Tag: Teracube 2e

After two weeks with the Teracube 2e I decided that it’s not a good daily driver for me. Teracube has a 30-day return policy, but I’m going to keep the phone because I really like what the company is doing and having a sacrificial phone for experimenting with new Android ROMs appeals to me. However, there were a number of issues that made the phone unsuitable for me as a daily driver.

The first issue is the potato quality camera. I previously stated that I don’t need a very good camera, but I do need a camera that is at least good enough for me to document things. I decided to do more thorough testing with the Teracube 2e cameras during the week. I found two major issues. The first is that the autofocus is inconsistent. Sometimes I can get properly focused photographs, but other times the photographs turn out blurry even after the camera app shows that the camera is properly focused. It’s a crap shoot whether a photograph will be clear or blurry. The second camera issue is the flash. Since the cameras have such poor low light (really any light other than outside daylight) performance, using the flash is a requirement. But when the flash is used the resulting photograph is heavily blue tinted. This issue isn’t caused by the beta build of LineageOS. A number of users on the Teracube forum reported the same camera issues with stock firmware.

The second overall issue I have with the phone is the size. I’m an oddity because I like phones that are small enough to operate with one hand. The 2020 iPhone SE is acceptable although slightly larger than I like. The Teracube 2e is larger than the 2020 iPhone SE. When stacked on top of each other, the Teracube 2e doesn’t look much larger than the 2020 iPhone SE. But when you have the devices in your hand the size difference feels significant. The included case also adds some additional bulk. Moreover, the case has raised corners that like to catch on my pockets whenever I stow or take out the phone.

The third issue is the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. Although rare the phone will periodically disconnect from my Wi-Fi network and Bluetooth devices for a brief second. It’s hardly noticeable. If you’re streaming a video, the issue manifests as a brief moment of buffering. If you’re listening to music through Bluetooth headphones, the music will stop and your headphones will indicate that they disconnected and connected again. This problem is most likely being caused by the unofficial beta of LineageOS that I’m using. Unfortunately, all of the Google-free ROMs I’ve found for the Teracube 2e are based on the LineageOS build and therefore exhibit all of the same bugs. I’m confident that this issue will be fixed if the problem is being caused by the ROM. But this does roll into my fourth issue.

The fourth issue is that this setup is a hack. What I mean by this is that the overall experience isn’t polished. This isn’t a surprise. I’m running beta firmware on a relatively new phone. I didn’t expect it to feel polished. And if I only had to worry about myself, I could run this setup without much trouble. But I’m also the technical advisor and support for my wife. I can’t hand her a buggy device and expect her to be happy with it. Especially because she’ll be comparing it to her iPhone (she wants to get off of iOS because she, like me, doesn’t like spyware running on her devices, but she’s less tolerant of bugs than I am). I could get her a nicer device and continue using the Teracube 2e myself, but I also don’t want to have a drastically different setup than her. If we have the same or very similar setups, we will likely run into the same problems. That simplifies debugging for me and means that when I figure out how to fix a bug on my setup, I also figure out how to fix it on her setup.

With all of that said, I really like the Teracube 2e. It has a lot of great features such as a removable battery, four year warranty, and flat rate charge for repairs. For the price the hardware is a good deal (minus the cameras). The device comes with a case and a screen protector, which are nice bonuses at that price range. I also like how transparent the company has been. I’ve dug through the Teracube forums and the company representatives who post on there open and honest. For example, Teracube released a tempered glass screen protector for the 2e. A lot of people who bought it reported issues with the edges of the screen protector not adhering to the screen. A company representative both acknowledged the issue and warned a few users inquiring about a better (than the included) screen protector about the issue. There is a thread about the camera issues. Rather than disappearing the thread, company representatives have been using it to collect information that may allow the issues to be fixed (or at least mitigated to some extent).

As I said at the beginning of this post, I’m going to keep the Teracube 2e. Both because I like the device and because I want to fund Teracube’s efforts. I will continue to experiment with it and test new builds of LineageOS as they are release (and maybe /e/OS as well). But it won’t be the replacement for my iPhone.

That brings me to the big question, what’s next? Will I stick with iOS knowing that Apple intends to install spyware on it? Not a chance. I ordered a Google Pixel 4a (actually two). Although the 128 GB of storage will be tight for me, it checks every other box. It’s affordable, about the same size as my iPhone, and has a good rear camera. Besides the lack of storage the other major downside is Google just discontinued it (which is why I bought two, one for me and one for my wife). So it’s not a device that I will be able to recommend to people in the future. Unfortunately the replacement, the Pixel 5a, is significantly larger and $100 more expensive.

My intention is to try GrapheneOS since it’s the most security focused Android ROM. If that doesn’t work out, the Pixel devices are officially supported by a number of other Google-free ROMs including LineageOS, /e/OS, and CalyxOS. I will report on my findings just as I have been reporting on my findings with the Teracube 2e.

I’m almost exactly one week into my experiment of running LineageOS on a Teracube 2e and want to provide an update.

If you missed my previous post, this experiment is my attempt to migrate from iOS to Android. I’m leaving iOS because of privacy concerns. Jumping from Apple to Google because of privacy concerns would be nonsense so this experiment requires using Android without Google services and applications. So far I have been able to do that, with the exception of needing access to the Google Play Store to install applications that aren’t available in F-Droid. I’m using Aurora Store to access the Google Play Store with some semblance of anonymity.

SD Card

The first thing I want to touch on is the SD card. SD card support in Android is a hot mess. Inserting an SD card into a phone running LineageOS, assuming the card isn’t already formatted, will trigger a popup asking how to format the card. The two options are portable or adopted. Selecting portable will format the SD card in a way that allows it to be swapped between devices. The upside to portable storage is that the SD card can be removed from the phone and inserted into another devices such as a laptop. The downsides are that many applications have poor if any support for using a portable SD card (Spotify, for example, kept losing songs it downloaded and stored on the SD card) and the data stored on the card isn’t encrypted.

Adopted storage is poorly documented. The best explanation I could find is this Reddit post. Choosing to format the SD card as adopted storage will cause user files to be stored on the SD card. Applications can also be moved from internal storage to the SD card if it’s formatted as adopted storage… and the developer of an application specifically enabled the functionality. If the developer doesn’t enable the functionality, then the application cannot be moved to the SD card. See what I mean about SD card support being a hot mess?

Formatting an SD card as adopted storage comes with a few downsides. The most notable is that removing the SD card from the phone can cause all sorts of odd behavior. Since the SD card is treated as an extension of internal storage, the phone expects the SD card to be present at all times. Another downside to adopted storage is that the SD card can no longer be used by other devices. Inserting the card into another device, even another Android device, will result in the device seeing it as corrupted. The upsides to adopted storage is that the data stored on an adopted card is encrypted and applications that poorly or don’t support portable SD cards will likely work well with an adopted card since they will see the card as internal storage.

My needs have been better fulfilled by formatting the SD card as adopted storage.

Potato Quality Cameras

In my initial impressions post I noted that the cameras on the Teracube 2e are bad even when compared to cameras on many other devices in the same price range. The Teracube 2e has three cameras: a front facing camera and a wide angle and normal camera on the back. Most camera applications that I test detected and could use the front facing and normal rear cameras, but didn’t recognize the wide angle camera (which isn’t much of a loss because that camera is the worst of the three). Open Camera can detect and use all three. Moreover, I’m able to squeeze the most out of the cameras with Open Camera. Dropping the exposure compensation by 0.50 EV (so the value is -0.05 EV in Open Camera) has lead to the least terrible photos on the normal rear facing camera for me. I’m not a photographer so your mileage will likely vary (and if you are a photographer, you will be disappointed by the cameras on the Teracube 2e).

Navigation

In the turn by turn navigation market Google Maps is the undisputed king. Apple Maps comes in second, but it’s a far second. Google Maps requires using Google, which I’m trying to avoid, and Apple Maps isn’t available on Android.

I had a three hour drive today and decided to test two applications: Organic Maps and Magic Earth. I came across Organic Maps in a Reddit post created by an individual asking for an alternative to Google Maps and Magic Earth when I was testing /e/OS (Magic Earth is included as part of /e/OS). For my test I used Organic Maps on the way to my destination and Magic Earth on the way back. Both applications use OpenStreetMap data, provide voice turn by turn navigation, and allow you to download maps locally on your device (a nice feature for me since I find myself in areas with weak or nonexistence cellular signal frequently).

Organic Maps is open source whereas Magic Earth is closed source. Even though it’s closed source, Magic Earth has a much better privacy policy than Google Maps (and probably Apple Maps) so it’s a step up in terms of privacy. Both applications chose nearly identical routes (I checked the route in both applications when I left and when I returned). The chosen routes were sensible. Magic Earth advertises that it uses crowd-sourced traffic information when creating routes, but I was unable to test that functionality since I was driving through rural Wisconsin and Minnesota where traffic is seldom heavy. However, it’s something to keep in mind if you’re driving somewhere that experiences traffic congestion. Magic Earth provided me superior search results. Organic Maps wasn’t able to find my destination when I entered the address, Magic Earth was. I also preferred the navigation interface on Magic Earth.

Neither application gives everything Google Maps and Apple Maps provides. But I found both to be serviceable for my trip. I give Organic Maps a point for being open source, but prefer the overall experience of Magic Earth.

Odds and Ends

SD card support, the Teracube 2e cameras, and navigating on Android without Google were the three major topics I wanted to cover. However, I want to close with a brief list and description of some of the applications that I’m using. All of them function without Google Services installed.

Aegis Authenticator is a one time password (OTP) two-factor authentication application. It’s open source, encrypts stored tokens, and backups encrypted tokens to a chosen destination (I configured it to backup to my Nextcloud instance). It can also be configured to require biometric authentication to open.

AntennaPod is an open source podcast client. Coming from the dumpster fire that is the latest iteration of Apple’s Podcast application, AntennaPod is like manna from Heaven. The interface is straight forward and it has so far done an excellent job of grabbing new episodes when they become available.

Bitwarden is my password manage of choice because it can be self-hosted. The Android client works almost exactly the same as the iOS client, which is to say it works well.

DAVx5 syncs my calendar, contacts, and to-do lists from my self-hosted Nextcloud server to my phone. Setting up the connection is a little janky because you need to start the process from the Nextcloud application, go to the DAVx5 application, and return to the Nextcloud application. But once the connection is setup, it stays running.

K-9 Mail is an open source e-mail application that supports PGP encryption.

KDE Connect connects an Android phone to a Linux laptop (I use GSConnect on my laptop because I use the GNOME desktop environment) and do things like send text messages from the laptop and sync the clipboard between the two systems. I highly recommend this if you use a Linux desktop or laptop.

OpenWeatherMap is a forecast application. I used to use Dark Sky, but Apple bought them and tossed the Android application down the memory hole. OpenWeatherMap has been a competent alternative.

QR & Barcode Scanner, as the name implies, scans QR and barcodes.

Since Apple decided to install spyware on iOS devices, I decided to finish my migration from Apple’s platform. I started my migration a couple of years ago because I didn’t like the direction Apple stared taking macOS (becoming more and more like iOS) or its computers (becoming more like iOS devices in that they lacked end user replaceable components). I planned to migrate from the iPhone once the PinePhone or another device capable of running mainline Linux matured. But as I noted at the start of this post, Apple forced me to move my timeline forward.

I started looking at available Android devices as soon as I read Apple’s announcement. I wanted Google in my life even less than Apple so my first criterion for an Android device was that it could be flashed with a Google free firmware like LineageOS. The most commonly recommended phones I came across for LineageOS were Google’s Pixel lineup. OnePlus devices were also popular recommendations. But both lineups tend to be higher tier, which means more expensive. My phone is really a glorified portable web browser, media player, and secure messaging platform. I don’t play games or anything else hardware intensive on my phone. Higher tier phones are wasted on me. The other downside to both of those lineups is that they cannot be easily repaired by end users. The FiarPhone lineup has always appealed to me because they’re designed to be repaired by end users. While they’re pricey, I’m willing to pay a premium for repairability. However, the FairPhone lineup is only supported on European carriers and I’m in the United States.

My search eventually lead me to a newer manufacturer called Teracube. Specifically the Teracube 2e. While the Teracube 2e isn’t as repairable as FairPhone devices, it does have a user replaceable battery. In addition to that it has a four year warranty and a flat flee of $59 for repairs (which includes screen replacements). The hardware specs aren’t great, but they’re appropriate for the asking price of $199.

There isn’t an official LineageOS build for the Teracube 2e, but an unofficial build is available. There is also a development build of /e/OS, which is a distribution built on LineageOS.

I tested /e/OS first, but I couldn’t stream audio over Bluetooth. My Bluetooth headphones would connect to the phone, but there was no way to make the audio play over them. Since I use my phone to play music in my car through a Bluetooth to FM transmitter (my vehicle predates built-in Bluetooth and also lacks an aux input), Bluetooth audio is an important feature to me. Besides the Bluetooth audio issue, I only have nice things to say about /e/OS. It’s worth a look if you’re in the market for a Google free Android firmware.

After /e/OS I installed and tested the LineageOS firmware linked above. So far it is working well. Bluetooth audio works. Wi-Fi calling doesn’t work, but that’s a known issue that is being worked on by the developer (and clearly stated upfront). I live in the middle of nowhere so my cellular signal is crap at best and nonexistent in my basement. But I don’t make many standard cellular calls so I can wait for the functionality to be implemented. I also ran into an issue with the Android version of Apple Music. When I played music through Apple Music, it would begin stuttering horribly after a short while. Everything I’d read online lead me to believe that the Android Apple Music app was a shitshow so I wasn’t too surprised. I installed Spotify and so far it hasn’t given me any issues (I was planning to migrate from Apple Music to Spotify eventually because the latter provides an official Linux app, but that timeline has been pushed up too).

So far my experience, which only a week (hence this post is an initial impression, not a review), with LineageOS on the Teracube 2e has been positive.

The Teracube 2e hardware has so far fulfilled my needs. The device isn’t as fast as my 2020 iPhone SE, but it’s also not as expensive (the base 2020 iPhone SE is twice as expensive). There is 64 GB of onboard storage, which isn’t enough for me. However, it has an SD card slot (a novel ideal that no iOS device has). While the hardware in the Teracube 2e only officially supports SD cards up to 128 GB, I installed a 256 GB card (this one) and it has been working flawlessly (if you want 256 GB of storage on the 2020 iPhone SE, you will have to pay $549). Like the 2020 iPhone SE, the Teracube 2e also has a fingerprint reader that makes unlocking the device faster (but I have my doubts that it’s anywhere near as secure as the iPhone fingerprint sensors).

The Teracube 2e also includes a couple of features that I consider nice bonuses. First, it has an indicator LED. Rather than turning on the entire screen for a few second to show that a notification has been received (as my iPhone does), the Teracube 2e blinks an inoffensive (in other words it doesn’t light up the entire room) white LED. That takes me back to my Palm Treo days (I really miss Palm OS). Another added bonus is the standard headphone jack. You can plug in any set of headphones without needing a dongle.

I’ve only found a few dings against the Teracube 2e. The first and most obvious one is its potato quality cameras. I wouldn’t normally ding a $199 device for having crappy cameras, but there are devices in this price range with better cameras. This isn’t a major problem for me because I only use my phone camera for documentation purpose (for example, taking a picture of wires before disconnecting them). But if you rely on your phone camera for even semi-serious photography, you will find the Teracube 2e lacking.

Another ding against the Teracube 2e is the lack of a silence switch. This is a feature that I fell in love with back when I was carrying a Palm Treo. It has also existed on every iPhone that I’ve owned. Having a simple physical switch on the device that lets me silence the phone is convenient. The last ding against the phone is the design of the SIM slots. Inserting a SIM into the phone is easy. Getting a SIM out again is a challenge. I wish there was an eject button like the one that ejects the SIM tray on an iPhone. This isn’t a major issue though because I don’t regularly insert and remove SIM cards. But it would have been nice when I was switching between the Teracube 2e and 2020 iPhone SE on the first day.

I’ve been getting along well with LineageOS. I haven’t encountered any showstopping problems, which is somewhat surprising to me considering I’m running an unofficial beta build. It doesn’t include Google’s proprietary applications (although they are available separately if you need them), which includes the Play Store. This can be worked around though. First, there is F-Droid, which is a store for open source Android applications. If you need applications from the Play Store (which I do), there is the Aurora Store, which allows you to install free applications from the Play Store anonymously (it might work for paid applications, but I don’t need any of those).

One of my biggest gripes with iOS is that backups require either a computer running iTunes or an iCloud account. I used iTunes running on my 2012 MacBook Pro to perform local backups because I didn’t want to upload all of my data to Apple’s servers. Booting up a computer periodically for a single task is an annoyance. Fortunately, LineageOS solves this by allowing me to backup my phone to my self-hosted NextCloud instance using Seedvault. My NextCloud server is automatically backed up by my backup server so I get snapshot backups using this method.

I enjoyed some conveniences back when I ran both macOS and iOS such as the ability to receive and send text messages from my laptop. I lost those convenience when I moved to a Linux laptop. I’m happy to say that I’m enjoying those conveniences again with LineageOS, KDE Connect, and GSConnect. KDE Connect is an Android application that enables a number of features such as the ability to share a clipboard between a desktop/laptop and an Android device and the ability to send and receive text messages from a desktop/laptop. GSConnect is the GNOME plugin that interfaces KDE Connect on the Android device with a desktop/laptop running the GNOME desktop environment (for KDE users there is an application called, surprisingly, KDE Connect). I ran into a bug where leaving the Run Command option enabled in GSConnect causes the GNOME desktop to freeze for a second every few seconds. Disabling that feature fixed the problem (there is a bug report open about this and I did leave a comment on it).

Overall my initial impression for this setup is good. Google free Android builds are probably the least terrible option at the moment for smartphone users who care about their privacy. There are several Google free distributions of Android to choose from including LineageOS, /e/OS, GrapheneOS, and CalyxOS. The latter two are only support on Google Pixel devices though (technically CalyxOS supports Xiaomi Mi A2, but only for Android 10).