TuxPhones - Linux phones, tablets and portable devices

A look at Popcorn Computer's new Pocket P.C.

The Pocket P.C., short for Pocket Popcorn Computer, is a handheld created by the independent hardware manufacturer Popcorn Computer, and originally announced in the fall of 2019. This PDA comes with an integrated keyboard, and runs a pure Linux OS based on the Allwinner A64 platform. The specifications for

The world's first RISC-V phone might be just around the corner

The RISC-V ISA is commonly divided into two architectures, namely RV32 and RV64, covering 32-bit and 64-bit register sizes respectively. And although the RV64 standard is not yet fully RV32-compatible, the two are, except from some minor divergences, closely associated products of the same family. In fact, it took some

Opinion

Freedom and phone advice

A closer look at the smartphone advice from the Free Software Foundation

PinePhone

Doubling the PinePhone storage perf with a soldering iron and a steady hand

There have been some recent waves in the Pine64 community thanks to a new mod which can drastically improve eMMC speed!

Linux on Android smartphones

Another Xiaomi device platform is getting Linux support

By now, most readers will be aware of the quick progress of Qualcomm phones in the mobile Linux ecosystem. This became especially true with the SDM845 platform, powering the near-stable Linux ports of devices like the Oneplus 6/6T and Poco F1 which we often mentioned in the past. However,

Flashes

postmarketOS + mainline for the OnePlus 5/5T!

The OnePlus 5 is a popular high-end phone from 2017, featuring the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC and Adreno 540. It has a 1080p display and up to 8GB of RAM. Mainline support for the device has been around for a while, since early 2020 in fact. Unfortunately, the Snapdragon 835

Flashes

Kupfer is a postmarketOS-like Arch Linux spin for phones

In the last years, the number of Linux distributions aimed at smartphones and tablets has grown considerably. What was initially a land of projects like UBPorts, Armbian and postmarketOS has grown to interest projects like Manjaro, and several Debian and Arch spins. However, the newborn Kupfer does not look like

Flashes

More support for UNISOC and Spreadtrum chips lands in the Linux kernel

UNISOC (and formerly Spreadtrum) chips have always been a very popular choice for Android device manufacturers. However, they were not commonly known for having wide mainline compatibility. Similarly to Rockchip and AllWinner, these chips became popular for their fast performance and relatively low prices, to the point of being used

PinePhone Pro released: specs, pricing and very first impressions

It was not three years ago that the PinePhone was announced. With entry-level, but relatively modern specifications, video output through Type-C, and full openness to custom software and mainline Linux, the device grew to be possibly even more popular than expected. Name it, and most Linux enthusiast will either know

Linux on Chromebooks

Cadmium is a Linux distribution to liberate ARM Chromebooks

In spite of being, technically, based on the Linux kernel, Chromebooks were traditionally seen as very difficult devices for the free operating system, since proprietary drivers for even basic components like keyboards were often designed to discourage any kind of modification of the OS. This, however, is mostly a story

Flashes

The "10 Year Smartphone" initiative aims for a sustainable mobile ecosystem

Prolonging the lifecycle of electronic devices is the driving force of most projects that work on mobile Linux - one of which, in fact, is particularly famous for having a "10-year life" for its devices as its slogan - and the Linux kernel has proved to be the de facto

Flashes

Purism Librem 5 sees another (steep) price increase for 2022

The Purism Librem 5, one of the most popular premium Linux phones around, just saw another increase in its retail price for both 2021 and 2022 orders. This was stated in a recent e-mail to backers, which was recently also released on Purism forums: As previously announced, we will be

Linux Kernel

Linux kernel needs more phones and tablets, says developer

Running the penguin kernel without numerous Google patches, proprietary drivers and heavy, restricting manufacturer modifications on Android phones used to be still considered, at most, an intriguing niche topic up to recently by most people. But the continuous efforts of mainlining ARM devices has been finally noticed by some kernel

Opinion

Luxury Linux smartphones

The market share of "pure Linux" phones is still so small, that we may define its target as a small niche of enthusiasts and highly privacy-oriented market. No consumer chain sells Linux phones on the larger market, yet exclusive, luxury phone markers are turning to Linux as an allegedly more

Linux Tablets

The PineNote is an e-ink notebook that runs Linux

While our short holiday interrupted us for some weeks, we have become used to Pine64 launching some of the boldest mobile Linux devices ever seen. Still when, in their August update, PINE64 announced a new device, we remained particularly surprised. The PineNote, defined as a "hybrid [...] combination of notebook, tablet

Reviews

JingPad A1 (DVT) review, part 2

This is the second part of our JingPad A1 DVT review. For the first part, click here.After our first review of the JingPad A1 DVT (developer alpha prototype), we will focus on the usability of single apps and various categories, to see how easy it is to actually use

Reviews

JingPad A1 (DVT) review, part 1

This is the first part of our JingPad A1 DVT review. For the second part, click here.This is an interesting year for the mobile Linux world. There is a new trend of companies starting to target the consumer market with Linux devices, alongside the usual "hobbyist" niche, be it

Flashes

OnePlus 6/6T Linux port now supports lag-free Android app integration thanks to WayDroid

The OnePlus 6 and 6T are quickly becoming among the most popular Linux phones around, thanks to near-full, stable mainline Linux support, active community and fast-evolving features. The latest improvement to be deployed by its main maintainer, Caleb Connolly, is full support, including graphical acceleration, for the popular Android compatibility

Linux Tablets

Some Kobo e-readers can now run Linux, becoming inexpensive e-ink tablets

Attempts to run Linux distributions on e-readers like the Amazon Kindle and Rakuten Kobo series date to many years ago, when hackers initially discovered the surprising flexibility of these devices, which are usually based on mostly open hardware and lack the advanced bootloader locks found in most phones. However, proprietary

Linux Tablets

Linux tablet maker JingLing secures $10M funding, starts JingPad crowdfunding campaign

Update 08/2021: We wrote an in-depth review of the first prototype of this Linux tablet. For our JingPad A1 DVT review, click here.One of the projects that we often followed on our Twitter throughout the last months was Jingling's upcoming tablet and desktop environment. The Chinese start-up initially

postmarketOS

postmarketOS in 2021: over 300 devices, growing technical basis and extensive "mainline" support

About one month after targeting smartwatches and weeks after its fourth birthday, postmarketOS has met another crucial milestone for its vision of an entirely sustainable, 10+ year lifecycle for portable devices: the distribution can now boot, to varying degrees of compatibility, on over 300 machines. Deja-vu? It was exactly one

Linux Smartphone

New, rugged Volla Phone X runs Android and Ubuntu

A relatively small German phone start-up, Volla, became famous in the mobile Linux community after introducing the first Volla Phone in early 2020. After one year, a concluded Kickstarter campaign and a partnership with UBPorts Foundation for complete Ubuntu Touch support, Volla has teased a new device in their "Community

Flashes

postmarketOS is finally coming to wearables

Almost four years after its first release, postmarketOS has just started targeting the valuable niche of smartwatches. As the upper end of these devices tends to offer near-identical hardware configurations to ARM phones, many models come either with Google's own Wear OS, or with proprietary themed and minified Android or

Flashes

The RUHAcam is an open-source, 3D-printed Linux camera based on Raspberry Pi

In spite of its very different appearence, this project actually shares a lot with our usually covered mobile Linux devices. Firstly, because it is a fully open-source (and open hardware-ish) portable ARM device, running on the well-renowed "Raspberry Pi HQ Camera" module, based on the Sony IMX477 sensor (12.3MP,

Linux Kernel

Tens of Nvidia Tegra devices now run mainline Linux thanks to the "grate" project

Nvidia chips and the Linux community have not always been known for a friendly attitude between each other. In a famous talk by Linus Torvalds, which may appear slightly too offensive to be reported directly, the Linux creator defined it "the single worst company [they had] ever dealt with". While