We’ve been on the lookout for an Ubuntu smartphone since 2013, with 2014 being widely expected to be the time when the handsets from the company would finally arrive. It may be a bit late but it’s here. Sorta.
The Ubuntu smartphone, named the Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition, will be launching across Europe this week, according to a post by the company itself. The handset will retail for the equivalent of around R2,250 and sales will be happening in a series of er… flash sales that will be announced on Spanish hardware maker BQ and Ubuntu’s Twitter accounts, as well as Ubuntu’s Google Plus and Facebook pages.
The hardware isn’t exactly ground-breaking, with a 4.5-inch display, 5MP front and 8MP rear camera taking pride of place. A quad-core A7 variant from MediaTek (1.3GHz), 1GB of RAM and 8GB of storage make up most of the rest of the specs.
What is different this time around is something called Scopes. Ubuntu describes Scopes as “…a new way to rapidly and visually access the most important digital life services – music, social, web, local services, photos etc – directly on the home screen.”
There’s no indication of when or if it’ll be making its way down to the Southern Hemisphere and South Africa in particular but we’ll be keeping tabs on it and let you know if it’s about to arrive.
Source: Ubuntu
