Once upon a time, many mobile phones were made in Europe. Nokia phones, Siemens phones, and Ericsson phones were a few such. Then Europe gradually faded off the mobile phone table. But in 2023, we have a new made in Europe smartphone. Volla Phones are proudly made in Germany.
No surprise. Germany has been an industrial powerhouse in Europe, for decades. If there was one European country that could make that comeback, it was Germany. So, what is Volla Phone all about?
What is Volla Phone?
Volla Phones are smartphones that respect your privacy, as they built on a free open-source, Google-free Android with no dependence on a cloud. In other words, they are privacy-focused phones.
Europe and America have consistently been at loggerheads over the way that both Android OS and iOS mine and milk user data. Again and again, we have seen the EU wield the stick against certain actions. I always wondered when someone in Europe would decide to build alter stoves to what Apple and Google offer.
To be sure, some others have before now. For example, Gael Duval’s Murena has been developing and shipping a privacy OS in phones for a few years now. I follow their work keenly. But Murena has not gone mainstream. What the privacy phone crowd needs is a brand that will power through the teething issues and become as mainstream as say Google Pixel or Nothing.
Those are niche and small phone brands that have mainstream appeal and following. The world needs a privacy-focused phone brand like that. Will Volla Phones be able to bell the cat?
Volla OS is a Google-free version of Android Open Source Project. That is the software that runs inside Volla Phones. The company says the OS does not collect your data, does not sync to any servers, and does not require you to sign into any account to use it. The good thing is that most of your Android apps will run on it. All but the ones that require a Google account to function.
Volla phones also come with the option to install Ubuntu Touch (which I have used a bit in the BQ Aquaris) as an alternative operating system. You can also have both Volla OS and Ubuntu Touch OS pre-installed so you can switch between them as you please.
I asked earlier if this brand will be the one to go mainstream with a privacy OS. It looks like they are on their way to achieving that. Why do I say so? They have a small catalogue of models on the market already. At least four phones. Have a look.
List of available Volla Phones
A phone brand that has the muscles to have produced a small catalogue of models looks like they have the resources to go far.
Core Specs of Volla Phones
One of the areas that most privacy phones fail in is that of performance. Manufacturers often equip them with underpowered processors that leave the user experience less than ideal. People want smartphones that run smoothly and won’t give that up even for the promise of privacy and security. So, one of the first things I looked out for are the kind of processors that Volla is using in their phones. Here is what I found.
The original Volla phone and Volla Phone X both used the unimpressive Helio P23 processor. I cringe at the kind of performance those phones mist have had.
But the 2nd generation Volla Phone 22 uses a Helio G85 SoC, while the X23 uses a Helio G99. These are decent processors with good performance. I have reviewed and owned a few Helio G96 and G99 smartphones, and if my experience with them is anything to go by, these Volla smartphones will run smoothly.
Volla ships its smartphones only to countries of the European Union, the EFTA countries and the United Kingdom. This makes business sense, seeing as Europe is the world’s bastion of digital privacy and where their products will have the most demand. Perhaps in some years down the road, other regions will begin to see why it isn’t a good idea to have all your personal data out there in the hands of Apple and Google, and hordes of developers.
Personally, I’d like to order a Volla smartphone. I just need to figure out a way to get it to me. Wait; my buddy Elroy lives in Germany now. Elroy! Hey, buddy! Let’s talk!