A smartphone for complete privacy

Murena, a French-European company, is in the business of removing Google services from Android smartphones, which it does in the name of privacy. Their /e/OS operating system, which is open source and gives users more control over their privacy, does not communicate with Google or other third parties. Instead of standard Google apps, the system includes its own versions of core apps such as the browser, messaging app, and camera. Murena has loaded its system on a variety of new or refurbished devices, including the modular Fairphone 4. Their goal is to ensure that users have more control over potential privacy intrusions, or that they always have the fate of their privacy in their own hands, which is appreciated by more and more users of the service mobile phones.

Murena, which develops the /e/OS operating system, protects users' privacy by not tracking their activities by default, as standard Android does. They claim not to track installed apps or device location. Although they strive to offer an alternative to conventional services - such as Gmail, Google Docs and Microsoft Office - with their cloud solutions, they cannot completely avoid the connection with Google, since most users need access to popular applications for certain tasks. This compromise point is solved by their App Lounge, which allows the use of a Google account to access alternative applications. This store is said to connect to Google's API to download known apps, similar to some third-party stores (Aurora Store, ApkPure...). So it's no surprise that their new phone became an instant hit,

Their Murena 2 smartphone is based on the /e/OS mobile operating system. In addition, it has a switch that disables all the phone's cameras and microphones. The novelty is currently available for purchase on the start-up portal Kictstarter for 399 euros. Its market price will be 499 euros. For this money, the buyer receives a relatively powerful device in addition to privacy. It is equipped with an AMOLED screen with a 6.43-inch or 16.3-centimeter diagonal and a resolution of 1,080p, a MediaTek Helio P70 mobile processor, eight gigabytes of system memory and 128 gigabytes of built-in space. The main camera with a resolution of 64 million pixels is available for capturing photos. There is also a battery with a capacity of 4,000 milliampere hours, which will certainly be enough for all-day use of the Murena 2 smartphone.