I’m in the market for a new phone, and I’d like it to be Linux. As I’ve been building a table of options, I thought I’d share it. It’s a wide table; sorry about that.

Updates

• The F(x)tec Pro1 X is available

It’s very “me” oriented: it’s biased toward US markets ('cause that’s where I am); it summarizes several features such as the CPU, display, and camera (all of which get spec’d out ad nauseum in marketing) which I’m too lazy to standardize; and it’s biased toward device availability. Since there isn’t a huge selection of options, the minute details hold less relevance.

I welcome updates, clarifications, and corrections; I expect to keep this table up to date until at least such time as I acquire a Linux phone – even if I am forced into using a de-Googled Android in the meantime. Given Google’s shenanigans of late, I am going to factor “Linux-ability” of the de-Googled phones, in the hopes that after Google screws over the forks, we’ll still have the option of installing some future more compatible mobile Linux distribution.

I’ve also considered making a public Cryptopad spreadsheet, but I kind of hate working with SPAs.

Minutia

• There are many more potential specs for Display, but not all vendors include all specs: nits, refresh rate, touch sample rates, colors, contrast, and protective glass. This can all be useful information, but not all vendors provide all specs, and it would blow up the table. Therefore, I include the most common information: diagonal size, technology (if provided), and dimensions.

• CPU specifics are restricted to the basics. Most specs list # of performance vs efficiency cores, multiple speed specs, and just a ton of information that wouldn’t fit easily into a table; and not all vendors provide the same amount of data in anything like a standard format. So, I include the family and the fastest clock speed, because I’m not sure that even with all the other variables you could calculate an expected standby run time by knowing the slower clock speeds.

• Cameras are in megapixels, and are back/front resolutions. I do not care about video capture frame rates, modes or anything else about the camera. I have a real camera for photography.

• Mem is RAM/storage, and whether the phone takes SD cards

• Battery is in mAh, and an r suffix means replacable

• USBC is the supported version of USB-C on the device; (v) means I confirmed it supports 3.0’s video-over-USB; 2.0 never does, but sometimes 3.0 doesn’t, either.

• Lnx in this context doesn’t mean “you can boot it,” but “you can make calls” – IE, what most people would consider daily driving. A smart phone is considered functional if

  • Calls can be placed and received
  • The screen works
  • The WiFi works
  • The speakers work
  • The USB connection works (you can charge the phone)

  In particular, VoLTE is becoming mandatory on many networks in the US, and several EU phones apparently don’t support it on US networks (if at all?). Wireless charging appears to require chip support which nobody has implemented Linux drivers for. None of these phones have wireless charging, and if they did, the impression I got was that it wouldn’t work under Linux anyway. Regardless, while some people might have that as a minimum requirement, I do not consider it in the “daily driver” category.

  Murena phones come with /e/OS; some are available with Ubuntu Touch.

• US is whether or not it works on US networks, AFAICT

• Avail is whether you can get your hands on one right now. Several of these are pre-order.

• I did not convert Price to dollars, despite this being a US-centric table, because exchange rates are highly variable. A couple of phones I may not flesh out; the Pine64 has embarassing hardware, and I’m fairly certain by now the the Jolla doesn’t work in the US; since my goal is to get a phone for me, I’m not spending time filling in data for a phone which can’t work.

Therefore, while I’m not including all de- Googled phones, I’m including some – especially if Linux support seems to be coming along. I’m also considering only contemporary technology, because even if the battery is replaceable, I’d really not buy myself into having to upgrade soon. Murena, in particular, sells several Pixels (5, 7, 8) with /e/OS.

Phone notes

• FairPhone 5
  The one phone Murena skipped importing into the US was the FairPhone 5, despite a promising post in 2023 claiming it was coming. It’s the one most interesting, and would probably be at the top of my list. The 6 doesn’t bring a lot to the table and is both larger and more expensive.

• The Jolla Phone
  Jolla no longer makes this phone, and the specs are quite old.

  Jolla phones ran Sailfish, which is neither Android nor Linux, but which apparently was pretty nice. I have no knowledge of whether it was what privacy wonks would consider “secure”, but it isn’t open source and you can not trust anything that isn’t open source.

• Volla phones
  None of the Volla phones have ever been imported into the US, and I’ve seen commentary that they both work on US networks, and don’t. Volla phones are quite nice, specs-wise, and it’s a shame we can’t get them in the states.

  The Ubuntu Touch website lists the Quintus and 22 as fully functional.

• F(x)tec PRO¹ X
  Another phone with a physical keyboard. Wireless is (annecdotally, in the comments) unreliable.

• Murena Teracube 2s
  The bootloader on the Teracube is locked, which precludes installing Linux.

• Xiaomi Poco X3
  Something of a dark horse, and a phone dating back to 2020, the Xiaomi shows as having every feature functioning under Ubuntu Touch. Unfortunately, the phone does not support VoLTE under Ubuntu Touch, which hinders its use in the US. The phone hardware itself does.

  Nobody has this phone in stock, though, so “Availability” is negative, although I suppose it could be found on eBay or something. The non-replacable battery makes buying it used a sketchy proposition.