This is an experience report from me using /e/OS as my main Phone for the last 4 month. I bought the cheapest device /e/OS supports (Gigaset GS290 for around 100€), installed the ROM via the installer and used the device as my daily driver.

Introduction

As described I'm not just avoiding Google while running stock Android on my phone, I used a completely seperate OS which is Open Source, based on LineageOS and which's mission is, not to use google services in any way. Why? Because google (and a lot of popular apps) tracks a lot of meta data as you can see in this paper. /e/OS is mentioned in this paper to not send any data at all, because it's using customized apps and system components that replace google's functionality.

Once installed, /e/OS has an iOS like Launcher, called "BlissLauncher". Nope, thank you. As I was not able to get used to the Launcher's behaviour, I installed LawnChair 2 (previously described in this post. Then I changed the resolution from 1080p to 720p because I cannot see a difference and this takes load off the GPU. Also I changed the global animation scale for all values to 0.3

Performance

The chip is a cheap Mediatek HelioP23, which does not provide a lot of processing power. Apps take a bit longer to load than I'm used to while previously using a Snapdragon 665. I'm not doing graphically intense stuff on my phone but browsing reddit is a laggy experience, so I guess that gamers won't be happy with that model.

Besides the not optimal hardware, the System's Performance is great and seems a lot less bloaty than using a stock rom.

The battery lasts for at least 2 days of normal usage (2-3h screen on time).

Settings

Oh boy, this is where things get sexy. You can even set the systems DNS Server, which is not possible in most ROMS. I did not miss a single option.

Default Apps

The Preinstalled Applications are all open source and mostly forks of successful open source apps. All of them work fine. You can opt to integrate your experience with a free /e/OS account.

Missing functionality

  • I somehow wasn't able to login to my /e/OS account using the Notes app, which is the only application an /e/OS account is mandatory.
  • eBay Kleinanzeigen does not show functionality, ignores clicks. This can be an issue because I'm using a customized DNS which is blocking tracking domains.
  • The Mail app doesn't sync from time to time
  • I can't give permissions to the gallery app to access the SD card.

Search engine

Surprise: Not google. I use DuckDuckGo for years and I'm happy.

Browser

Preinstalled we got a customized version of Bromite. This browser shows a great performance and browsing experience. I installed Firefox but sadly Firefox doesn't show a great android performance which is relevant for my hardware. So I use it rarely and prefer using the default browser.

Will I continue using /e/OS?

Definitely. I currently think about switching to a more performant smartphone because the lags sometimes piss me off.

Using /e/OS gives me a good feeling about my data hygiene. I wouldn't feel good, spreading the usage data across the internet from the device that knows me best.