Furilabs Flx1s Linux Phone. Honest Personal Review after 2.5 months

Disclaimer: I wrote this review so I can try to claim a coupon for the convergence hub from Furilabs. The review is based on my experience up to March 28, 2026. Some of the issues discussed below may be subject to future improvement.

This is a personal review of the Furilabs FLX1s Linux phone. I do not consider myself a power user (I only code on occasion), so all the points I will be making below are from a “normie” perspective.

For those who like jumping straight to the conclusion: this phone is ok as a daily driver IF YOU DON’T NEED WORKING GPS and FUNCTIONING DUAL SIM SUPPORT, which already makes it the best Linux phone you can “easily purchase” on the market. DO NOT buy it if you intend to use it as a budget replacement for your existing phone.

With that out of the way, here is the full review:

Background:

• The FLX1s is a compromised version of its sister device, the FuriFLX1, which is no longer available due to tariff issues last year. I placed an order for the FLX1 last year but ended up having to opt in for the FLX1s because the company could no longer fulfill the order.

• The phone is currently $500. Being a compromised version means it lacks features such as IP68 waterproofing, a removable battery, a 120Hz screen, a 3.5mm headphone jack, etc. The upside is that the RAM has increased from 6GB to 8GB, along with the advertised hardware switch buttons on the side. To me, this is a huge downgrade, but I still made the purchase because there is no alternative on the market.

• OS-wise, the system is based on Debian 14 using an Android kernel instead of mainline (same as all Halium-based Linux phones). It comes with a Waydroid container so you can sideload Android apps, which works surprisingly well—definitely a big thumbs-up to the developers on that front.

Build Quality and Accessories

• In my case, the build quality is kind of mehhh. I’ve seen other reviews saying the phone has solid build quality, and I believe that’s their experience. There might be inconsistent quality control. The phone I received literally has spilled glue marks on the edge of the screen—apparently someone applied too much glue when assembling my unit.

• The phone came with USB-C headphones. I ordered the bundle version with a TPU case and screen protector. For those interested in buying the phone: DO NOT purchase the screen protector from the official website, for two reasons:

  1. The official screen protector can be easily damaged during shipment. In my case, I received three broken screen protectors in a row (the support team was very accommodating and sent replacements for free) before a good one finally arrived in a box.
     
  2. Even if you receive a non-damaged screen protector, IT WILL NOT FIT. The two protectors I received did not properly align with the edges of the phone and left gaps between the protector and the screen.

• If you need a solution for a screen protector, I would recommend buying one designed for the OnePlus 15 because they are compatible—probably the same ODM screen used for these phones. I can personally confirm this, since that’s what I did.

• The TPU case fits the phone okay; however, unless you have long enough nails, it makes the three side switches very hard to access. This is not good, since that’s one of the features advertised as an upside compared to the old model.

• There is no native display output support from the USB-C port. You have to spend another $89 to buy a hub to connect the phone to a monitor.

Basic Phone Features and Connection

• I am using Mint Mobile in the U.S., which is T-Mobile-based. The mobile signal works, but is currently limited to 4G LTE for me. Whenever I turn on 5G bands, the mobile network just stops working. All other basic features work fine. I’m not a big camera guy, so I’m happy with whatever is there.

• However, there are several issues:

  1. The microphone is not well insulated and echoes badly during phone calls. I keep getting complaints that people can hear themselves, even when I’m not using speaker volume.
  2. The dialer and call UI are buggy at times. I once had the call UI disappear in the middle of a call. I closed the app, but the call kept going without a proper UI to hang up. When I tried reopening the app, I could only get to the dialer, so I had to wait for the other side to end the call. Not a frequent problem, but still annoying.
  3. As mentioned in other reviews, there is no Bluetooth passthrough to Android apps. Not a big deal for me so far, but it may frustrate some users.
  4. The GPS is my biggest problem with this phone. The times it has worked are minuscule. I’ve tried turning off Wi-Fi and going outdoors, but out of maybe 20 attempts, I only got a correct location briefly once or twice. Most of the time, the phone pins me miles away from where I actually am.

  5. There is no dual sim support, you can try to insert 2 sim cards, but currently only slot 1 works

Software and Performance

• The phone came with very minimal apps installed, which saved me a lot of time on debloating. I do hope in the future the developers can remove GNOME Weather and GNOME Maps by default, since these two are practically useless. Personally, I’d like to choose my own weather and map apps instead of having to uninstall the defaults.

• I am pleased with the software experience most of the time. But again, I am not a heavy phone user—I don’t play mobile games or use social media apps. The Furilabs team did a great job tweaking the Linux Firefox browser to make it a better mobile experience. I have successfully launched LibreWolf, but had no luck with ungoogled Chromium.

• The most buggy app is the Store app. It launches extremely slowly, and when you try to do a software update through it, there is no progress bar or background indicator (or it just stops working). So if you want to know whether updates have completed—or even started—you might as well toss a coin.

• The Android container came with MicroG, which is a nice feature on paper. However, the spoofing in MicroG does not work, which means you cannot run apps like Google Maps. I heard this is related to Google’s updated signature checks above Android 9. I’ve had a phone before that ran into similar issues.

• If you need a navigation app, I would recommend TomTom, which is probably one of the few Google Maps alternatives that actually works. (But again, considering the GPS situation, navigation apps are basically useless anyway.)

Purchasing and Support

• I have mixed opinions when it comes to purchasing and support. I ordered the FLX1 for $550 a year ago (around $600 including accessories). After nearly 9 months of waiting, Furilabs announced they would no longer sell the FLX1 and offered customers the option to switch to the FLX1s. I went along with that.

• When the FLX1s became available, the price immediately dropped from $550 to $500. I emailed support asking for a $50 refund. Initially, they said they would offer a 100% coupon for their new convergence hub in a few weeks, so I agreed.

• After waiting another two months, I reached out again. This time, they refused both a refund and the coupon, and told me to open a support ticket. After doing that, they said the coupon is only for people who post reviews on social media.

• So in other words, I lost $50 by preordering a phone and waiting for a year.

• There were positive experiences (such as replacing damaged screen protectors), and they usually reply pretty quickly if you email them but overall I would suggest not preordering anything from their website unless it can ship immediately.

Final Note

Ok, I've said a lot of things above, it seems I mostly focusing on the negative aspect (I need to be honest, $500 is not a small number for a phone like this). But I do want to say I freaking love this phone! and after all the bad experiences it is still worth to have a working Linux phone on your hand! I truly wish the Furilabs team will keep the good work and thanks for all the efforts they spent!

If anything else comes to mind later, I will update this review in the future.