A privacy-centric Pixel tablet without Google Services now exists

Summary

A new Google-free variant of the Pixel Tablet, sold by Murena, is now available for purchase.
This Murena Pixel Tablet ships with the open-source /e/OS, and comes without any preinstalled Google Services.
The Murena Pixel Tablet costs $550 without the charging speaker dock, but takes the work out of manually ‘deGoogling’ your tablet.

Murena, a mobile hardware and cloud services company with a privacy-first mandate, has just released a brand-new product: the Murena Pixel Tablet.

Unlike the standard Google Pixel Tablet, which was first released in June 2023, this new Murena version ships entirely without pre-installed Google apps or services. In fact, the device arrives with an Android-based operating system known as /e/OS, which is open-source and related to the privacy-centric LineageOS.

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In essence, the Murena Pixel Tablet purges all the Google-y bits out of Google’s own hardware product, and instead provides a user experience filled with open-source applications and an overall ‘deGoogled’ suite of software and tools.

Murena Pixel Tablet

The Murena Pixel Tablet is a privacy-focused variant of the standard Google Pixel Tablet, shipping with the /e/OS open source operating system and without any Google services.

The Murena Pixel Tablet runs /e/OS, and ships without any Google Services

You can deGoogle your life, without giving up on the hardware side of the Pixel ecosystem

Pocket-lint / e Foundation

Google makes it relatively easy to unlock the bootloader and flash custom ROMs onto Pixel devices, tablets included. However, it takes some know-how to actually go through the process, and it’s not exactly for the faint of heart.

Murena takes all the guesswork out of the equation, shipping its version of the Pixel Tablet with /e/OS preinstalled, and with the device’s bootloader re-locked. Upon booting the tablet, you’ll be greeted with an operating system devoid of Google Play Services, advertisement tracking, telemetry, and other controversial Google-adjacent influences.

/e/OS is developed by the e Foundation, and is based on the underlying Android platform. Serving as a fork of the open-source LineageOS, /e/OS hones in on privacy and user security. The full /e/ manifesto is available to read from the foundation’s website, with details on its development and its various safety considerations.

In recent years, Google has been subject to increased scrutiny with regard to user privacy.

In recent years, Google has been subject to increased scrutiny with regard to user privacy. Many express concerns over the search giant’s overzealous data scraping for the purposes of training AI models. Others point out the company’s wavering track record when it comes to telemetry and data tracking for targeted advertisement delivery.

…there has been an increase in overall privacy consciousness among many consumers.

As such, there has been an increase in overall privacy consciousness among many consumers, and a number of operating systems like GrapheneOS and /e/OS have sprung up to fill the niche with a Google-free mobile software experience.

As for the Morena Pixel Tablet, its $550 asking price is a notable mark up over the $300 price tag of Google’s own listing (sans charging dock). For the premium, you’re getting a customized product without the need to perform any of the leg work of flashing custom software onto the device on your own.