Linux Smartphone - TuxPhones - Linux phones, tablets and portable devices

The singular niche of 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 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

Linux Smartphone

New project aims to bring Linux mobile devices back to the mainstream market

A project that has recently got the attention of many FOSS journalists is the JingOS Linux distribution, coming from China and offering an explicitly "iPadOS-style" user interface according to its website. However, this is just the beginning of the project. The fil rouge connecting the varied target market (now x86_

postmarketOS

Linux on your smartphone: everything you need to know in 2021

One of the main issues with modern smartphones is the extremely short lifespan of this category of devices, which makes even high-end ones painfully slow within years. In fact, studies have shown that it takes the average European, American or Asian user less than two years to dump their old

GTK

Building responsive Linux mobile apps with libhandy 1.0 and Gtk3

November 2020: This tutorial is being updated to reflect the minor API and configuration changes in libhandy 1.0, which is the upcoming version. Thanks to Martin Chang (@marty188586) for the tipsFor those interested in using C instead of Python as programming language, developer Nilanshu Rajmane has ported our "Organizer"

PINE64

PINE64 to launch PineCom, a cheaper, modem-free PinePhone-like PDA

The first PinePhone, initially launched (more or less) as a cheaper alternative to the Librem 5, gained enormous success thanks to continuous efforts by both software developers and the team, releasing several variants, upgrading specifications and making this $150 Linux phone probably much better than most people would have expected,

Flashes

⚡ Official "Fedora Mobility" project targets PinePhone (and more)

After several years of inactivity, the official Fedora Mobility SIG team has been revived to work on bringing the popular Linux distro to the PinePhone in the immediate future, but also aims for expansion to other devices in the future. This interest may be originated from the work of @jhanikhil,

Librem5

Purism announces Android app support for the Librem 5

While the Purism Librem 5 may not be getting the same level of attention it was during its early crowdfunding phase, its developers seem to be working harder than ever to bring all needed functionality to make this phone ready for semi-casual users as well. With their blog featuring frequent

PinePhone

Exploting pogo pins: PinePhone gets modular

Modular phones have been hypothesized for years, with Phonebloks and Project Ara being the most popular concepts and just some shy experiments, like Fairphone 2, LG G5, Motorola Moto Z and Librem 5 inheriting part of the modular smartphone paradigm through replaceable boards, PCIe and other simple expansion mechanisms. However,

PinePhone

PinePhone adds postmarketOS CE and higher-spec'd "convergence" variants to their line-up

After the PinePhone "BraveHeart" (hardware 1.1) and the first Community Edition (1.2), Pine64 has released a new revision of their popular Linux phone, as announced in their July Update, their "biggest update in months". The new "postmarketOS Community Edition" variant ("1.2A") doubles on storage as an option,

Linux Smartphone

Linux-ready, made-in-Germany "Volla Phone" succeeds on Kickstarter

Some months after a failed Kickstarter campaign with an ambitious €350k goal, German startup Volla has managed to raise more than €20k in a new campaign (still open for the next few hours) for their first Volla Phone. Volla Phone in German woods.This new smartphone aims at several niches,

Linux Smartphone

Developer gets Linux kernel booting on iPhone 7 and A10-equipped iPads

Many years after the OpeniBoot/iDroid utopia that brought early Android versions to some iDevices back in 2010, a new attempt at running a Linux kernel ("mainline" 5.4.14 in screenshots) on iDevices has been made by Twitter user @qwertyoruiopz, popular in the field of iOS "jailbreaking" thanks to

Linux Smartphone

Yet Another Librem 5 and PinePhone comparison

Let's start off with mentioning that both these new phones are great steps forward for Linux. While they will probably not beat Android and iOS in popularity, they will at least give Linux power users a device that can be called a Linux phone instead of the usual "technically it's

Purism

First Purism Librem 5 "Birch" user reviews report good build quality and display, software still WiP

Some days after the first Purism Librem 5 smartphones from the second, still developer-oriented "Birch" batch release, user reviews and videos have started appearing on the Internet. The most popular and dense "review" of the current Librem 5 Birch has been published (u/kop316) on the r/Purism Reddit community.

PINE64

PinePhone "Brave Heart" early bird developer edition now available for $150

About two months after the first Purism Librem 5 batch was shipped, Pine64 has finally made the very first batch of PinePhones openly available for sale. We discussed the differences between these two pocket-sized Linux phones in an article some months ago, that might help you understand the key differences

Linux Smartphone

Video shows PinePhone prototype detailed assembly and boot to Plasma Mobile

Just some days after Purism released its first Librem 5 walk-through video, with the final device running its "GNOME" Phosh shell with impressive smoothness, postmarketOS developer Martijn Braam uploaded a video of himself assemblying by hand the first (finished) PinePhone prototype from a bag of parts. The show of impressive

Librem5

First Purism Librem 5 "Aspen" batch shipped

Purism's Librem 5, arguably the first modern privacy-oriented Linux smartphone, has just started shipping its early Aspen batch to their earliest users. This very early batch of Librem 5 devices is still almost prototype-grade, featuring the very first mechanical and hardware design, with hand-crafted switch caps, initial apps and basic

PINE64

Librem 5 vs. PinePhone: comparison of two Linux smartphones

Shortly after Purism crowd-funded the Librem 5 $650 privacy-oriented Linux smartphone, Pine64 announced the PinePhone, a $150 entry level alternative with similar design, aim and specifications. So which one should you choose - and why is the Librem 5 much higher cost still worth the investment? #Purism #Librem5 August 2019

PINE64

All we know about the PinePhone: pictures, specs and release date

Over the last months, PINE64/Pine Microsystems has been working hard on the PinePhone, an affordable ($150) privacy-oriented Linux smartphone. As currently available information is relatively fragmented among the PINE64 blog, wiki, chat rooms and social media profiles, this post aims to be a real-time (-ish) aggregator of what we

Librem5

Purism showcases Librem 5: thin bezels, GNOME apps and boot in under 15 seconds

If there is a Linux smartphone that does not need any introduction, that is probably Purism's Librem 5. After a successful crowdfunding campaign launched back in 2017, which helped Purism raise about $2M, there have been several official updates on the progress of this device. However, most of the information

Manjaro Phone

Official, Plasma-based "Manjaro Phone" teased on Twitter

Over the last year, there has been a peak in smartphone oriented Linux distributions, probably due to the huge interest in projects like Purism's Librem5 and, more recently, the entry-level PinePhone. Another exciting development for this new segment of Linux devices is that Manjaro, the popular Arch-based (yet user-friendly) distro

Linux Smartphone

First prototype for PINE64 "PinePhone" Linux smartphone sports thin bezels and modern design

After being announced several months ago, Pine64's inexpensive "PinePhone" Linux smartphone looks like a cheaper, entry-level alternative to the relatively popular Librem5 Linux smartphone by Purism, which promises total privacy and a full mobile Linux experience. In fact, most of the work on Linux for smartphones in the last months

Purism

Purism Librem5 modem revealed, will provide LTE and GPS support

The choice of a modem was arguably the most discussed topics during the Librem5 development. After evaluating many choices and shipping development kits with SimCom SIM7100 (Qualcomm MDM9215) modules, Purism's FAQ page has been updated with information regarding the supported LTE regions and bands for the chosen modem, the Gemalto

GNOME

Designing apps for Linux smartphones: a "quick start guide" by GNOME developer Tobias Bernard

No matter how cool your smartphone (or its OS) is, you aren't going much further than with a feature phones unless there's a wide, good quality app ecosystem to back it up. As we've seen in our previous post, both Purism and GNOME are actively working on giving developers every

GNOME

GNOME is getting ready for next-generation Linux smartphones

The GNOME Desktop Environment is, alongside KDE Plasma, probably the most supported and widely used platform for desktop Linux users. Its extremely modern and touch-supported user interface is nowadays the default out-of-the-box environment on most distros, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the official choice of Purism for their Librem5 Linux smartphone. Here