UK based Canonical Ltd. has paired up with Spanish handset manufacturer BQ to release the “Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition” — World’s first ever smartphone running on the mobile version of the open source Ubuntu OS. The device which will be unveiled at an event in London later today is quite modestly priced at €170.
At this price, the device is adequate, but no more. It features a 4.5-inch display with a qHD resolution of 540 x 960 pixels protected by Dragontrail glass. The processor clocks in a speed of 1.3 Ghz and is guessed to be MT6582 from MediaTek. It has 1 GB of RAM paired with 8 GB of internal storage and external SD card support upto 32 GB. There is a 8 MP rear camera paired with a 5 MP front shooter.
Looks wise, the phone is nothing exceptional. Its quite generic in its looks with rounded corners. The speakers are placed at the bottom of the device while the dual SIM slots are placed at the sides along with a volume rocker.
The in box accessories include a set of Urban ear headphones.
The major hurdle before Canonical right now will be generating enough developer interest in the open source platform to start creating applications for something like App store. As far as we know canonical won’t support android apps on Ubuntu Touch. Their official reasoning is that “native” apps are faster.
Be that as may, open source certainly has its advantages and this phone may just see be beginning of a whole new development process. That of course remains to be seen.
The device will go on sale through a website later that will be announced via the @Ubuntu and @bqreaders handles. In the meanwhile, check out the video below to get a look at the Aquarius E4.5 UE (courtesy of YouTube user Jordan Keyes).