Furilabs Linux Phone

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

A new $499 Linux smartphone from Furilabs is drawing interest as a potentially usable daily driver, combining a Debian-based OS with Android app containers (via microG) on relatively modern Mediatek hardware. Commenters welcome features like a removable battery, headphone jack and open, rebuildable software, but question the bulky form factor, lack of mainline kernel support, limited prospects for banking and payment apps, and whether the device can deliver the reliability past Linux phones have struggled to achieve. The product also revives broader debates about the viability of indie phones versus Android forks, long-term support, and what price and feature trade-offs users will accept for an open, privacy-focused handset.

Hardware & Design

  • Phone is large and heavy (171×82×12 mm, 280g). Some see this as a deal-breaker; others accept it as the cost of a big removable battery, headphone jack, and rugged design.
  • Thickness (12mm) is defended as comparable to common phones in cases and justified by removable battery / IP rating.
  • Hardware is based on a reference design also used by the Gigaset GX6; same ODM, not rebranded retail units.
  • No DisplayPort/HDMI over USB‑C; lines were reportedly used for the macro camera. This is a deal-breaker for some who want convergence.

OS, Stack & Mainline Linux

  • Runs FuriOS, a Debian-based distro derived from Droidian with Halium/libhybris to reuse Android drivers.
  • Uses Phosh as the default shell; Plasma Mobile is said to run but is “early” and slower/jankier on some devices.
  • Full-disk encryption is supported; unlock via a minimal environment before boot.
  • All build scripts are open source; users can rebuild images from source.
  • Team is not actively mainlining the device; may pursue it if the product succeeds. Some view Android shims as “temporary that becomes permanent”; others see them as the only practical path to working hardware today.

Android Apps, NFC & Banking

  • Android apps run in containers; microG is included. Users reportedly run popular apps (e.g., rideshare, streaming, messaging).
  • No Google Play or official GMS, so some apps will fail or partially work.
  • NFC hardware exists and can be passed through to the Android container, enabling contactless payments where bank apps don’t enforce SafetyNet/hardware attestation.
  • Banking/wallet apps and strong ID apps (e.g., BankID) are widely seen as unlikely to work reliably due to attestation and regulatory constraints.

Privacy, Openness & Longevity

  • System is pitched as privacy-centric, but site initially used Google-hosted assets; devs acknowledge and say they’ll fix.
  • Some ask for “permanent” OS behavior (decades-later offline functionality). PostmarketOS and Sailfish are cited as closer to that ideal; FuriOS is seen as more pragmatic than “pure mainline” efforts.
  • Concerns about Mediatek: historically tied to old proprietary kernels and poor mainline support.

Usability & Reliability

  • Devs claim this may be the first Linux phone “people can actually use,” with at least one user reportedly switching from iPhone.
  • Others are wary given history of unstable Linux phones (N900, PinePhone, etc.) and Furi’s open issue tracker, including regressions like broken SMS.
  • Some want clear, PostmarketOS-style “state of support” matrices and more camera samples and day-to-day demos before trusting it as a daily driver.

Performance & “Fast vs Performant”

  • Tagline “Fast, performant and cheap” is debated. Some try to distinguish latency vs throughput or efficiency; many dismiss it as marketing filler / rule-of-three phrasing.
  • Hardware is generally seen as much more capable than PinePhone-class devices (newer cores, LPDDR4X/5, UFS, better camera), so expectations for responsiveness are higher.

Price & Target Market

  • $499 is widely seen as not “cheap” compared to mass-market Android phones or PinePhone, but relatively cheap for a low-volume, custom Linux phone compared to Purism’s pricing.
  • Likely buyers are viewed as developers, Linux enthusiasts, and privacy-focused users who accept rough edges and missing banking/payments.

Naming, Marketing & Website

  • “Furi” is commonly read as “furry,” spawning jokes and concerns about branding hurting adoption.
  • Website performance and UX (spinning 3D model, disappearing elements, broken links) frustrate some and raise doubts about polish, though devs emphasize different people handle web vs OS.