Murena brings Pixel Tablet without Google

An Android tablet without Google: The new Murena Pixel Tablet runs on the Android derivative /e/OS, which does completely without the Google services that are usually omnipresent in Android. The tablet's hardware, on the other hand, already comes from Google, as it is the Google Pixel Tablet with 128 GB of internal memory that will be launched on the market in 2023.

The French provider Murena is already supplying the device at a price of 539 euros. Murena has replaced Google's Android with /e/OS, version U (based on Android 14). /e/OS is a fork of Lineage OS developed by the E Foundation, in which all software and services that send personal data to Google are removed or deactivated. The President of the E Foundation is Gaël Duval, who is also CEO of Murena. The two organizations therefore work hand in hand.

The Pixel Tablet is powered by Google's second-generation Tensor system-on-a-chip. The eight-core ARM CPU is joined by a titanium security chip and an AI unit (TPU, Tensor Processing Unit). A Mali-G710 MP7 is on board for the graphics. The LC display has an aspect ratio of 16:10, a diagonal of just under eleven inches (27.8 centimeters) and 2560 × 1600 pixels (276 dpi). In the c't test, the Google Pixel Tablet scored points with its wide color gamut, low viewing angle dependency and high contrast, but it does not shine with more than 500 cd/m2.

Murena's App Lounge instead of Google's App Store

Murena has replaced Google Play with an “App Lounge”. Free applications that are included in Google Play and F-Droid can be installed anonymously via the App Lounge. However, a Google account is still required to access paid applications.

The Murena Pixel Tablet works without a Murena account. However, such an account provides access to the Murena Workspace, the equivalent of Google Drive and Google Docs. With 1 GB of online storage, the Murena account is free of charge; additional storage is available from two euros per month or 20 euros per year. If you want, you can use self-hosted online storage or download a /e/OS U build for the tablet free of charge and install it on hardware purchased elsewhere. The current Geizhals price for an unmodified Google Pixel tablet starts at around 412 euros.

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