Furilabs Reviews 22

I like the phone and what it offers, but it's not fully tuned in out of the box. Initially furi labs were great, replaced the phone, received a new one, but you have to keep asking furi labs how to work things or for fixes which they did reply but terminal would error out or freeze. Now furi labs have stopped responding. Not good enough. I like the phone but it's not simple to use out of the box. If you put in a sd micro memory card you can't found were to gain access, furi labs sent a response for terminal but it didn't work. Airplane mode keeps staying on which furi labs doesn't have a fix for it yet. The camera is basic but does the job though l had problems with the camera screen as it stays unclear or fuzzy and losers it's sharpness, it will be good if they added a watermark were you can put your name date and time on your photos as my old phone does. There screen shot is basic but there's no capture screen or record screen or long shoot capture which are features lm use to on my old phone. When in camera and you turn on the kill switch the camera screen will freeze which is what it's meant to do but turn the kill switch off and the camera screen remains frozen and you can't use the camera, you have to close the screen and reopen the camera to unfreeze it and to use the camera. Adding a VPN is not simple, furi labs sent me a fix but not easy. It's a problem as you have to keep asking furi labs on how to work things or for instructions for terminal, but terminal freezes and errors out, originally l praised furi labs on the responses on the internet, but sometimes there were some strange things said by furi labs but l ignored this and focused on the main needs, but now furi labs have stopped responding and none of the issue's have been fixed. I asked to send the phone back at my exspense so they can tune the phone in and fix the issues but furi labs has stopped responding. I'm no technical person but lve never had a problem in over 20 years in using phones and computers and always been able to work things out or just use phones and computers at will for what l needed to do. This phone is not friendly out of the box and keeps needing to ask furi labs for a solution, because of this furi labs has set up a forum on there website to respond to people asking for help but there prefer you to use Matrix or telegram because there's so many issues with the phone. For the price of the phone including delivery at nearly $900 Australian dollars it should work straight out of the box without having to keep asking furi labs for instructions. l was willing to accept this and work through it with furi labs as l did but the phone wasn't responding and the terminal kept freezing up and wouldn't accept what furi labs said to do. Im still waiting for a sim card that's compatible with the phone which the ones lve tried should have worked according to furi labs but they recommend only 3 or 4 communications provider's which are not one's that suit me or there choice's of contracts, it takes a very wide ranges of bands and frequencies but limited in which sim cards can be used. Now that furi labs is ignoring me and stopped helping or won't agree to return the phone at my expense to tune the phone in, l just hope l can use the phone for calls and text, as l like the phone for its 3 kill switches settings. Promising phone but very time consuming out of the box with problems and hassels and when furi labs decides they do not want to help any more its over. And there's no manual. But l might try matrix or telegram to see if there's help there. Furi labs release an update for fixes and bugs for some things but my phone stalls and won't download the update, but I'll keep trying. As l said not an easy phone to handle and this is the second phone they sent me. Overall now it's not good enough at the way the phone is not tuned in out of the box and furi labs is now ignoring me, but l was willing to solve the issues with furi labs but it's been to long of a process and they won't accept the phone back to return it to fix the issues. Another thing the screen it self is not accurately positioned on the frame of the phone, symbols at the top of the phone actually go behind the front camera which you then can't see it properly or can't press onto it to use, the screen goes to high up. Firefox comes with the phone but it's not straight forward layout when wanting to use it, and Firefox doesn't fit in the screen and you have to set it on the lowest setting of 100% which is pretty small for the symbols and keyboard and for the fingers or to read, any higher setting to enlarge the symbols and keyboard and Firefox doesn't fit on the screen. Have to think twice before purchasing this phone, but if furi labs ever fixes everything then it will be ok, but the ones that now has purchased the phone you could say a waste of money. Jason Richards

I had the original FLX1, and it was great. I just did what it said it would do and didn't sign me up for 4 cloud services on first boot.

The FLX1s is basically the FLX1 I liked, but tuned for me.

I’ll own this upfront: I'm the guy who likes thinner phones so I upgraded. The FLX1s is slimmer, has more RAM and the design feels really nice.

A Linux phone that works out of the box. I joked early on that Furi Labs “raised the bar” by simply making a linux phone that works. This isn’t a science experiment you babysit. It boots, it’s stable, it’s responsive, and it handles normal phone life without friction. It’s fast enough. It doesn’t get in its own way.

I’m intentionally trying to run it without Android apps, and so far it’s doing just fine. Better than I expected, honestly. Android ran well on the Flx1, so I bet it would be at least as good on s, but native Linux apps have me covered for now.

I’m a heavy speech-to-text user. I installed Nerd Dictation the way I do on my desktop and set the action button as the short cut. It worked like a desktop computer. No asking Google or Apple for permission. No cloud service I didn’t agree to. It’s Linux and I like that.

I have been using the FLX1 for a year. I am a fan of Linux and have used a PinePhone as my daily driver for years.

I am very satisfied with this phone as it meets all my needs, knowing that the most important thing is to be able to make calls and be reachable 100% of the time so I don’t miss any calls (for example, from my children's school... the ultimate worry for parents).

I really appreciate the Phosh interface.

Everything else on the phone works perfectly: internet browsing, camera, GPS.

Some Flatpaks don’t work, but overall, they function well.

It is hard for me to imagine going back to Android.

Did everything out of the box? No.
This were my issues: I want the phone to work with 2 specific providers in Belgium. Call and SMS worked with both, but data did not. The people at FuriLabs fixed the first issue within a day I had reported it and the second issue within 3 days after reporting - there was a weekend in between. The solutions come as config files through the FuriOS repos. Thus every FLX1s owner who is a customer of one of these two providers will benefit. Love the phone. And I am blown away by the responsiveness and effectiveness of FuriLabs support and people.

I have been following the Furilabs project with great interest for a year now.
I now own this amazing Linux smartphone.
Unfortunately, I initially had problems with the SIM card and the resulting failure to identify the mobile network.
They promptly helped me solve the problem.
I can now use my Flx1s (the new Furilabs phone launched recently) daily and am very happy with the purchase and the prompt support!

I still have a lot to discover, but it's already a great start.
Thank you for your work!

If, like me, you've been burned by other linux mobile experiences from the subpar hardware, pre-alpha quality software, criminally long order fulfillment times, and/or service that felt more adversarial than helpful - you've got to pick up an FLX1s to see the way things should be.

For me, the FLX1s is easily a 5/5. I've been daily driving it since shortly after receiving it. Is it perfect? No, not yet. Would I recommend it for your grandma? Nope. But if you are even a little tech-inclined, are willing to make some reasonable compromises to advance the causes of mobile linux and privacy, and especially if you are already familiar and comfortable with desktop linux, this is a perfectly serviceable smart phone. There are still some quirks and paper cuts but no blockers.

On top of the great hardware and software, the Furi Labs team has been phenomenal to deal with! If you have any difficulties or questions, hit them up in the Matrix chat and they will do what they can to help - even if that means scheduling one-on-one time to work with you to remotely access your device. I am seriously blown away by how accessible and friendly everyone has been.

I can't wait to see how the software continues to improve and what devices they come out with next. They've earned a dedicated customer out of me in very short time.

Been using for a full day. Works on both WiFi and data for me. Makes calls, sms, and MMS no issue. Had to play with APN a little bit but easy peasy nothing new coming from de googled android Roms. Its really great, works fast and smooth. I have used droidian and Ubuntu touch and post market os all before. While I like all of those,furios is definitely the fastest and smoothest I’ve used, and the main part the only one that works for me as a phone, being from the USA I need volte and it works on furios. This is my new daily and will be switching. I’ve installed plenty of apps, web apps, and android apps (though less of those since I’m trying to get away,), but Andromeda runs super smooth and nice especially compared to waydroid. Overall for a linux phone this is the best I’ve used and the only that has worked for me with volte and USA bands (I use a t mobile mvno).

Will recommend to anyone I know who would be interested.

Will update after some more use. But right now I recommend.

Update #1
Wanted to give a quick update. Used the phone all day at work with about an hour drive each way. Had a couple hiccups where I had to turn off data and back and one time restart the whole phone, but I'm not gonna blame the phone because I work/live in an area with bad service on any device. Otherwise beyond the Bluetooth not connecting to my infotainment system (which I got around by using a BT receiver that plugs into the accessory port) no issues. Was able to make calls and texts for work with no issues, for the most part data worked great. This is the first linux phone I've been able to use for a full day, oh and still had almost 50% battery when I got home.

The FuriLabs phone had worked until July An upgrade at that time caused all kinds of problems. I used the feature that in System-> Restore to Factory Reset and tried to see if I could attempt an update and upgrade 2 weeks later. No update or upgrade is possible as the signature is not recognized now and there are error codes in the use of the Console to get much of anything of a Dixie Debian alteration to the system code.

Zero communication in three months on the status of my FuriPhone order, and the contact form does not work.

Attempted to purchase and it required creation of an account versus allowing for guest checkout. Failed to notice the account confirmation email and purchase became null and void without notification. Only time and lack of credit card transaction showed this. Seems the person in charge of sales doesn't understand the market nor did any QA testing with possible real world scenarios.

Bought the phone 2 weeks ago, and it hasn't shipped. Can't really say much else than that.

Most usable Linux phone I've seen. Started daily-driving it, only possible due to the devs great work and android app support.
Nice hardware. Quite hefty and a bit unweildly to a person with large hands.

Only had the phone a week so haven't put it through a full thorough test, but so far pretty impressive especially a good battery to last over a day, decent camera, removable battery and solid construction. Looking forward to testing FuriOS and also other distros via USB like I did on the PinePhone Pro.

Some issues with native apps crashing the mobile and after reboot stuck at splash screen so have to re-flash the software.

The phone is as you expected.
Is a beautiful phone. Works great. It has be done a some work for a android layer, but the rest is good.

An international order, which arrived on day 8. Two tracking numbers, on one I could follow its international journey, and on the second its in-country journey. The in-country delivery kept me updated by email, including the exact delivery window. (Hopefully this detail is more useful than "it still hasn't arrived" which I have read on here but which tells the reader nothing useful, I think!)

A fuller review of the product maybe later, because it will be a learning journey. I am aware this is a product still in active development. For now, I'll say that despite having read about "chunky", "rugged", "large", the FuriPhone is so similar in size to my existing 6.5" phone that it fits comfortably in the same case, and is quite comfortable in the hand. Physically, it also appears a good quality product.

First boot was a step-through with a GUI. I've inserted a SIM and can make and receive phonecalls out-of-the-box. Several pre-installed apps (Linux apps rather than Android apps so far as I can tell, though they do lots of things you might have expected on an Android phone).

I'd call myself a Linux enthusiast, but I'm not a developer. I've been enjoying using Linux for a decade now, solving the problems it throws up and taking advantage of the freedoms it offers. But I do come up against the hard limits of my competence. When I do (and I will with the FuriPhone, and there will be limits to its capabilities too) I hope FuriLabs and the community will be supportive not "snarky" (from another review!) - fingers crossed!

After the splash screen (which is ok), the screen has 5 horizontal white bars which flash on and off several times per second. The phone is not usable. Changing the brightness did not help.
I got a fast response from Furilabs. The upgrade was being blocked by an out-of-date signing key. The problem was more apparent in the Console than in the GUI :-).
Problem solved, no more flashing bars.

It's the only actually working and usable Linux Phone. Good battery life (compared to everything else, PinePhone, Librem 5, etc..), working camera, fluent GUI rendering, power button "suspends" (put into deep power saving but still able to play music) correctly.

Not really able to give a review as my phone still hasn't arrived!
Would really like to have given a good review.
Buying the product went well but other than that, I can't say.

Very good device. Perfect support on forum and telegram. I recommend.

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.