Today, only the lazy did not speak on the topic of “stagnation in the smartphone market.” All devices are similar to each other, flexible screens did not bring anything new, and only Android and iOS remained from the operating systems. Well, let’s go back to 2014, when the grass was greener, and the monopoly in the world of mobile OS did not yet seem so invincible, and look at the LG Fx0, an experimental smartphone from the South Korean company on the then budding Firefox OS.
Short story
R.I.P Firefox OS — 2013-2015 гг.
Let’s start with a little introduction to context. Firefox OS first appeared in the public space in 2012. It was then that Mozilla developers shared their plans to release their own operating system and even showed a few screenshots of its interface. The idea was simple, but interesting – to make an OS that would rely heavily on the Internet for its work and use mobile versions of sites instead of separate applications. This approach made it possible to reduce the technical requirements of Firefox OS to the minimum and almost immediately launch the production of budget smartphones.
By December 2014, Firefox OS smartphones were sold in 28 countries, but they were all rather weak devices. The company’s partners, namely ZTE and Alcatel, refused to launch Firefox OS devices on the market that would have flagship or at least mid-range hardware. The last attempt to keep the elusive attention of the press was introduced in 2014 LG Fx0, which fell into my hands. This is no longer a cheap smartphone with pretty decent hardware and a memorable design, which, however, could not save the OS from collapse. A year later, Mozilla announced the end of work on Firefox OS, burying previously announced plans to release a system for smart watches and TVs.
Design
Real transparency, not like Xiaomi
Well, now we can talk about Fx0 itself. My favorite part of a smartphone is its appearance – I love transparent electronics. Of course, not everything is translucent here, but even so the device looks defiant in a good way. Without removing the brown ribbed plastic cover, you can see the SIM tray, battery, speaker, as well as several cables and circuit boards at the bottom.
What pleases, the company does not try to embellish the state of affairs and slip a vinyl sticker with spare parts under the transparent cover, as Xiaomi did several times in its Explorer Edition. Here all the details are real. You can feel.
Separately, I want to note such a small but cute Easter egg as the Firefox logo on the button. It shimmers in the light and is only visible at certain angles. The rest of the LG Fx0 is a fairly standard smartphone for 2014: small, comfortable and with a headphone jack. Oh yes, microUSB is located on the bottom edge.
Display
4.7 inches with a resolution of 1280×720 pixels
On the front panel of the LG Fx0 is a 4.7-inch display. In 2022, it’s quite unusual to see screens without rounded corners, but even now the front of the smartphone does not look too outdated, as the brightness, pixel density and viewing angles are at a decent level. Of course, one could find fault with the frames around the display, however, given that the smartphone is almost 8 years old, I definitely don’t want to do this.
Iron
Enough for Firefox OS
The heart of the smartphone is a Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 quad-core processor clocked at up to 1.2GHz paired with 1.5GB of RAM. As for the user storage, it in LG Fx0 has a capacity of 16 GB, expandable with memory cards. Of course, you can’t call such hardware flagship, however, as I said above, Firefox OS doesn’t need many cores and RAM to function smoothly. By the way, the Fx0 has a built-in NFC chip. The battery in the smartphone has a capacity of 2370 mAh, which is not a record figure, but given that there is nothing to do in Firefox OS, this is more than enough.
The device I got my hands on was running B2G OS 2.1.0.0-prerelease (the code name for the system) and the overall experience was more than smooth. The system has nice animations that do not lag when playing and do not cause irritation. Standard applications also work well: mail, calendar, browser.
Actually, given the specifics of the system, this is enough, because all other applications are web pages. In fact, the Firefox OS interface is limited to the main screen: there is no separate menu and scrollable pages, only a ribbon of icons. Navigation in the system is carried out using swipes and the home button. In fact, more to say about the OS and nothing. One gets the feeling that this is just a minimalistic shell for Android.
Camera
8 and 2 MP (and I’m not talking about a dual camera)
The 8-megapixel main module on the rear panel produces mediocre photos by the standards of the end of 2014, full of noise, and often completely blurry. Even daylight does not guarantee a clear picture that can be uploaded to social networks or saved as a keepsake. In general, it doesn’t count. With a 2MP front camera, the situation is slightly better, but due to the low resolution and a lot of noise, even in good lighting conditions, photos can only be compared with the iPhone 4 from 2010.
Results
The idea is interesting, but the execution is disappointing
Summing up, I want to ask the question “what went wrong?”, because the very idea of Firefox OS (using WEB pages to reduce system requirements) sounded at one time like the same cloudy future that we have been promised for a long time. Alas, I do not have a definite answer to this question. Perhaps the point is in Android and iOS, which had already gained strength, perhaps in the unattractiveness of budget smartphones on Firefox OS, but it is obvious that at the moment this system has no future. Yes, enthusiasts on the forums continue to release their visions of Firefox OS based on open source OS, but this is clearly not the level that Mozilla dreamed of at one time.
As for the smartphone itself, it is at least interesting. A truly transparent body, a bright screen, and quite decent hardware (relative to other devices based on Firefox OS) make it the main smartphone of the abandoned OS. I’m sure if LG Fx0 were released on Android, it would obviously find its audience – I’m not the only one who loves transparent technology, am I?
Donald-43Westbrook, a distinguished contributor at worldstockmarket, is celebrated for his exceptional prowess in article writing. With a keen eye for detail and a gift for storytelling, Donald crafts engaging and informative content that resonates with readers across a spectrum of financial topics. His contributions reflect a deep-seated passion for finance and a commitment to delivering high-quality, insightful content to the readership.
