The e Foundation has been offering an alternative / e / OS platform for five years. In the last few years, smartphones with pre-installed / e / OS have been available in Europe and America. However, these were third-party smartphones, where the original software was replaced by / e / OS. Now e Foundation has introduced its own smartphone called Murena One.
/ e / OS is a fork of LineageOS, one of the most popular unofficial firmware for Android-based smartphones. The motto of / e / OS is “disabling Google” Android. The / e / OS platform is based on Android, but without Google applications and services installed. According to the developers, this is done for security reasons – no tracking by Google, data tracking and constant customization of advertising to the user’s liking. The developers claim:
We’ve removed many pieces of code that send your personal information to remote servers without your consent. We do not scan your data on your phone or in the cloud, we do not track your location a hundred times a day, and we do not collect information about what you do with your programs.
Murena One will be available in June in regions such as the United States, Canada, Europe, the United Kingdom and Switzerland. The price is $ 379 or 346 euros, depending on the region. Like all phones sold by e Foundation, Murena One comes without the Google Play Store, Gmail, Chrome, Google Maps, Google Search and any other proprietary software that comes with most Android phones sold worldwide, except China.
In terms of specifications, the smartphone is equipped with a 6.53-inch IPS screen with a resolution of 2242 × 1080 pixels, a built-in front camera of 25 MP, triple main camera (48 MP, 8 and 5 MP). SoC MediaTek Helio P60, 4 GB of RAM and 128 GB of flash memory, 4500 mAh battery. 4G LTE, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 4.2 and NFC are supported. The dimensions are 161.8×76.9×8.9 mm, and the smartphone weighs 186 grams.