Murena /e/OS Tablet Review: Privacy for a Price
Source: Wired
Hardware Overview
The Volla tablet is powered by an octa‑core MediaTek Helio G99 chip. While it isn’t the fastest mobile processor available, it handles web browsing and 4K video playback smoothly. The main limitation of this chip appears in gaming, where a more powerful CPU would be preferable.
The device comes with 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of built‑in storage. There are no configuration options for lower‑capacity models, and unfortunately there is no microSD slot for storage expansion. A SIM card slot is present, and the tablet works on T‑Mobile’s network without issues.
Software and OS
The tablet ships with /e/OS based on Android 14. Although this version lags slightly behind the latest Android releases, it includes the recent Google updates that aid developers in building apps for large screens. Apps that leverage these features should run without problems on /e/OS.
Murena has not added tablet‑specific UI layers (unlike Samsung’s One UI or OnePlus’s OxygenOS). Users receive the stock Android 14 experience, including split‑screen multitasking, but no additional tablet‑focused enhancements.
Privacy and Services
The primary draw of the Volla tablet is its privacy‑first approach:
- No Google Services are pre‑installed.
- Users can opt into Murena’s own services, or replace them with self‑hosted solutions such as Syncthing and Nextcloud.
- The device boots into a Google‑free environment out of the box.
Photograph: Scott Gilbertson
App Compatibility Issues
Running a Google‑free OS can lead to occasional app problems. As noted in a previous /e/OS review, some banking applications struggle with microG, the open‑source replacement for Google’s proprietary APIs used by /e/OS.
On this tablet, I encountered an additional issue that may be related to microG—or possibly to hardware—though the exact cause remains unclear.