cross-posted from: https://monero.town/post/444500
Your data is YOUR data!
An iPhone or an Android smartphone collects several megabytes of your personal data every day to Google Servers, even when it is inactive.
Murena smartphones have been designed to offer a different approach to users who care about privacy and data-hungry handsets.
Those smartphones are running the open-source “/e/OS” operating system, which is fully “deGoogled”: by default it doesn’t send any data to Google and it’s been designed to offer a great and natural user experience.
/e/OS is paired with carefully selected applications. They form a privacy-enabled internal system for your Murena smartphone. And it’s not just claims: open-source means auditable privacy.
I'm currently using a Murena One I bought late last year. Once you get it up and running the way you want, it's quite good, but it can be a bit of a challenge doing so in the US, at least, because Verizon and many of the low-cost carriers will not recognize the IMEI and won't touch it. I had to run around trying carriers for a couple days before I found T-Mobile would actually work on it. Most other carriers wouldn't even attempt it. Note that as of when I bought it that the Murena One is 4G LTE, not 5G, which may have been the biggest factor in carriers denying support, in addition to it basically being an import from Europe, and it seems to be primarily designed for the European market, so that may have also been a factor (despite it being a rebranded Chinese OEM). All that said, /e/ OS itself is a really nice balance between privacy and availability/functionality of apps, with some fine-tuning capabilities to get that balance to a level that works for your own needs. My next phone will probably be a more well-known phone here in the USA compatible with /e/ that I will definitely be installing on it.
I'd think if they sell it there, it should also work. It's bad you had these carrier issue. Murena offers phones like pixel5 with eOS installed.