Hi,
a while ago, I thought to change my Apple based ecosystem to a more digital EU-centric solution and researched a list of apps, that would replace icloud, etc.
To complete my tranformation I bought a Volla tablet and I wanted to share my experience.
BLUF: The tranformation worked and (nearly) all selected apps are doing their job without a problem on the Volla Tablet
First, lets start with my App List:
Apple Mail -> Proton Mail
Apple Calender -> Proton Calender
Apple Contacts -> Proton Contacts
Apple iCloud Drive -> PCloud Drive
Apple Private Relay -> Proton VPN
Apple Fotos -> Pixelunion.eu / Ente (using both, Pixelunion is not E2EE, Ente ist US based)
Safari -> Vivaldi
Google Search -> Qwant / Ecosia (Qwant tends to lock out Proton VPN users)
Google Translate -> DeepL
ChatGPT -> Le Chat Mistral / Lumo (Lumo´s result do not convince me yet)
Apple Notes -> Cryptpad.fr / Joplin (Joplin is paid)
PayPal -> Klarna / Wero
Amazon.de -> Otto
WhatsApp -> Signal / Threema / also testing Session (Threema is paid, Signal is US based)
Apple Weather -> Foreca
Apple Music -> Spotify
Apple password -> Proton Pass
Google Authenticator -> Proton Pass
Uber, Freenow, Dott -> Bolt
Microsoft Office 365 -> Collabra Online
Google/Apple Maps -> mapy/TomTom Go
TripAdvisor-> doing Mapy Reviews for POI
Location Tracking -> Dawarich (using payed SaS)
Twitter -> Vivaldi Social (Mastadon)
WebEx/Teams/Zoom -> Whereby
Personal CRM Contacts Manager -> Covve
iPad -> Volla Tablet
I got this setup to work on the Volla Tablet except for TomTomGo (paid), which is of cause a problem with paid apps in general.
Just to explain: Its difficult to get paid apps running on the Volla Tablet without a proper Google Account. Some apps (liek Threema) have an alternative way to buy a license and that works.
There are some minor things, that I didn´t like and I post this here in order for Volla to improve the experience:
1. Ordering process: Ordering the Tablet was demanding a lot of patience from me. The status of the tablet did not change for quite some days. I found, that Volla is waiting 10 days, before processing an indiegogo order. They just dont tell you. Would recommend to you to be a lot more transparent and communication friendly about the status of an order.
2. Settings of some tablet features (e.g. color icons) got reset without apparent reason. You can just set them again, but this seems to be a bug.
3. Received the Volla pen, but it just doesn´t work. No reaction from the tablet at all (also not in different apps). Pen is loaded and green, but doe not do a thing (what am I missing)?
4. After updating the OS, I did not see, what features were added. Went to github and checked it there, but this could be shown during the update.
In summary the Volla tablet is a solution for me to have a degoogled android based setup, that just works. You do not have to be afraid to switch the ecosystem!
Next I am waiting for the keyboard and will report on my experience with it. I also intent to install Ubuntu touch, when the tablet supports multi boot (understand, thats coming in the near future).
Happy to answer question, if someone wants to know more.
Michael