Getting rid of Google services on Android mobile devices is not easy. Neither Google Maps, nor Gmail, nor the Play Store, nor Assistant. But it also has its upside, and that’s why some are still trying to create a viable alternative. The Murena One is the first mobile phone created by the Murena team, a French company that started working on a computer in 2017. Android-based but completely free operating system and no sign of Google.

After several years of work, Murena has reached a stable version of /e/OS and is ready to launch on the first mobile phone. We’re not going to lie to you, it’s a mid-range terminal with a bit of a high price point, but both the Android fork and Murena’s offering are very serious.

Murena One technical sheet

It won’t be because of its specs…

The Murena One X2 is a mobile phone with simple features. we have a screen 6.53 inches FullHD+ resolutionA Helio P60 processor inside, along with 4GB of RAM and a 4,500mAh battery.

The photo part is based on a configuration. Triple camera with 48 megapixel main sensor With f/1.8 aperture lens and two additional sensors for wide angle and macro.

In terms of connectivity, we have NFC, Wi-Fi and LTE. It’s not a 5G terminal, but it’s not missing anything either.

At the design level, it resembles the mid-range mobile phones we had last year. hole in the screen in the upper left corner, a side fingerprint reader and a plastic back. The device appears to be manufactured in China and bears a strong resemblance to the Coolpad Cool S.

… but /e/OS is what most of us want from an Android fork

Gael Duval is the creator of Murena. French developer Mandrake was also responsible for Linux. Five years after getting fed up with Google services, they launched their first mobile phone. /e/First stable release of OS, open source fork of Android.

Not only does /e/OS work with the Murena One, as it’s available for 250 different devices and Murena itself sells phones like the Fairphone 4 with its system.

The promise of /e/OS is that they do not send any data to external servers without permission, data is not scanned or geolocated. To do this, they rewrote a phone’s multiple core services, from core apps like browser, mail, calendar, maps, camera, and more, to additional services like privacy management. To achieve this, Murena leveraged the microG project.

For example, the system Analyzes installed apps via App Loungeand sets a rating from 0 to 10 based on privacy.

Just because it promises to be a private system doesn’t mean they aren’t in sync with the cloud. /e/OS syncs with a free email account ending with @murena.io and Offers 1GB of cloud storage.

Murena promises security updates every two months and it enables the majority of Android applications to be installed on mobile devices. But for now accept in-app purchases. The company claims they are working on their own smart assistant called Ellivia.

Murena One availability and price

Murena One is available for purchase at an official price in Europe, the United States, and Canada. 349 €, from your own website. Although currently out of stock.