We live in a smartphone-dominated world clouded with privacy concerns unlike ever before. With every new smartphone, our privacy is compromised for the sake of safety, and we easily accept it and move on as usual. But do we really have to live with the microphones on the phone listening to us at all times, or apps running in the background, snooping onto the internet, and privacy at the same time? Furi Labs – like a few other mobile phones with a physical kill switch – believes not really, and so the FLX1s is born.
Furi Labs FLX1s is a $550, Linux-based smartphone, which is almost a usual mid-feature phone until you find physical metal buttons in the mid frame that shut off power directly to the microphone, cameras, and baseband chip at a click. The Hong Kong-based OEM is giving us reasons to have a more secure mobile experience that is customizable to our needs.
Designer:
Before we dive into the standard features of the FLX1s, let’s first discuss privacy-first hardware design. The phone has three dedicated kill switches. These physical buttons provide the user with precise and complete control of their smartphone’s sensitive elements. For instance, the first button can switch off the microphone completely, the second can kill all the cameras and the GPS modem. The third is really interesting; it cuts all cellular connectivity at the hardware level.
Besides this, the Furi Labs FLX1s is not a flagship killer when it comes to its specifications, but the 201-gram smartphone with a polycarbonate frame and glass back does have a different purpose. The phone comes with a 6.7-inch 1600x720p display that has a 90 Hz refresh rate. Powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor with Mali-G68 graphics, the phone touts 8 GB of LPDDR4X RAM paired with 128GB UFS storage. Since the phone comes in one storage variant, it supports a microSD card up to 1 TB for additional storage.
On the software side, FLX1s runs FuriOS. This is a Debian-based operating system that is flexible to the extent of permitting Android app compatibility. Interesting, the FLX1 can run multiple operating systems simultaneously with KVM virtualization support. For other features, the smartphone comes with a dual camera array on the back comprising, 20MP main camera and a 2MP macro lens. On the front is a 13MP selfie camera. The phone draws power from a 5,000 mAh battery and supports 5G, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2, A2DP, LE for connectivity. Chargeable using a USB Type-C cable, the Furi Labs FLX1s is being produced in batches. The first batch is sold out, and the company is taking preorders for the second batch, slated to ship in October 2025.
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