Daily driving Teracube 2e running /e/ OS: my experience

[YellowJersey]

I've been daily driving the Teracube 2e running /e/ OS (degoogled) for a month now and thought I'd share my experience.

Background: So I was running a Blackberry Z30 for 7 years and since they've pulled the plug on the servers, I needed a new phone. I'm a very privacy-focused kind of person, so I didn't want to just hand over all my data to google or apple. @adarw suggested /e/ OS (among others). After a bit of research and reading reviews, I settled on /e/ as it seemed like the best fit. The idea behind a "degoogled" phone is that they take the Android Open Source Project and strip out the code that sends info back to google, so you're running Android but not sending all your data back to google. I bought my Teracube 2e directly from the /e/ Foundation pre-loaded with /e/ OS, but I understand trying to install /e/ OS yourself can be a bit of a pain.

My experience: In a nutshell, if you use your phone primarily as a phone (talk, text, some web browsing), then the Teracube 2e running /e/ OS is great. Nearly all of my gripes come from the fact that I've been using BB10 for the better part of a decade, so I'm just not used to using a different UI. However, if you're used to a more fully featured phone and rely extensively on apps, games, and a good camera, then it's probably not for you. As I said, I use my phone primarily as a phone and nearly all of my data usage comes from using the browser (scrolling teh meme sites, watching youtube, logging into email, etc). I know Anthony poo-pooed the phone in his Short Circuit unboxing and I see why; it's certainly not a phone that most people would want, but the limitations of the hardware don't really bother me and I understand the limitations of the software, especially with such a small team behind it. I can live with these, but whether you can is something only you can answer. But, keep in mind that I am a weirdo, largely shunned by the day-walkers. 

Pros:

-cost (I paid $300 CAD for mine, shipped)

-dual sim

-unlocked

-removable battery

-microSD card slot (up to 128gb)

-privacy-focused (just *how* private /e/ OS is is something that I can't really speak to. In theory it sounds great, if the /e/ Foundation is to be believed)

-headphone jack

-physical buttons

-minimal holepunch camera in display

-has its own app store that gives each app a privacy score

-it's not fast, but it's fast enough (for me at least)

Cons:

-battery life is mediocre at best (light use results in about 40%-50% battery drain over 24 hours)
-double tap to wake can't be disabled (it's a known bug, hopefully it gets fixed)

-camera has some serious lag time before it opens the camera app

-camera takes a few seconds after pressing button to take photo

-camera picture quality is meh

-speakers are meh

-app store has limited selection of apps, most require some tracking

 

Conclusion: The Teracube 2e running /e/ OS fills the privacy-focused niche pretty well. I wouldn't expect it to see large scale adoption, but I don't think it was ever intended to. But, if you want to try and reduce your digital footprint and can live with a more bare-bones mobile experience, then it's worth checking out. I, for one, can live with its limitations; it does what I need it to do.

**note: I have ordered the Pinephone Pro to try as well. I'll be posting my thoughts on that later this year. It'll be interesting to see how it compares.