Sorry if this is the wrong sub-forum, there’s so many I’m not sure what the correct one for this question is.
My question is short, as the title says: What is the benefit in buying a phone from the Murena shop preloaded with /e/ OS over just installing it onto any other phone of your choosing? Do some phones have backdoor access by governments etc.?
Thanks.
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services
One large benefit would be helping Murena grow. If we want this to become a viable alternative to Google and that, we need to trow money at it.
I purchased a refurbished S7 with preinstalled eOS in the e-shop (now murena) a while ago.
The benefits I see in addition to @Macrophag: the phone works ootb, no new piece of hardware is manufactured for me (because refurbished…wouldn’t apply for the murena one though) and no need to go hunt for a new or used phone myself, no need to do the install myself.
If you don’t like the refurbished phones in the shop and flash an existing phone everybody benefits from less new hardware being manufactured.
I am not an expert on that topic but if you are concerned about hardware backdoors then I guess the murena one is not much different to any other common phone because from what I understood so far murena does not manucture the phone but brands an oem phone.
Murena advantage: It just works out-of-the-box. Period.
You do not have to fumble with any installation processes which can fail due to various reasons.
I needed a new phone as my old hardware deteriorated. As I have no time to waste on OS installation, I chose the Murena way.
In another situation, re-using old HW from the personal drawer would definitely be a good choice to save the nature.