Ok, so after some waiting I finally received the plugOs. Now I want to share my honest review.
Good:
The hardware is tiny, well polished looks like an usb stick but pretty small. The packaging is well done and overall it feels like a premium product.
The experience is snappy. The hardware works well, doesn’t lag, have tested it only with basic applications, didn’t try games or smth that requires more computing power, but overall nice experience.
Bad:
What I didn’t expect is for me to input the pin into the plugos app, I mean I would like to know that host os knows as little possible about me, so if i enter the pin in the host os, and it has an plugos app that has been tampered, i think that pin extraction is possible.
Can’t change IMEI, I think is mandatory that a device like this can be reused, if I want to change my identity over the internet I need to change all hardware identifiers. I know it doesn’t actually connect to the GSM network, but still apps can query that and fingerprint you.
The firewall app feels clunky, I managed somehow to bypass the network restriction of system apps in the built in browser, sometimes that check is unchecked but is actually checked and vice versa.
Overall:
I think it is a good product, has potential, but at the current pricing and the fact that is closed source many people would feel more confortable to buy a pixel 7 with graphene os.
Hope will receive nice updates and a PlugOs Linux version.
Thanks for the detailed feedback, really appreciate it.
On the IMEI point: We’ve actually looked into allowing fully customizable identifiers. The challenge is that some banking and security-sensitive apps rely on IMEI for integrity checks. In our evaluation, inconsistent identifiers may lead to app-side issues (e.g. re-authentication loops or data inconsistencies). We’re planning to introduce an option in an upcoming version to reset identifiers including IMEI together with factory reset, giving users a clean state without breaking app expectations.
Firewall behavior: This shouldn’t happen. We’ll look into this. If you can share steps to reproduce, it would help us fix it faster.
Totally hear you on open source and pricing — and yes, continuous updates (and more platform options like Linux) are on the roadmap and will be available soon.
IMEI regeneration to some random phone type on factory reset is the way to go, no need to change it daily.
Some suggestions that I think will make it a stronger product:
Currently you can’t register a google account from the device, maybe you can find a way.
Device user partition encrypted backups ( to be able to restore my apps, my data, hardware identifiers fully on another plugos )
partener with privacy services (that accept crypto), in order to receive sms, even voip calls, buy a vpn from the plugos (will increase revenue and will attract users )
Don’t waste resources on Veil or the plugos store, just install f-droid and let the user do rest, is a mantainance burden I don’t think is worth.
Allow DNS over https/TLS
Scrambble PIN input
Duress is pretty evident, maybe tigger an random error and after erase.
PlugOS to act as a HSM for the host OS could provide signing, sshkeys etc ( out of scope but still people will eliminate one more device they have to carry )
I discussed PlugOS with several people their main concern is the open source. I personally would pay extra if I can flash it myself and tailor it how I see fit.
Thanks a lot for taking the time to write this. And seriously, this is super valuable.
All the points you mentioned make a lot of sense, and we’re definitely going to look at them and plan them into our roadmap. Feedback like this really helps us shape PlugOS the way users actually want it.
Appreciate the support and stay tuned for updates!