Reviews
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Furilabs
4
4 Reviews
A potential worthy Linux phone
The hardware of the phone is quite good, suffering from perhaps the ease of some features of thickness and of size which comes of an ability to change our batteries and to deal with retaining seals for water resistant functioning. It also sees limits yet of software which perhaps can benefit from a few tweaks in its early phases. Lastly, it has not yet figured out if it can bring along WFi calling or if it even wants to do so. The execution is rather good for a Linux-based phone still young and nothing of which I know in its comparison beyond Fair phone -or one cares to call that Linux - has 5G as this phone has. Support and forums could do with a tad less snark for those such as myself, often a good deal too untutored in some of the truly important fine points which we otherwise have not had the opportunity to appreciate or even to consider.
Top tier customer support for an actually working Linux Phone
A great device with an even better customer support. While Halium might be a deterrent for some people it's really nice some people care more about offering a working solution for the mobile OS duopoly
Very good device
Very good device. Perfect support on forum and telegram. I recommend.
The Phone is easily the best Linux phone I have used. I have used the Librem 5, Volla X23, Android phones on Ubuntu Touch, and the Pinephone and none were as ready as a daily driver as the FLX1. It is fast, easy to use, shipped fast, and has a great forum with helpful users. The only thing it could do better is if there were spare batteries, cases, and screen protectors available on the Furilabs store.
This is the first phone I have encountered that makes proper Linux on mobile really feel available around the world, a true world phone. What do I mean world phone? I mean the FuriOS Team has enabled the FLX1 to work on wireless networks around the world – this isn’t a Euro-centric phenomenon. These folks even enabled bands in Western Canada before I had purchased my FLX1, simply because I asked if these bands were available. I truly appreciate their willingness to engage customers and the tireless work that goes into their meaningful monthly updates. Hang out on their Telegram channel, you will see what I mean.
The hardware of the FLX1 is based on a rugged phone, which I am a large fan of. The hardware specs are better than average – kind of reminds me of the OnePlus 7T, only in rugged format. It has the same vibrant screen as the 7T and its capable of 120hz. Camera takes great pictures, which is a testament to the FuriOS Team’s efforts; this isn’t the case on other Linux phones I have used. My first true LTE phone call on a Linux phone was on the FLX1 – such is the amount of effort that has gone towards making the FLX1 first and foremost a reliable, daily-use mobile device. Depending on your typical phone needs, you can daily drive it now, although it is still a work in progress, it just keeps getting better with every monthly update.
The FuriOS Team has integrated Waydroid into their phone software, which makes it feel a lot like what SFOS has done with their Android compatibility layer. That makes it easy to have and use Android apps when you can’t find a Linux alternative. It’s pretty seamless, although still a work in progress.
Typical phone things i would use that are not yet functional: MMS – unlike many other people I don’t share much in social media, sticking to MMS for picture sharing. The 5000mah battery will easily last all day depending on your usage habits, and I know this is an area the team in putting even more effort into; I would love to see the FLX1 be a two day + charge with this big battery. Would be handy if Phosh had swipe gestures, but that is beyond the scope of the FLX1 I think – not a hard transition from basic Android to Phosh though. There is not as much software compiled for this architecture, and of that not as much is adaptive; I have found utilizing both portrait and landscape on the device allows me to see most of the options, and there is a mobile settings tool on the FLX1 that forces scale on apps which makes some more usable. I still found an option for almost everything I would use on Android. The GPS seems to work best when connected to a mobile network, I could not get a reliable location without one.
I would recommend this phone to anyone who is looking for an alternative in the mobile arena, especially those who want to support the most promising initiatives and can work with something that is still a work in progress. It most certainly helps to have some experience with Linux, including the command line, or at least a willingness to learn. Overall, I really enjoy this phone, and I am looking forward to the future of FuriOS and the FLX1.
By far World’s best Linux Smartphone for daily use! 🙂
FuriLabs is achieving incredible success where others failed. Their product is unique, highly sought after, and superb. It’s a smartphone running a free and open Linux operating system. Unlike most other phones, it’s under user’s full control. It doesn’t collect your data at all, by design. The World critically needs such phones! And it works smoothly: Fast, responsive, good battery life, powerful specs, good price, even a customizable button to which you can assign any function! Pleasant to the touch and eye. And you can have your Android apps on it too! The team is open, active, transparent, and accessible – you can easily talk to lead developers and other team members! You can feel company’s laser focus on the most important issues, which instills confidence that in the future the most needed outcomes will be delivered to the user. Customer support is outstanding with very fast response times and a very friendly and supportive community. The phone is made with love, not in pursuit of big bucks like most phones around. Ordering is simple from FuriLab’s website, and you’ll receive your new phone anywhere in the World within 6-9 days! You should set your expectations right, however. At the present stage, effective use of the phone relies on certain technical capabilities of the user, and updates are delivered regularly. This is expected to decrease over time, so that anyone finds it easy to use.
As I use my Furi Phone, it keeps pleasantly surprising me here and there. I’m looking forward to my enjoyable use of the phone for a long time (long-term support is assured by the company’s motto “Planned Permanence”).
Furi phone is a lifeline to me. It gives hope. My android phone is becoming utterly unusable for a myriad of reasons. For example, as I don’t want to share my address book with big corporations+, I couldn’t use a crucial Contacts app on my android phone with all the difficulties that ensue. Overall, it’s just repulsive having to critically rely daily on an android device which you don’t control, and which constantly tries to take advantage of you – so you have to come up with defenses or just not use some functionalities (like in my Contacts example above). I’d like to switch to FLX1, but keeping my expectations in check. And also need to resolve Australian mobile carrier support issues.
Have you ever been using a linux phone and forgot its a linux phone because it just works and its fast. Yeah, me neither, until now.
For some of you, thats all you need to know. The fastest linux phone I’ve used. Instead of reaching for a different device to do stuff, i reach for this one without thought.
For linux folks, I dont need to repeat all of the stuff you already know. Its a damn good mobile personal computer. AN ACTUAL ONE.
For big 2 folks, well the story is different, so bare with me:
Do you want:
1. Freedom?
2. To write apps without compromise?
3. No bloat?
4. Security?
5. Community? – This is a huge one, Jesus, the modem firmware developer for US bands, literally got on my phone to fix and patch a issue in real time. I can assure you, real genius isnt at the genius bar.
6. Control?
7. Privacy?
8. An eco system that isnt trying to rock your psycology for a buck?
9. To me point 8 actually points to simplicity. dont need to go to therapy for ads because there are none. The apps you donwload DO THE THING THEY WERE DESIGNED FOR AND NOTHING MORE. (I once got on my banking app and it tried ot sell me pants).
So whats the catch? In fairness, its not perfect but its not the hardware, it is still the linux ecosystem for mobile. And the only way to solve this is for folks like you, reading this, to want to improve it, because that just it…
Its OURS not THEIRS.
Cheers.
I’ve been looking around for a couple of years to get away from Android and iOS. I got round to trying some alternatives recently, but keeping an eye on FuriOS on the FLX1. It seemed to tick a lot of boxes but was still very new. Each update though seemed to bring a lot of progress. So I’ve jumped in, keen to play with something different and learn more. The price point is, for me, in the bracket that I can afford to take a punt.
I’m in Australia and that caused some extra hesitation as we’ve recently had bullshit laws implemented that make it hard for anything other than network-supplied, bloatware-laden, over-priced handsets purchased direct from the network to be used. Thankfully the FuriLabs guys seem committed to doing all they can reasonably be expected to do so that doesn’t become an issue.
First thoughts – he’s a chunky boi. I don’t mind that, but if you like svelte handsets then this may not be for you.
I would have liked a screen protector to be included, but was able to source some perfect fit 3rd party ones so no problem.
The device was shipped with a software version that needed a good few update cycles once out the box to bring it up to date. After that, things are pretty good. Had some issues with the pre-installed email client, to the point I ended up changing email providers, but that’s an app/provider issue rather than a platform one. There’s lots to play with and learn, but I recently got it to the point I was confident enough in calls and SMS to make it my daily driver. My work means I am on-call sometimes so I needed to make sure I could count on it for that.
I’ve had a few slow-downs/lock-ups that seem to be memory-related and yes, there’s bugs. But that’s to be expected.
That’s probably the summary – expectations. This is a small crew working crazy-hard to provide an alternative to the big boys and their duopoly. They don’t have thousands of developers. There will be issues, it would be mad to think otherwise. But what I do see is how hard they’re working, how much they care and how fast fixes are rolling. I did read a sentiment I agreed with “this isn’t ready to hand to your grandma”, and I agree with that. It’s for tinkerers, privacy seekers, developer contributors – for now! – but the future looks very promising!
The next big thing
The freedom to do what you want with your phone has never been more true then this device, it is extraordinary what this team has done and it works so well with constant updates! You can run almost any android app and linux package you want on this thing, its nuts! There has never been a better price for technological freedom
Mine arrived to Western Australia in 9 business days. I’ve had the phone for about 6 weeks but have only been daily driving about a week.
The phone feels like a device that’s made to be used, not made to be looked at. I’ve plugged a USB dock in and used it as an ethernet router for half a day and it didn’t miss a beat. If a native Linux app is not available, an Android one usually is.
The integration of Android into the base Linux OS is done really well.
The battery lasts 3 times longer than my iPhone.
I can use a mouse and keyboard.
I can customise almost any part of this device. I can install any a software I want. I’m writing this review on it.
The support has been great. The developers are open to what they’re working on and what challenges they have.
If you’re coming from iPhone, it’s a different experience, but it won’t be long until its close enough. iCloud contacts, calendar and mail all work on this phone.
You can even charge another phone from this one!
I’m really happy. I have finally found MY phone. I’m looking forward to this becoming the next mainstream phone platform.
Ones every few years a company tries to put a mobile phone on the market which is different then the current norm e.g. Apple or Android.
I always wanted a mobile phone which I had more control over. I started in 2009 with the Nokia N900, when apt was still apt-get in Debian, slowly this project died and again I had to go more mainline. I did choose for Android.
Then back in 2013 Ubuntu announced the “Ubuntu Edge”, I jumped on the train an pledged $600. How this story ended we all know. Again back to Android. 2017 a company called Purism, Librem5, a beautiful promise which I received somewhere back in 2021. The interface Phosh was nice but the battery life was like to cry about. Now it is lying in the closed waiting for a reasonable battery life is some future release.
From all these previous used phones the main OS was or would be Debian.
Now in 2024, while searching for a new phone I found an article on Theregister which did talk about a Linux (Debian) based phone, the FLX1. I contacted Wayne and Bardia to give me some more information and after talking to them I decided to buy the FLX1.
The FLX1 is something different completely different then all the other Linux based phones. It just works.
After a few hours when I received the FLX1 I did make some mistake and I had to reset to factory settings, this did not go very well and resulted in reflashing the FLX1. What I learned from this is that the FLX1 is very hard to brick. After flashing everything up to today is just working. Where I live I have 4G mobile connection and VoLTE. My ultimate goal is to use only Linux applications but for the applications I miss the Android runtime is perfect for now.
The FLX1 is fast and battery life is very good even with more then average use I only have to charge the FLX1 two times a week.
Then I have to mention, support is just outstanding. You don’t have to wait for an answer and you can talk to then directly, kudos!!
Overall I give all the stars I can give and I hope and I know the FLX1 will be here for a long time. Thank you very much FuriLabs!
This is a great device for the price, performance and support. It is constantly getting new improvements and updates. The phone is great to use and the battery life is amazing. The camera is good and better than all other mainline linux phones. As of right now this is the best linux phone ive used and would recommend for those looking for one.
The responsiveness on the provided (Telegram / Matrix) channels, and the speed at which issues are being resolved is very impressive. Had the phone for a bit over a month and there have been 2 releases, each making the phone better and better. The camera is working very well (great image quality!) and all normal functions are just working! I’ve got a Pine Phone and a Pro, a Librem 5, and multiple on PostmarketOS, but this really feels like a real phone (and is improving faster). Go get yours now if you’ve been waiting on a real Linux phone, it’s here!
The first truly working Linux phone that I feel like I’ve waited for forever.
From iPhone to Furiphone
I bought this phone because I care about my data and personal privacy. I didn’t realize that such a phone would radically alter my relationship to my phone: they could have just called it a “myPhone” because the phone (not to mention your data) belong to YOU. It feels like having something unique and that is YOURS in your pocket, which is an experience that I didn’t even realize was possible until getting it. You can also tell that the development team has made this a labor of LOVE. It is always a pleasure being able to talk to them about the phone and feel like you’re helping to develop a piece of linux history. (The first fully functional linux phone!)
You can install all the linux apps you want, while having access to all traditional apps through the excellent waydroid service installed on the phone. The phone is accessible through terminal on my computer and it has been great using a familiar interface to install apps and manage files. The latest updates are always something to look forward to, making the phone better and better with each iteration. The camera app runs buttery smooth and takes excellent pictures, and hard as it is to believe there will only be more improvements!
I was an iPhone user before and find myself missing the iOS ecosystem very little with this phone. It has all the apps and features that I need, they run well, and delivers a personal experience with great technical support staff available to talk about any problems that you have. It does a lot of things better than my iPhone, like provide instant access to all my folders and files on other devices through setting up a single app like Syncthing.
If you love Linux, having your own experience with technology and a great community attached to it, then you will love this phone. It’s worth it even beyond the added privacy and peace of mind that only linux can afford. So what are you waiting for? Go out and BUY your own now!
This phone isn’t ready YET to hand to grandma and say “Use this!”. But I think it’s quickly heading in that direction. The amount of progress the dev team has made on it in the past month and a half has been an incredible journey. I bought this not knowing if the phone would work or not, as I had never heard of Furilabs… But I took the chance and ordered one on July 19, 2024.
When I first got it, I found out that the phone didn’t work at all in the USA. It would display a 2G or 2.75G symbol, but wouldn’t make calls or browse the web, as it didn’t have support for US cellular bands, only Europe and the rest of the world. I offered to give SSH access to my device to one of the developers, and have been letting him test modem builds on my device with a Ting MVNO Sim. At first it seemed kind of unbelievable that it would work and I’ll be honest, I also wasn’t confident in the developers to get it working. I’m glad I did though, because as of today the latest modem build the developer has put on the device has allowed me to place and receive calls, and browse the web on 4G LTE. 5G doesn’t work yet, and only band 4 of 4G LTE is enabled currently on the test build I’m running, but I can use the phone now!
I will continue to offer my device to run test builds, and I’m excited to see the progress. The phone’s software is extremely liberating compared to android. It’s fast, it runs a familiar debian-based Linux environment, and it already has some really unique features I have been wanting in a phone! For example, there is a button on the left side of the phone that you can program from within the settings to run shell scripts, take screenshots, open the camera or take pictures, and toggle the flashlight. This is the first Linux phone I’ve had with such a feature, and I think it’s a fantastic addition.
With my thoughts on the camera, it takes great quality pictures, and even records video! It might sound odd I am counting recording video as a feature, but other Linux phones like the PinePhone and Librem 5 do not support video recording with the camera, unless you use hacky scripts. Aside from that it’s fully water resistant, has a removable microSD slot, dual sim capability (at least in hardware, as currently that’s not enabled in software), a LED indicator for notifications, a fully working fingerprint sensor (as in you can enroll each finger on your hand and use it to login to the phone – at least after you login once from a cold boot with your pin or password), full disk encryption, Android app support with Waydroid (but amped up as it supports the phone’s sensors and GPS and runs android apps as if they’re native apps), and volume toggle in the accesibility settings menu that lets you set the speaker volume to 150%.
You might be wondering why you wouldn’t just buy a PinePhone, Librem 5, or a phone that can run Ubuntu Touch instead of this device. My answer to that is that the FLX1 while yes, it does use Halium, has far better support than a typical Ubuntu Touch or Droidian capable device. The developers involved with the project have been involved with the Droidian project, and are the one of very people who did a lot of the work to get good Waydroid integration on those systems originally. With the FLX1 they’re amping it up even more, with further improvements, fixes, and features that other devices haven’t seen and probably won’t. A big one for me being VoLTE and VoNR support, something even the mature Ubuntu Touch project still doesn’t have publicly available. To my knowledge, this is the first Linux phone that has 5G fully working, and notably 4G VoLTE working globally with hopefully soon to follow global 5G VoNR support. As I’ve said, the US band support for the rest of the 4G range and 5G is still something that they’re working on, and I hope to soon report progress on that front. Very exciting!
There’s tons of additional settings to dive into, such as USB settings for MTP, USB state, CD-ROM settings, a NFC support toggle, GPS SUPL server setting you can set to a custom server URL, a printer setting panel for adding and managing printers, and a slew of accesibility and privacy/security settings such as controlling screen lock, location access, file history, camera access, and more. Some of those things have already existed in phosh, but a number of them have been enabled or modified, offering things you don’t usually get on mobile Linux. A quick note on the Waydroid settings, it has a full panel for controlling starting/stopping of android apps, clearing app data, as well as controlling NFC access to Waydroid and enabling a shared folder. It also gives you the IP of the Android container and gives you information on the Android version running in the container. The developers have mentioned to me that they have big plans to rework phosh to be a bit cleaner, add more fine grained controls and settings, and add features such as RCS support for messaging and context-aware text suggestions in the phosh keyboard.
With that said, the new features like RCS likely won’t arrive for a bit as they have the cellular stuff to sort, as well as some bug fixes and other features they want to polish first. The device does have some bugs in Firefox and with video acceleration in video players such as MPV, and I’ve personally noticed that compass bearing in Waydroid is currently bugged although GPS itself does work otherwise. That alongside the fact that 4G LTE band support is currently limited to Band 4 in the USA means that I realize this phone isn’t currently for everyone, but I think it’s important to note that the developers are incredibly active on telegram and respond immediately to problems you might have. There has only been one device so far, to the best of my knowledge, that was defective from the manufacturer they use, but Furilabs was quick to replace it and apologize to the person for the inconvience. I believe they even overnighted it to him before taking a look at the device to see what hardware had failed.
The device has a fantastic custom recovery system. You can SSH in to copy files or try to fix a software issue, and it has a factory reset system to easily roll back to the original software, or you could even reflash the phone completely using a computer. Another big thing to note is that the developers also are on a roll at releasing bug fixes and offering workarounds for issues. Infact, they’re currently testing a new software release in their beta-tester telegram channel with a couple of volunteers to see if there’s any bugs that may have slipped through before release. Currently they aim to release a new update every month, and they release the full changelog on their website for everyone to see. When I asked about automated testing, one of the developers mentioned they would like to get to implementing that when they get a chance.
I highly recommend you take a look at the changelogs, web forum, and telegram as there’s tons of awesome information available. Not just to mention the fact that the phone is open source, with source code avaialable on github for everything except the modem and some of the recovery I believe (Which has intulectual property bits that mediatek wouldn’t be happy to have public). It’s not perfect right now, but nothing is perfect, let’s be real! What it is however, is incredibly promising. I’ve never had more hope in a Linux phone than this one. I’ve gotten up at 6AM some days to excitedly work with the developer to test out new modem firmware because it’s been a steady march of improvements each day, and that’s just the modem! I am highly confident within the next month, mauybe two, that this device is something I will be able to give to my mother to use.
With the open source stack, and the GTK framework powering applications, Android app support in a pinch, a powerful Debian-based stack with a proper Linux terminal and libraries, bash scripting, and powerful hardware, it has a lot to offer. I will update this review as it progresses to add more information and expand on where the software stands as it improves, but while this phone isn’t for everyone just year, I hope some of you reading this might be willing to pull the trigger and support the project by grabbing one of these, and my reasoning is simple: In order to survive and continue to improve on the device, Furilabs is going to need money coming in from sales. This is a small company, and every little thing will count. I’ve never had more hope for a Linux phone project than this one, and I’ve tussled with a lot over the years. And I’m sure if you’re interested you can reach out on the Telegram to maybe test out the latest modem builds for USA support and get it polished up quicker!
Posted 9/5/24
By an incredible margin, the best linux phone I’ve had – and I’ve had practically all of them (Pinephones, Librem 5, Vollas etc.). For the first time this truly competes in the same world as the billion dollar Android / ios devices.
Imagine a full-blooded Phosh desktop environment with fully working camera & gps and a device that is truly lightning fast and has battery protection according to today’s phone standards (without suspend 24 hours)