5/10
Open rating explainerInformationWIREDGreat privacy controls and defaults. No Google. Relatively few app incompatibilities. Hardware is powerful enough for casual tablet use.TIREDNot all apps will work. Few tablet-specific /e/OS optimizations. Other tablets offer better value, albeit less privacy.I can't stand iOS devices, and I don't much like Google’s Android system, either. As you might imagine, this makes shopping for a phone or tablet difficult. Fortunately there's the GrapheneOS project, which means I can use a Google Pixel phone without Google, but there's never been the equivalent for tablets. Technically you can load GrapheneOS on a Pixel tablet, but the Pixel tablet is too small for entertainment purposes. (In my house, the primary use for tablets is watching baseball games.)
Earlier this year Murena, the company behind /e/OS, began selling a tablet that's both Google-free and bigger than the Pixel. It's not perfect, but after months of testing I'd call it the best privacy-respecting, de-Googled tablet you can buy right now.
A Tablet Without Google
Murena's /e/OS-based tablet was developed in collaboration with German-based hardware maker Volla. The version Murena sells comes preloaded with Android-based /e/OS (see our full review of the phone version of /e/OS), which has some optimizations for tablets and offers (optional) integration with Murena cloud services as an alternative to Google.
The Volla tablet has a 12.6-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel, 240-ppi screen that's plenty bright and sharp, and has pretty color depth. It might not win any accolades from photographers or graphic designers, but that's not really the market here. It's great for watching movies, browsing the web, doing the sort of office work people do on tablets, or, in my case, watching MLB, although there is an issue with that which I will get to in a bit.
Photograph: Scott GilbertsonInside the Volla is an Octa-core, MediaTek Helio G99 chip—which, while not the fastest mobile chip around, was plenty speedy enough for web browsing and watching 4K video. The only place I would see this chip as a limiting factor is in gaming. For that, you'd probably want something more powerful.
Along with the processor you get 12 GB of RAM and 512 GB of built-in storage space. There are no additional configuration options, and disappointingly there's no microSD card slot to expand the storage. There is a sim card slot, though, and I was able to use the tablet on T-Mobile's network without any issues.
The version of /e/OS that ships with the Volla is based on Android 14, which is a little behind at this point, but is at least the release which saw Google finally add a few features that make it easier for developers to build apps for large screens. Any apps taking advantage of these features should work just fine on /e/OS.
For its part, Murena has not added any tablet-specific tools to /e/OS, the way Samsung and OnePlus have built their own productivity-enhancing UIs for their tablets. You get the features of stock Android 14 in the form of split screen apps, but that's about it in terms of tablet-specific features. The main appeal is, of course, the privacy-focused /e/OS and the lack of Google Services installed on the Volla. Instead, you get Murena's services (optional), or you can do what I do and use your own web services (a mix of Syncthing and NextCloud with some other odds and ends). Either way, you get to start without Google.
Photograph: Scott GilbertsonThis does mean that there can be issues with apps. As I noted in my review of /e/OS, some banking apps in particular seem to have issues with microG, which is what /e/OS uses instead of Google's various APIs and tools. On this tablet, I ran into another issue that could possibly be related to microG (though it could also be hardware-related).
Whatever the case, I could not stream live games on the MLB app. Every time I opened a stream, the app simply crashed. At first I was tempted to blame MLB, since it seems that MLB's primarily goal is make watching baseball as miserable as possible for fans, but then streaming works fine in the MLB app on my GrapheneOS phone. That suggests that the issue is either the Volla tablet, or, most likely, some incompatibility between what the app wants and microG offers. To its credit, though, this was the only issue I had in terms of /e/OS incompatibility with apps.
Photograph: Scott GilbertsonThe larger issue I have with the Volla tablet, as Murena is packaging it, is the value. At 689 euros (currently about $820), the Volla is more expensive than our top-pick Android tablet, the OnePlus Pad 3. The extra hundred dollars for the privacy features of an /e/OS Volla tablet might be OK if performance were equal, but it's definitely not. The OnePlus Pad 3 features the Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, which is powerful enough for gaming and multitasking in a way that Volla just isn't.
OnePlus’ OxygenOS also has some nice features tailored to working on a tablet that are missing in /e/OS. Much more on par with the /e/OS Volla in terms of performance is something like the Lenovo Idea Tab Pro ($340), which is half the price (often less than half on sale).
As much as I like /e/OS, I have a hard time recommending this tablet. Since it's not available in the US anyway, for most WIRED readers it's a moot point. If you're in the EU and you're looking to get away from US-based hardware and software, the Volla looks a little more compelling, though you still have to be willing to pay a premium for your privacy.
€698 at Murena (EU-only)
