Murena kicks Google out of the Pixel Tablet We had a play with Murena's first tablet, a Google Pixel running /e/OS, its in-house de-Googled Android 13 with additional privacy features. The Murena Pixel Tablet came out just last week, but The Register had its talons on a pre-release unit for a month. There are a few glitches here and there, but the experience is good, …
doesn't make much sense
"a de-Googled tablet makes more sense than a de-Googled phone. It's now common, even normal, to do contactless payments with a smartphone, use it to store tickets and membership cards, run banking apps, and so on. A device that can't do this, or even makes it harder, is significantly crippled."
in the context of this...
"if you don't mind doing a little extra work to avoid having your data stored for you by giant foreign corporations with questionable records on privacy"
Those of us who belong to the latter group tend not to also inhabit the former.
I am in my seventh year of using e/OS/ on phones and can see no use for a tablet in my life.
I want to have my kids view PDFs and use jellyfin and similar things, but no cloud. So this is what I want (for a long time now).
Price-wise, I get that $549 is not necessarily unreasonable, however, it kind of hurts when the google version of the tablet is $299. I instinctively looked to see if e/OS had a downloadable installer for the google tablet, but it is not listed among its 21 supported devices--e/OS self-install on $299 tablet is the way I would like to go.
Actually I find a tablet useful when travelling (I'm retired now and don't always want to take my laptop with me). I have gone through several tablets with /e/OS (I tend to leave them on planes - the downside of not being a laptop!).
Currently I am using a Samsung tablet, bought inexpensively off eBay - it says SM-P615 on the back. I guess it is convenient to have a Murena supported device but I prefer to choose one that fits my use and then put /e/OS on it.
This is because Google tablets with cell are locked down HARD. As far as I can find, none of them let you unlock the bootloader.
I've looked pretty hard because I wanted an Android tablet to replace the absolute shit Garmin & TomTom GPS offerings.
So I'm stuck using a cheap laptop with a USB GPS.
Even if you do manage to find this, you'll probably have problems due to the absence of Google Services.
I had one of the early Amazon Fires that didn't have Google App Store. There was a lot that couldn't even be sideloaded as the apps all need Google Services. Back to Square 1.
> Give me some more memory plus a SD card slot and a headphone socket
I can only agree.
Me, I would like 2 USB-C ports, like on my Gemini, and ideally more. Connecting to power, a screen, and also a hub or something for a keyboard and mouse, all at the same time, makes such a device far more versatile and useful.
I believe that Murena is working on its own tablet hardware, though. More info when I have it.
I would love to see a Fairphone tablet - the FP4 has been going strong for a while now, and I think that a tablet with a replaceable battery, SIM, and SD card(s) would make a great addition (along with more than one USB-C as you suggest) - and yes - headphone socket please.
I don't know why FP axed the headphone socket on the FP4, given that it is a non-waterproof phone (and I understand that one attraction of fewer ports is that it makes it easier to waterproof) but few would need a fully-waterproof tablet, aside from being resistant to splashes from sprogs throwing their Ribena at it.
The parent article briefly mentions the Bliss launcher, but it has more severe problems than is reported.
It does not appear to allow widgets on the home screen; these are confined to a separate widget area.
It does not allow shortcuts to apps, so dragging an incognito Chrome shortcut to the home screen does not appear to be possible.
For these reasons, most users should immediately replace Bliss on /e/os.
I chose Lawnchair 14: https://lawnchair.app/
My Pixel 5a phone runs LineageOS with microG. The biggest hassle is having to find and sideload apps, since it doesn't have the Google store. I don't trust the Android ecosystem with money and my "real" current account access is browser on Linux only. However, I have a Tesco Plus card which is a loadable debit card that I keep £50 on, and the Tesco app runs fine on the phone.
Ironically, in the context of this article, I have a tablet (Lenovo) which I use for reading magazines from the library, and it's running stock Android, although Netguard is installed to reduce the "phone home" snooping.
I use F-Droid to install Aurora Store which allows you to fetch free apps from Google directly without identifying yourself, and your own if you're willing to log in to an app that isn't Google's. This lets me have app updates, and I don't need to associate the whole phone with a Google account.
"Privacy costs in inconvenience as well as financially. The de-Googled version of the Pixel Tablet costs rather more than the ad-subsidized version from Google"
Privacy doesn't have to cost. OK I get this is a Murena puff piece, but you can buy a normal Pixel tablet and install GrapheneOS for free.
It is absolutely *not* a "Murena puff piece".
I have rooted a few of my own phones and installed 3rd party ROMs on them. It's a total PITA and I have failed more times than I've succeeded. I own an Android tablet I've so far failed to root, despite multiple attempts.
I would much prefer a preconfigured device with a warranty and I think I'm not alone.
While I certainly won't argue with your first line, Pixels are pretty easy to install CalyxOS, GrapheneOS, and IODEOS on and I would expect E/OS to be no worse. And apparently it doesn't void warranty (at least usually). Other phones aren't so easy though.
I have just got a brand new Pixel 8 with /e pre-installed from Murena.
I have been wanting something like this for years, but the hassle of installing Lineagos or /e myself was too much for me when I examined what was involved.
I would have liked a non-google phone with hardware buttons, but the hardware for thes sort of devices is so far out of date and they do not appear very reliable due to the very small numbers produced.
This phone should have about 7 years security updates if the hardware lasts.
So far I am impressed - really fast - pretty good camera - no issues yet.
Pity it does not have a separate memory card, But the USB seems to do everything I have tried so far for connecting external devices etc - even ethernet .
You can decide whether to use extra microG apps or stay more Google free.
Overall I think it is just about worth the extra cost of paying for the preinstallled /e OS.
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