why would that phone (apart from the sd card slot) be better than pixel + eos?
maybe... the killswitches? ;) (if you care about them)
They do not appear to be available in the USA unless you buy them from sites like Ebay from overseas.
For me, I would never be able to deal with the super low quality sounding microphone, I want as few things making calls sound worse as I can possibly manage. The concept seems awesome, and if they make it better at being a phone, I'd buy it
Does it have wireless charging? Yes I am going to look it up myself, just asking because it would be nice if it had been mentioned in the video. :)
Is there anything like Android auto or navigation?
I already hate my phone for not havin user removable baterry
No headphone jack is a nope
Does app lounge support most banking apps?
Headphone Jack?
Sony Xperia
Btw, was the phone released in the end? Is this phone the Murena TeraCube 2?
I don't like the red leds always on, what about at night when we are sleeping
The Zenfone 8 is supported, right?
What about battery life ? Thank you a lot for this review.
Bit weird they dont say what MediaTek SoC or what ARM cores it is using (very common it is standard ARM cores being used). It is possible all the cores are the same but just clocked differently, lol.
Take off the notch put a forehead and chin with stereo speakers
Put a 3.5mm headphone jack
Simply copy the sony Xperia 5 v that's the perfect phone just change the aspect ratio to 18:9 if not possible then 19:9
The rest of the features I see, but I'll never buy a phone without headphone jack.
im using this e/os to my old Xiaomi Mi Mix 2 (chiron) coz it is fully supported. 🙌🏻
9:08 what even is post processing?!
Is it adding data to the photo?
Because that doesn't sound appealing to me... I don't want my camera to fill in stuff... I'll do that on software
I can tell this eos is excellent.Only the downside is i cant restore my previous whatsapp back.i've been using a week.
Gread vid. This will be my next phone
Non-removable battery and no headphone jack. I don't even need to think about this.
Removable batteries need to make a comeback.
@@Linux_ASMR Upcoming EU regs will force them to, thankfully.
It looks nifty, but I'd need a protector shell that accommodates the privacy buttons, and I'd have to be sure that the phone could run a couple of apps that I need.
Okay, this is kind of nice and all, but when are they finally getting the Fairphone 5 to the US market?
I’m very interested in getting one of these. I have a question though, I’m totally blind, do you know if this has a screen, reader built-in? On regular android, it’s under the accessibility settings you would be able to turn on talk back.
it probably does, I'm assuming that stock android has it so eos has it too
It may not, since it is a Google product. It’s a Google app.
@@harrisontu264 but android is open source
it is good to see a de-googled phone. I also have that OS on my xiaomi phone and it is really good for me
i live in a smaller city so 5G is overkill and 4G is more than good enough. 5G is only peak speeds in general, 4G is constant high speed so the 4G is better overall. More stable as well
I stick with my Librem 5 but I think it looks like a great option given that it's a Google-free Android phone with hardware kill-switches from my understanding. However I'm not fully convinced by Murena's services to replace the Google services. Is it possible to use a self-hosted Nextcloud server instead? (I assume it is possible given e/OS is open-source but it would be great to know how easy that option would be to setup...)
Yup. Connecting it to your own Nextcloud instance is as simple as downloading a few apps and signing in
I know that Windows Subsystem for Android will not longer continue for Windows 11. i wonder if there another way to use as natively?
So no headphones jack and there's a toggle to cut all the connection, they aren't thinking it through.
4:43 It's because the USB C port creates EMI with it on daughterboards. Owning a Nokia X100 taught me that.
It seems they haven't received the latest security patch. These are available the first Tuesday of the month.
Glad the fingerprint sensor isn't on the screen! Looks like a great phone
Would Lawnchair be the launcher that's the closest to the /e/os launcher? If so, which version? V2 or 12.1?
Bliss Launcher is what /e/OS uses
No headphone jack is a killer for me
I really like these privacy switches. Awesome Phone!
But why does every cool phone has to be big?! A mini version of it would be a dream.
Nice video as always.
Yet I am wondering, how is brick device (like modern iPhones or Galaxy S2 to lesser degree) with no smooth curved sides that sweep from sides to bottom plate can be a good fit for hand? I feel like for example modern Pixel or Nokia N9, Galaxy S3 is inherently better fit to your hand.
I am surprised that there is actually a native custom rom for mediatek.
Reviewing the Murena 2, When The current phone is Murena 5. Why?
What‘s Abort chrome/Google cast Video Streaming?
I doubt that Chromecast would work with such a device. Chromecast needs Google play services on the phone.
I think that Murena Os ships with Micro G which is probably not compatible with Chromecast.
To be honest I don't like iPhone style. What about bank apps? Especially if they must be downloaded from an app store? Btw, is there any OS that instead of getting rid of google contains it in a "bubble"?
Can we install CalyxOS instead of /eOS ?
No headphone jack... Bluetooth 4... 4000 mA battery... This phone sounds awesome but the specs are a little disappointing... Might prefer to keep using Lineage OS with the minimum Google apps
Hype this up so Hugh Jefferys and Louis Rossmann are in on it. I'd love to hear their thoughts!
I find the red LED on the privacy switch upsetting.
no headphone jack = no buy ... thank You for review
I’m not getting the point of buying this over buying something like a Pixel 7a and just installing the OS you want?