Date: 2024-06-20
The Summary
My CalyxOS phone phone died, and they didn't have any in stock, so I
ordered the Terracube phone by Murena /e/OS phone.
So far it's been a "meh" kind of experience. The underlying issue is that I
really hate Android, but there are some things that /e/OS could do better.
Caveat
First, I think it's important to note that I really dislike Android. It's a
terrible, locked-down OS that intentionally makes it hard to get things
done. I suspect this is mostly to keep people from modifying it, thus
keeping it dependent on Google. I'm very happy that organizations like
/e/OS are fighting against them and providing options.
This will likely be a fairly negative review, but I want to make it clear
that I'm glad /e/OS exists, and put the majority of the blame for the
experience on Google.
Details
Here are some more specific thoughts:
- The battery dies too fast. My last phone would last ~2-3 days on
battery (obviously depending on usage). This phone lasts ~1-2 days.
- It came in eco-safe packaging
- It's slow. The response time is a bit slow both for when I interact
with it, and when programs are running.
- The bluetooth cuts out quite often. This is likely partially the fault
of my PineBuds which had the same problem on my last phone, but
the frequency has increased with my new phone.
- The bluetooth also won't stay connected to my PineTime. My last
phone dropped connection occasionally, but this phone rarely ever
reconnects after the initial drop.
- The audio doesn't automatically swap to my bluetooth headphones.
Plugging in headphones works just fine, but to use my BT headphones,
I have to:
- swipe down the top-bar
- select the audio program
- click *off* the BT headphones, selecting the phone speakers
- click back onto the BT headphones
- I can't change the vibration strength. It's fairly light, and I'd like
to increase the intensity, but there is no option to do so.
- I like the integrated "App Lounge", which lets you filter out
non-FOSS apps, as well as apps with trackers. It also pulls packages
from the F-Droid repository, although I couldn't find a way to add
additional repos. Thus I had to install F-Droid anyway.
- It came with a nice case already wrapped around it....
- But the headphone slot on the case is too tight and is slightly raised
My headphone-plug kept popping out until I cut the circle to be larger.
- I had to install ~9 updates as soon as I got the phone. This was
annoying and took a lot of time.
- It comes with advanced privacy tools, which let you look at statistics
about how often apps try to access trackers.
- The default launcher doesn't let me place icons anywhere I want, they
have to start at the top-left and follow the grid.
- There's no way to remove the "Search" or "Suggestions" area when
I swipe to the left. I find this annoying as I don't use either of those
tools, and I'd like to entirely remove that panel.
Conclusion
I suspect that a lot of these problems were due to me buying the low-end
phone from Murena. They didn't have any of the higher-end phones that I
wanted in stock, and I was on a time-crunch, so I couldn't wait around. I
also think that a lot of these are things that could be improved with time,
if they are so motivated, and I hope they are. Overall, it's not a bad phone,
but it falls into the normal Android pitfalls, and it doesn't bring anything
to the table that excites me more than the CalyxOS phone. I give it a
tentative recommendation, but only because the market for smart phones is
so poor. I do wish them luck, however, and I'd be willing to try out newer
iterations as they come out.