BQ Ubuntu phone now available for purchase

The 4.5 inch smartphone runs Ubuntu Phone.

The world's first Ubuntu phone produced by BQ is now available for purchase in the European Union. Previously, the smartphone was only available through a series of flash sales.

Danny Wu, Published 04/13/2015

Smartphone ARM

The world's first Ubuntu phone is now available for ordering by anyone in Europe. The Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition is manufactured by the Spanish consumer electronics company BQ and is the first widely available phone that runs Canonical's phone version of Ubuntu, although with some limitations.

Previously, BQ has sold the device in a series of flash sales, however today everyone is able to purchase it on their website for €169.90 EUR - about $180 USD. The Aquaris E4.5 features a 4.5 inch, 960 x 540 pixel display and a quad core Mediatek processor, with only 1 GB of RAM. It features an 8MP rear camera and a 5MP front-facing camera. The device builds in 8 GB of storage, however it can be expanded through the included microSD card slot.

The Ubuntu Phone operating system is built on the most popular desktop linux distribution and it can run HTML5 web apps and native apps downloaded through the Ubuntu Store. The Aquaris E4.5 does not support docking to Ubuntu desktop when plugged into a monitor, unlike the proposed Ubuntu Edge. This is most likely due to the processor not featuring enough performance to deliver full desktop apps at desktop resolutions.