Would you like to make strides toward de-Googling your life? Do you want to save money? Or maybe, you are interested in making more environmentally sustainable choices? Are you into reducing your finances going to “Big- Tech”? If any of these are motivations for you, I think you will be intrigued to hear about my new cell phone, the Teracube 2E from E-Solutions. This post will cover both my choices to leave major cell phone carriers, and to embrace a new “non- Big-Tech” cell phone.
One of the best decisions I made over a decade ago, was to stop using major cell phone carrier companies for service provision. The primary motivation for this switch was financial. I was determined to pay off my debt using Dave Ramsey’s “7 Baby Steps” program, and cell phone providers such as Ting, Mint, PureTalk USA, and Patriot Mobile all offer much more affordable plans. I personally have never payed more than $22 per month for my cell phone, for over a decade ( my bill is $21.27 per month with PureTalk USA). I also have enjoyed reliable cell phone service which provides for all my needs in a cell phone. My job as a flight attendant requires me to be reliably available “on-call”, as well as to rely on an airline scheduling app. I can attest to the fact my Puretalk USA plan has been reliable. Ting, which I also have used, was reliable as well. As far as the cell phones themselves, I would buy refurbished unlocked phones from swappa.com, and they easily link up to these networks.
I had been happily using a refurbished Samsung S7 for the past three years, but due to 3G going out of style, I was informed I would have to upgrade to a newer phone to continue cell service. Given this opportunity, I started to wonder if there was any phone out there which would allow me to escape Google and Apple. After some research I discovered (to my delight) that yes, there is a company called E Solutions which uses the Teracube 2E phone to provide consumers with a de-Googled cell phone. In order to purchase this de-Googled version of the phone from e-solutions, I had to be placed on a wait list, as demand for de-Googled phones is greater than supply. But it was worth the wait in my opinion! I am really not a fan of Google. Hopefully what I am making clear, is that e-solutions is a separate entity from Teracube (the phone manufacturer). E-solutions is the company that provides the phone to consumers in a de-Googled format. However, the Teracube 2E phone is also available with Google on it straight from the Teracube website. For some consumers, if you like the idea of the phone but don’t care about it being de-Googled, you can simply buy it straight from Teracube , and a BRAND NEW phone is $199!
So let us take a look at this fabulous phone.
It costs $199 for a brand new phone. For the De-googled e-solutions phone, it was only $30 more.
The phone has a removable battery. If you wanted, you could keep an extra battery on you and swap it out
It has a 4 year warranty, and it can easily and inexpensively be repaired at home
It has an Android 10 operating system
Extremely “eco friendly” – Made of soy ink and recycled paper, small carbon footprint, 50% reduced packaging
6.1″ display
All the other specs of the Teracube 2E phone can be viewed right here. More specs of the De-Googled platform available here.
This video will give you an idea of the charm of this lovely phone. How could you not love this?
The only con to me was the fact it did not come with a charger. They claim that omission is being eco-friendly, but I would have preferred to have a charger. Also, the camera takes a few extra seconds to load. However, I am thoroughly happy with this phone. As soon as it arrived I simply installed my PureTalk USA sim card from my previous phone and it was as easy as that. There are some wonderful video reviews by consumers of this phone available.
As far as apps go on the de-googled phone, I personally have been able to download any app I wanted without having to log into Google’s app store. If an app requires me to log into Google Play store, I just opt out of using it on my phone. I know to some of you that may seem extreme, but I personally have no problem with it. In full disclosure, I obviously do not ban all “Big-Tech” in my life , but reducing it is a nice step in the right direction for me.
If you would like to learn more about privacy phones, I cam upon this guy, Rob Braxman on Youtube who makes some good videos about this. It has been more than a month since I switched to my de-Googled Teracube 2e phone from e/ solutions and I am happy with it!
de Googled phonee SolutionsTeracube 2eTeracube cell phon
