Fairphone 4 Murena: The sustainable Android smartphone without Google

Good news for privacy: The Fairphone 4 is available as "Fairphone 4 Murena" without Google Services. The Murena runs on the Google-free Android distribution /e/OS. That means you get almost all of Android's features, but you won't be spied on.

Fairphone is designed for long-term use

The Murena is an interesting package for those who don't want to lose their privacy and want to use their smartphone for a long time. Fairphone offers a five-year warranty and the phone itself is designed to be repairable. It can be completely disassembled and reassembled with a screwdriver. Example: If your camera breaks, you order a new camera module from the Fairphone store, unscrew your phone, take out the broken camera, put in the new camera, screw it together, and you're done.

/e/OS can do what Android can do, only without spying

The /e/OS operating system is an Android variant. The programmers of the privacy-focused operating system have taken the Google-free base Android and built in Micro-G, a replacement to Google Services. With this, even Google Apps should normally run smoothly and with all features.

Google Services should not be confused with Google Apps. Simply put, services are one level below apps. If an app wants access to, for example, the Google Maps API, then the app asks for the Google Map Service. This not only provides map data, but also siphons off your user data.

Micro-G, on the other hand, only provides map data, but doesn't pull any data.