With the PinePhone and Librem 5 coming onto the market, the PDA’s by Planet Computer and all the Xperia phones being sold by Jolla, we now have quite a few choices in phones that can be bought with Linux preinstalled or supported by the phone maker:
- PINE64 PinePhone (specs: 1, 2, 3) with postmarketOS
● $149.99 + shipping for 2GB RAM / 16GB Flash
● $199.99 + shipping for 3GB RAM / 32GB Flash / Convergence Package
(16 Linux distros and 1 AOSP distro can be manually installed.) - Purism Librem 5 (specs) with PureOS/Phosh
● $749 + free shipping for Librem 5 (will be $799 after Evergreen ships)
● $1999 + free shipping for Librem 5 USA - Necunos NC_1 (specs) with choice of 5 Linux distros
1199 euros - Planet Computers Gemini PDA (specs, store, crowdfunding)
● £499.17 for 4G+WiFi (original price was US$599)
● £415.83 for WiFi only (original price was US$499)
(Need to manually install Debian 9/Plasma, Sailfish OS 3.3 or Kali/LXQT) - Planet Computers Cosmo Communicator (specs, store, crowdfunding)
£665.83 (original price was $749 or $549 as early bird special)
(Need to manually install Debian 10 / Plasma) - Planet Computers Astro Slide 5G Transformer
● €573 (preorder sale)
● €819 (normal price)
(Need to manually install Linux) - Sony Xperia 10 (specs: 1, 2) with Sailfish OS 3.3
● €299 + free shipping with black case (i3113)
● €339 + free shipping, with navy blue case (i3113) - Sony Xperia 10 Plus (specs: 1, 2) with Sailfish OS 3.3
€399 + free shipping, with navy blue case (L4213) - Sony Xperia XA2 Plus (specs: 1, 2) with Sailfish OS 3.3
€299 + free shipping, black or silver (32GB, H4413) - Sony Xperia X (specs) with Sailfish OS 3.3
€169 + free shipping, with black case (F5121) - Nokia N9 (specs) with old version of Sailfish OS
● €99 + free shipping, with black or magenta case (flat screen)
● €109 + free shipping, with white case (flat screen) - Hallo Welt Systeme Volla Phone (indiegogo, kickstarter, specs, GS290 specs) with Ubuntu Touch
● €359 for inside Europe
● €309 for outside the EU or EFTA states
(Sailfish OS can also be manually installed.) - Google/LG Nexus 5 (16GB) with UBports/Ubuntu Touch
● $174.00 (US version) (currently out of stock at Rob Braxman’s store) - Rob Braxman offers a service to install UBports on your existing phone.
To help people decide which Linux phone they should buy, I have created a table comparing the specs of the different Linux phones:
ComparingLinuxPhones.ods
(It is best to use the .ods file even if using MS Excel, Quattro Pro, WPS Office, etc, but here is a converted .xlsx file if you can’t open the .ods file.)
I have not had the occasion to use most of the devices here, but have used an Xperia, the Gemini PDA as well as borrowing a Pine 64 for an hour or two from a friend. I would note that most any of the devices can probably handle selected Linux distros and who knows, perhaps one can even be found to perhaps be made to work with a BSD (not includng modified into the OS universe of Apple!).
My biggest concern is for the ability of the underlying firmware to be updated. I have been disheartened by the limited updating of the Planet Computers in that regard. Certainly, whether using Linux or even should a NetBSD ever make it to a Smartphone, the ability of the system to be kept updated in regards to common malware and other security issues may be assumed within the general software platform. Given that more and more malware can operate closer to the core functioning of the device, support will yet need to be found for any change that might alter the boot sectors or the chip firmware by which the device runs the general platform. If a Planet Computer or similar company is rather lackadaisical in its approach to maintaining some control over potential weaknesses in the coding of its product at a core level, no such phone will be worthwhile, even to the extent that it can be updated in its higher level software functioning.
I fully expect that future smartphone hacking will find rootkit like attacks and similar approaches of security assault more prominent and some notice must be made of this potential as well.
LikeLiked by 2 people
The PinePhone and Librem 5 are going to have a real advantage in terms of long-term software updates, because they are using chips that are supported for a long time by the manufacturers, so they should keep getting firmware and driver updates. Qualcomm and MediaTek only support their Snapdragon and Helio chips for 2-3 years. The MediaTek SoC’s used in the Gemini, Cosmo, Astro and Volla Phone have a very short lifespan, because MediaTek doesn’t provide enough information and code so that the community cannot create mainline Linux drivers for the Helio chips. Once MediaTek stops providing firmware and driver updates, we are stuck with aging software.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Noticed a slight error. Volla: “only phone assembled in Europe”. But then there is that one that is “assembled in Finland”.
LikeLike
Maybe I should change that to “made by Gigaset which is the only company doing phone assembly in Europe”, since there are other Gigaset phone models which are assembled in Europe. At this point, it is unlikely that the Necunos NC1 will ever be released. If it is released, Necunos will become the second phone maker which does assembly in Europe.
Gigaset is part of Siemens, but the largest shareholder of Gigaset is a Hong Kong businessman, which raises questions about whether the Chinese government could influence Gigaset.
LikeLike
I rechecked the text and it says: “The Volla Phone is made by Gigaset, which is currently the only phone brand assembled in Europe.”
That is currently true. If the NC_1 is ever released, I will have to change that.
LikeLike