Furilabs Linux Phone

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

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.