bq Aquaris 5 HD (199€)
 

http://translate.google.at/translate...aris-5-hd.html

I found this phone reading about ubuntu phone, because it will be released with it this year.

This looks very promising to me to run Sailfish OS on it, since it's already available with Android and the there's a chance of it having relatively open hardware in order to properly run ubuntu.
Also, for 199€ it probably has a rather generic shenzhen chipset.

I really like the design of the phone and it's specs should run Sailfish nicely, and the screen looks great.

Any expert's thoughts on it?

Re: bq Aquaris 5 HD (199€)
 

Yes, *propably*, maybe, who knows?
The specs do not mention the SOC, so it is totally unknown if you can build the HW adaptation for the device.

Re: bq Aquaris 5 HD (199€)
 

I just ordered one,
if I can find the time I will send a postcard review

My new BQ Aquaris 5 HD
 

That was fast
- 5 days delivered from Europe to Asia to my hands.

The good folks at BQ do have linux handphone marketing nailed:
advertise-take payment- ship just do it. Done.

Meizu is unfriendly to say the least - they refuse to sell one here.
Jolla is not somewhere I know about, so is uncompared here.

continuing:
Read my clarification after my main points:
=========================================
Hardware:
It is nice to see a phone which has Linux capability.
Unlike the most of the Android rubbish garden,
where finding a unit with linux-compatible hardware is rare..

Having device drivers and a screen which actually works is great.
GPS needs some special tweaks to get it running,
and I have not checked compass and other things,
but WIFI/Cellular/bluetooth all function.
Compared to some other platforms I tried, this is refreshing.
[Acer Iconia, nexus 7- utterly pointless rubbish from Android land.
I also tried some other (Intel n2600~) tablets which worked well
but are simply too big and battery hungry.]

The battery works, and when the device is working hard
it can get quite warm, cooking just like the n900 did on occasion.

I have not gotten under the hood with this thing yet,
that comes later, maybe.

The screen is quite nice,
and having something bigger than the n900 feels good

I have not tried the audio out yet, but I will soon enough.
I will edit this when I get a chance.

Bluetooth seems to work okay, more on that later maybe.

Wifi is quite okay,

and the GSM (I am using one SIM, not two) seems good enough.

Hardware-wise this machine is good enough to run linux on.

That brings me to the unpleasant portion of this post....
------------------------------------------------------------------

I wish I could just wipe Ubuntu off and flash it with Maemo:
Fremantle would do just fine.
Having Fremantle on hardware this nice would be a market-killer
(the market for devs/hackers/and all the other alpha crowd)

Ubuntu is looking more like an Android-imitating-Apple thing
and less like Linux in every way.
I am not referring to CLI linux,
I am referring to the kind of linux where the user
is wide-open free-handed to adjust almost anything
without needing developer mode to do so.

An hideous example from askubuntu:
In Ubuntu GNOME (or any Linux distro with a recent version of GNOME 3), there's no option now to choose between 12-hour and 24-hour time in the settings
you need sudo just to change your clock ? Holy chits batman !
Now I remember why I have not tried Ubuntu in about 5 years.

I would try to describe it:
the foul stench of Ubuntu's heavy-handed 'Nanny-ware'
mindset is overwhelming, akin to athlete's foot after a long hike.
Like a lot of things I would rather not think about.

Ubuntu on a handphone 5vcks

Give me Debian, or Gentoo, or Arch, or even Fedora.

I have a tablet running Sabayon - it can do SMS and phone calls,
and it is simply out of this world for getting things done.
It has touchscreen and using XFCE is good enough with Xvkbd

I have SolydX on another two tablets - excellent productivity,
runs libreoffice without even breaking a sweat.
20 or 30 tabs of firefox, no problem
Xfce on a touchscreen is a bit of a trick but mostly zero problems.


None of them would be as nice as Fremantle with all the cool
things we can do on the n900.

But my Linux tablet collection rocks.

Ubuntu is simply that unpleasant.

No multitasking: None, nothing, Zilch Nada Nyet.
- He's Dead, Jim

No email - (seriously, fr@kk!ng truth is unbelievable)
I will try to add Claws after I get past the development zone.
(No -Dekko is not a serious email client for _anyone_ who uses linux.
It has no handles anywhere.
Give me the headaches of Claws or something else anytime)

As someone else noticed,
calendar is missing. just weird, but hey !


It is linux - we can fix all that...

..except for one minor detail....


it is Ubuntu, and because the whole thing is running on
the Hyper-Ideology of Integration it all comes to a screeching
halt whenever one little bit steps out of line.
Without multitasking, a bad code can brick the device momentarily.
That does happen - I have seen it in various scenarios.


Unlike debian, or some of the other distros where
misbehaving software can be simply ignored or kill -9'ed

Fixing Ubuntu requires reflashing your device
on a regular basis.
We did do some of that with the n900,
but in general it was always the idea we were adding
bits like -extras and knowing that -extras-devil earned its name.


maemo fremantle was always and still is
an order of magnitude better than
Ubuntu Phone


I thought this would be the moment I finally retired my last n900.
I was so wrong about that.
=========================================
Better Reviews17.5:
You can read a good review by someone else who is not as distracted as I am

maybe
https://svij.org/blog/2015/07/11/rev...buntu-edition/

or maybe:
http://weboo.co/bq-aquaris-e5-hd-ubu...view-hands-on/

or there exist others who have more patience than me.
For me to replicate their efforts seems pointless.

I am here for a device to use for managing corporate iron
while on the go,
not some Google-x-Facebook-centric vision of a Ubuntu universe.

Ubuntu-flavored ANDROID
 

revisions and additions to my previous posting
(no, I will not edit that
- it is my accurately composed first impression
and changing that would be a disservice to anyone else
tempted to buy into this misery.
Make no mistake,
BQ has produced excellent hardware,
but the only problem is the OS,
and the deceptions have me digging deeper)

1.
Not true Multitasking
I am apparently wrong about the multitasking,
but this is probably part of the lobotomy Canonical has performed
upon linux with the Ubuntu concept of Scopes.
I am still looking into this, more news later.
It appears multitasking exists at some level,
it is simply turned off for most operations
to fit into the one-display at a time mindset Ubuntu has.
Fortunately there exists a way to run it in multi-window view
which I am still exploring.

2.
Not Linux
But the biggest show-stopper is this:
I also found the android folder inside, just like these guys did:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/ubun...files-t3152730

and what this Ubuntu phone is all about is not much more than
Ubuntu running on top of Android,
for which I can imagine no metaphor more fitting than
wolves dressed up like sheep. Or vice versa. Whatever, wtf.

This is nothing less than a marketplace deception,
after all the hullabaloo they cannot even run the OS without
Android machinery under the bonnet.
It would be like buying a BMW and discovering that it was
irreplaceably designed around the transmission from a 2013 Fiat 500L.

Why is this such a big problem ?
Ask yourself if you trust whatever binary blobs Google's Android
smuggles into the root of Canonical's Ubuntu phone...

3.
Cannot download using the web browser
to an endless loop of
not being able to download anything with the on-device web browser
without having an application for whatever file-type being downloaded.
Yes, I have already tried replacing the browser with original firefox,
chromium and epiphany. nothing works. it is broken.
Yes I will keep looking until I find a solution.

Re: bq Aquaris 5 HD (199€)
 

I was considering Ubuntu Touch the best alternative to the mainstream systems, having a huge company as Canonical behind it should give a great push on the development.

But reading your posts I'm loosing my hope.

Thanks for giving us your point of view.

Re: Ubuntu-flavored ANDROID
 

What? Well, crap! That really curbs my enthusiasm and torques my lug nuts. An android phone with little more than an Ubuntu skin on it. Yay, he said dejectedly. :(

Re: Ubuntu-flavored ANDROID
 

Sailfish is no different. They both rely on hardware drivers and any necessary blobs designed for Android. Well, Sailfish is different ... it's not open source. Ubuntu is, and anyone can download the full source. If you think there's some kind of backdoor into Ubuntu facillitated by Android drivers, go and look for it and report back.

Both his post and your post are total bollocks. Sailfish is Sailfish. Ubuntu is Ubuntu. Do you seriously expect all the chip and hardware makers to write native drivers and component specific firmware for each and every new OS? You're out of your mind.

Re: Ubuntu-flavored ANDROID
 

No, they do not need to write drivers and firmware, but publish specifications for writing them. Probably you can buy the specifications but it depends... And yes, in principle, Sailfish does not differ in this aspect from ubuntu or plasma mobile etc... They all rely on libhybris...

Re: bq Aquaris 5 HD (199€)
 

And Ubuntu Phone is very much Work in Progress: the mutli-tasking issue is discussed, frequently and extensively and there will be a different take on it from the present implementation.

Thing is: the team is small and progress is not fast. Much can frustrate - such as the browser download issue. Compared to Maemo it is a somewhat bare-bones experience and there are things one misses. (A bigger screen (my old eyes!) and faster browsing are not among them :-).

And if you are on the rc-proposed channel, updates of one sort or another arrive daily.

So, ....