Android without Google is actually good?! Living with /e/OS for one week - Full Review

[@devwithzachary]

Interested in buying a smartphone with /e/OS preinstalled? Want to help support the channel? Checkout Murena! murena.com/?sld=devwithzachary and escape digital surveillance now.

[@signalscout6020]

I'm over a year in with /e/OS. By way of background, I have used desktop Linux for a couple of years, but have zero experience with installing custom ROMs and actually had no experience with any kind of Android. I avoided smartphones for years, then used a succession of iPhones. I've never had a Google Play account. If developers of useful stuff (like Signal) provide a way to support them, I do that, but I don't provide a credit card to Google Play. I (generally) like using the murena cloud service, but it can be a bit frustrating. I have no plans to drop /e/OS. I would use a refurbed Pixel, I did not like the Teracube 2e.

[@shlagevuk]

Great content, good audio and video quality! For murena OS it's definetly an android variant i'll check when my current phone die, thanks for the discrovery. And overall, that's a high quality channel you've got there! Hope your channel will lift up and get thousand upon thousand of subscribers. Cheers.

[@devwithzachary]

Thank you very much!!

[@ferd9438]

Nice review. Workaround for contactless payments is NFC band/watch. I'm daily driving /e/OS for several months now and it's a good and usable system. I'm surprised you didn't mention the default BlissLauncher tho. For me it was the biggest pain in the beginning. It tries to mimic iOS which is pretty weird. And finding a good, private and open source launcher to replace it was not an easy task.

[@devwithzachary]

Good idea with the NFC watch. For the Launcher, honestly because I only really used about 10 apps day to day I didn't have much of a problem with it. But my setup was just one page of apps, so i didn't really dive deeper into it. Still very good points and worth thinking about if you use lots of apps etc!

[@ferd9438]

​@@devwithzachary NFC: I bought the cheapest Xiaomi NFC band and it works surprisingly well. Even the Mi Fitness (Pay) app seems to be quite privacy respecting when you disable all the useless fancy stuff.

[@ferd9438]

​@@devwithzachary Launcher: I came from stock Pixel and what I want is as clean and default Android/launcher as possible. Shouldn't be a big deal imo, just something like AOSP/Trebuchet (Trebuchet should be the LineageOS's default launcher afaik). But I didn't find a (reasonably easy) way to install Trebuchet. And the other ~15 launchers I went through are either somehow opinionated/significantly modified or unmaintained. I ended up with Neo Launcher which is acceptable but still a compromise. But I don't get why I have to go through this on the first place. I get the point of Bliss in getting closer to the people switching from iOS even tho I'm sceptical about how this can work. But missing completely a reasonable way for ppl switching from other Android is painful.

[@robertoacj]

Do you have any good private launcher recommendations?

[@ImaplanetJupiteeeerr]

Yeah blisslauncher is one of the biggest gripes I have with e/os. I also did not find a good, private launcher, at all. It really sucks, cause this os is so good in so many other ways!

[@training7574]

Thanks a lot! I trust your review. As an amateur user, I get sceptical when green tech is offered. I want tech I can rely on, even if Big Bad Tech has made it for me. I can't spend time as a test pilot for well intended attempts to break free from the grip of BBT and some reviewers on YT obviously would like to recruit me as such. You don't!

[@kulo087]

Nice review, by far the most comprehensive one I've seen... thank you for leading me in the right direction...

[@devwithzachary]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BrennonHowls]

nice video, I like using e/os and I got my de-googled phone from ghost call online

[@orenJF]

Is this a fairohone 4 or 5 ? In need of a new phone and looking at a fairphone 4 with e/os as its more in my budget but im worried it's still a lot of money for a phone that came out 3 years ago

[@devwithzachary]

This is the 4, I did a hardware review on my channel as well. You can check it out to see if the hardware is right for you!

[@akia48]

great video, I can finally feel comfortable using my smartphone

[@isthatreallytruetho]

Can you use different launcher? For example I use Niagara pro, would I still be able to use that and other paid content (via google play)? Nice video btw so I'm off to check out your fairphone 4 vid.

[@johnbauman4005]

Can you get KZbin to work on it? What gyrations do you have to go through to use google? Is there an alternative app to KZbin that lets you access the same videos? Thank you!

[@NeoVdV]

What's better, this or iode, or graphine, or ...? For putting on pixel 7a

[@MobileDecay]

Holy bezels, Batman! I wish they had nicer looking phones and foldables.

[@paulobrien4139]

Is it actually simple to use for an oldie? My Mum needs to upgrade her phone device because 3G is being switched off here (Australia - her current phone is 3G only). I was thinking about installing one of these more secure non bloat OSes because I think one of the most confusing things for new people to smartphones is the constant pop-up notifications or need to choose to accept ..... If I can cut that out we will be 80% there to it being useable for a newbie.... Any feedback would be appreciated. Paul

[@devwithzachary]

In terms of general usability its not worse (or better) than stock android. But as you say it's going to have way less bloat than most stock phones these days. As long as she doesn't need Google services (you can use some but it's much more complicated) I would say this is a good option!

[@fredericthanron6567]

Interesting review 👍

[@jonabitstream]

Update #2: Fairphone cannot read QR codes, by design

[@fiammarket]

Before you told you had only 444 subscriber, i would have assumed you had a looooot more! Great content and great quality! Is sad to be the one who ruin the "666 Subsribed" number lol

[@devwithzachary]

Thank very much! thats a massive compliment! Its ok 666 couldn't last forever

[@isuruthiwanka2595]

I want get rid off Google malware

[@nairac212]

How to restore Whatsapp chat from Gmail?

[@fritzshero]

You could still sign into google over gmicro or Google itself; But then google knows you are using a ungoogled phone and the device model. So rather copy the local WA backup file to the device, should work too.

[@sonfatju5905]

Can i open banking app?

[@devwithzachary]

Yes! my banking app worked no problem.

[@iPard2]

The biggest downer for /e/os for me is it doesn't try to differentiate itself enough, and sticks to the bloated Android model. It should offer Android apps, but try to be a Linux phone firstly, offering a full Linux desktop mode when docked for example.

[@jhonchan4770]

get a huawei, problem solved😂

[@jonabitstream]

OK, you sent me here because I told you about all the problems I’m having with this OS, and you say nothing, absolutely nothing, about the problems I’m having. Time for you to test for the problems I’m having.

[@devwithzachary]

Are you using /e/OS? I mentioned my unit has /e/OS not stock android. But I've also not experienced any of the issues you are having

[@jonabitstream]

@@devwithzachary yes, all Fairphones use that OS. So, your Visual Voicemail works? Google Pay works on your phone? And your Fairphone connects to your car’s Bluetooth?

[@devwithzachary]

@jonabitstream no, all fairphones don't. They come with standard Android with Google services. /e/OS doesn't come with Google services so no, Google pay doesn't work for me, Bluetooth worked fine.

[@jonabitstream]

@@devwithzachary so, why, when I contacted what Fairphone calls “customer service”, did they tell me the problems I am having are issues they are “working on”? Why does Google Maps work on my phone, but not Google Pay? And why don’t they have a customer service phone number? Also, when I bought the phone from Murena Fairphone, there was no option to get a legit Android OS, and. Since they’re the only US vendor, my statement that all of their phones use e/OS is true for all US consumers.

[@devwithzachary]

"All Fairphones use that OS" is a very different statement to "if I buy it in the US it does". e/OS is specificly an OS designed to remove all of Google, so if you need Google services it's the wrong OS/Device for you. MicroG is used to support "some" Google apps and APIs (like as you mentioned maps.) microg.org/

[@jonabitstream]

Update: Fairphone is not compatible with Google Chrome. WTF?

[@cargon86]

😹🫵

[@jonabitstream]

@@cargon86 see today's update.

[@jonabitstream]

@@cargon86 see today's update

[@jonabitstream]

@@cargon86 see today's update.

[@webxorcist]

Don't use Google Chrome, omg... Why use a phone like this and than install that malware on it?

[@lesliehutchinson6905]

You realize that Google owns KZbin right?