The first Ubuntu Phone.
The phone is called Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition and it will initially be offered in the so-called instant sales – it will be possible to purchase it online at specific, short intervals. They will be published, among others, on Ubuntu site and social networks. We do not know when the phone goes on normal sales - its creators want to clearly examine the market and obtain feedback from the first users.
The phone itself is not a very sophisticated, advanced model. It uses a quad-core MediaTEK processor, supported by a gigabyte of RAM and has a 4.5-inch display with Dragontrail glass. On board of Aquaris E4.5 we will find an 8-megapixel camera and a 5-megapixel front camera, and range of applications available for it at the moment includes approx. one thousand items. The phone price will be 170 euro.
The Aquaris E4.5 is not an entirely new device, it's been available for some time booting Android KitKat. The specsheet of the smartphone is nothing to write home about, but it's still a balanced package.
The name reveals the screen size of 4.5 inches, and the qHD resolution of the IPS panel results in a pixel density of 244ppi. Running the show is a Mediatek chipset with its Cortex-A7 CPU clocked at 1.3GHz. A single gig of RAM is onboard as well as 8GB of internal storage, of which 5.5GB are available to the user. A microSD slot offers expansion up to 32GB.
The dual-SIM phone is limited in connectivity options, only packing radios for 850/900/1800/1900MHz GSM bands and 900/2100MHz 3G. Battery capacity is 2150mAh, stuffed in a 137 x 67 x 9 mm body weighing 123g.
Hardware is not the main topic here, though, the new OS is. The Ubuntu for smartphone has long been in the works, and after years of development British company Canonical has managed to bring it to market. The new mobile OS is unique in concept, ditching the common app grid in favor of content-grouped tabs. Dubbed Scopes, the innovative interface learns from previous experience and aggregates user-specific content in easy to navigate panes.
Soon there will be available a new smartphone running Ubuntu. The device is manufactured by the Spanish company BQ.
