Hong Kong's Furi Labs shakes up smartphone scene with dash of Debian
- Reference: 1719419408
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2024/06/26/furi_phone_flx1_debian_smartphone/
- Source link:
At any good conference, the "corridor track" is always a highlight and one of the experiences that virtual events so far haven't managed to reproduce. At this year's [1]DevConf.cz , the undoubted highlight of the corridor track for The Reg FOSS desk was meeting the [2]Furi Labs team on its [3]conference stand for its new Debian-based handset.
Despite the market domination of Apple's iOS and the legions of Android devices out there, there are alternatives in the smartphone market, especially for FOSS types who'd prefer to keep their data their own and are willing to sacrifice a little convenience in return for privacy and control.
[4]
Several companies offer de-Googled Android devices. The [5]/e/ Foundation's Murena One was the first this vulture got to review, and the company has just launched [6]version 2.0 of its Android variant. We're also testing out a [7]Punkt MC02 at present and a review is coming soon.
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There aren't so many phones running totally separate OS stacks, though. There is Puri.sm's [10]Libre 5 , which The Register [11]covered when it was announced back in 2017. It puts privacy front and center, but today it's both low-spec and very expensive.
Mainstream phones are of course much more capable, faster, and far cheaper, but there are penalties in terms of privacy, control, ownership of your data, and so on. Particularly at the budget end of the market, devices often get just one update, which is why the [12]postmarketOS project exists . It's not the only such effort, and Furi Labs started out as an offshoot of the [13]Droidian project to create a version of Debian for mobiles.
[14]End-of-life smartphone? Penguins at postmarketOS aim to revive it
[15]Murena and /e/ Foundation launch privacy-centric smartphones
[16]Android without Google – and yes it has apps: The Reg talks to founder about the /e/ smartphone
[17]GNOME Foundation backs 'freedom-oriented' smartphone
Furi Labs' [18]FLX1 smartphone is much more current. It's an octa-core device with 128 GB of flash, 6 GB of RAM, a 50 MP camera, and a 5,000 mAh battery, and the company is asking $499 for it. It runs its own build of Debian "Trixie" – the future Debian 13 – with [19]GNOME phosh on Wayland as the user interface. The Hong Kong-based company is working with a Chinese OEM to make sure that there are native Linux drivers for all the device's hardware.
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CEO Bardia Moshiri proudly told us that the FLX1 we tried has Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth, all cameras, GPS and so on, all working. They're ironing out some wrinkles with NFT support at the moment, and then the next planned feature is wireless display support. At present, you can't dock the phone and use it as a PC with a keyboard and mouse, which is a shame. Apparently, the IO lines needed for a wired dock were used for the macro camera.
Being old school ourselves, we were pleased to see that it has a headphone socket and a storage card slot. The phone feels great. The UI is exceptionally smooth and slick in use, and it's reassuringly solid and heavy in the hand. Saying that, though, the OS is not completely stable yet. The moment we first picked up a handset, Firefox crashed.
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The company is tiny and ramping up the old-fashioned way – without outside investors or VC backing. As such, we suspect that stock is limited and the company may sell out fast. We very much hope to obtain a review model soon. ®
Get our [22]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.devconf.info/cz/
[2] https://furilabs.com/#
[3] https://furilabs.com/devconf-brno/
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZnyPiy2O1XlEsRfrc0DsAAAAAxI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/murena_e_foundation_phone_test/
[6] https://murena.com/the-next-chapter-begins-welcome-e-os-2-0/
[7] https://mc02.punkt.ch/
[8] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZnyPiy2O1XlEsRfrc0DsAAAAAxI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZnyPiy2O1XlEsRfrc0DsAAAAAxI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[10] https://shop.puri.sm/shop/librem-5/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/21/gnome_foundation_backs_librem_5_privacy_smartphone/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/15/postmarketos_2206/
[13] https://droidian.org/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/15/postmarketos_2206/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2022/06/02/murena_e_foundation_phone_test/
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2020/11/12/android_without_google_e_smartphone/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2017/09/21/gnome_foundation_backs_librem_5_privacy_smartphone/
[18] https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1/
[19] https://phosh.mobi/
[20] https://regmedia.co.uk/2024/06/26/flx1.jpg
[21] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZnyPiy2O1XlEsRfrc0DsAAAAAxI&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[22] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
I'd suggest that if it were as secure as implied, it will certainly be banned (by the Chinese authorities worried about their own turf).
"but has an Android layer"?
Hm... the subtitle says there's an Android layer (I assume that means a compatibility layer which runs Android apks) but the article is silent about that!?
Re: "but has an Android layer"?
Furilabs shares some people with the Droidian project. Furi OS is basically a fork of Droidian, which ships Waydroid.
"They're ironing out some wrinkles with NFT support at the moment, and....."
NFT support or NFC support?
In any case, interesting take, but I'm happier running GrapheneOS on my current Pixels, DivestOS on my older Pixels.
Why low-end?
My personal reason for not buying these phones is that they have lower specifications than an old rooted phone. My current phone has 24GB RAM and 1TB storage. That is what I'd want Linux access on.
Re: Why low-end?
Because getting the kind of hardware needed to build that phone is not easy. As far as I can tell, there are almost no phones with 24 GB of RAM. Unless you're including the popular tactic of Android makers to turn on what's effectively swap space then report that as RAM anyway, you've got a phone that's pretty rare.
For instance, they mostly have the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 SoC. There are three problems with using this SoC in a Linux phone. The first problem is that you can't just buy a few of those. Qualcomm wants big orders from established companies for chips like that. If you're smaller, you're not just selecting a lower quantity, you're not paying a higher price so you can have a smaller quantity, you're not getting them at all. Second, they need something they can get Linux drivers for and, depending on who they think their customers are, as few proprietary blobs as possible. Some people won't mind some proprietary modem firmware, while others will dislike this immensely and want something like the Librem or PinePhone which isolates it (PinePhone has some attempt to custom-build firmware for it). None of that is available for flagship chips. Many midrange chips don't have it either, so you have to be careful with which one you select. Third, they're trying to sell these things, and if they cost a ton, which all 24/1024 phones do, many otherwise interested people won't buy them. There's only so big a market for expensive phones, and that market gets a lot smaller when it's not an established company and they're intentionally making a device that's not as compatible as others.
Re: Why low-end?
Yeah, I mostly want to try alternative (preferably linux-based) phone operating systems to prolong the life of my devices. My current phone is a (U.S. version) Samsung Galaxy S10 from 2019. It is no longer supported, and is stuck on a now 3ish year old version of Android. The hardware is still in great shape, so I'd love to be able to keep it going for years to come, but I can't find an alternative OS that can be installed on it. In a year or two, I suspect that many of my apps will stop supporting my older Android version, and I'll be forced to retire a perfectly good phone. I've no desire to pay $500 just to try out an OS that may not fit my needs, let alone $1000 for flagship level hardware.
Linux phone please that is just reasonably priced with reasonable hardware
I love using my PC's all of which are Linux based (POP-OS) and yes I am very happy with it as my 100% daily driver, no MS Windows Apple products whatsoever. But sadly I still have to use an Android phone but only for phone calls, texts and Plants vs Zombies. I will not use my phone for any internet browsing or any apps except the camera and Gallery apps. So a Linux phone would should easily fulfill my needs until they can fix Firefox etc. I just don't like the idea of constantly worrying about my phone device spying and collecting personal data on me which I can imagine a lot of other people feel the same.
It sounds promising, a shame it has links to China though as that pretty much guarantees it'll get banned if it ever gains significant traction.