Is BQ Aquais E4.5 a good device to start with Ubports ?
-
Hello,
I did not have the opportunity to find a UT device and I'm waiting for a good occasion, but I would like to know if BQ is a good start. Advantages : it's small, dual-Sim. But it is old and not powerful. Is UT smooth and fully-functionnal on it ? Will the support be continued in the future, even if the device is 32-bits ? -
@Pookie UT runs well on the BQ E4.5. But, it is nearing the end of the extent to which it can still be supported going forward.
The team is committed to supporting as many devices as long as possible. But when the time comes that certain features going forward will require the kernel and drivers to be able to be recompiled, then support for these devices, that do not have the source code for the drivers available to the team, will have to be dropped at some point. -
You really should be looking at the newer devices.Personally speaking if you need something right now look at the OPO if you can get one or nexus 5 though that is showing it's age too. If you don't mind a bit of work in progress try the OP3/T or Xperia X https://forums.ubports.com/category/46/devices or wait till the PinePhone https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ is available hopefully in March this year.
-
Okay so maybe not a good idea to spend some money on this, only to be blocked a few months later. Very frustrating... I have the feeling that we are at a turning point of UT's development, but it is very hard for a newcomer to get started : available devices are old and/or rare, and upcoming devices look promising, but are only to be expected in an undetermined future...
-
@Pookie The old new device thing is no different to any other OS and or device supplier. There are always new projects underway and on the horizon and others reaching the end of the road. We will be keeping all the devices going for as long as possible not just dropping them for the sake of it. The Bq is really beginning to show it's age though compare to the rest.
I am using the OP3 for my daily device and it works well even now. Before that I used the OPO and was very pleased with that. The PinePhone is a really exciting development and should be available from March pre-installed with UT. That's only a few weeks. The choice is yours. -
@Lakotaubp said in Is BQ Aquais E4.5 a good device to start with Ubports ?:
PinePhone should be available from March pre-installed with UT.
We will continue to be very optimistic !!? @PINE64
-
Until my child broke mine a year ago, i was very pleased with the BQ 4.5. And i think one of the most stable device.
-
From experience, I can say that BQ phones (BQ E5HD and BQ 4.5) have always been/are phones without too many problems, very stable, well adapted so far to UT. They will continue to work well and receive as much as possible the functional and security updates that are adapted to them (I hope so), but probably won't be able to evolve much anymore.
On the other hand, it should not be forgotten that they operate under the H network at maximum and that this is not the future in the 5G era! -
@Pookie
I bought one of the first BQ Aquais E4.5, when Canonical offer that with Ubuntu Touch in early days. I installed UBports on it and it's working.
But to be true, I am not using it anymore, except to make the next update every few weeks, to see what's the progress.
You can use it for calling and SMS, but the Text is so small on this device.
Yes you can also use the web browser, but if you don't have perfect vision with your eyes, everything is so small.
Also in the system settings, the text is so small that I almost can't use it.
Anbox and connecting external display isn't working too on that phone, so I would not advice to buy it.
It's just an old small outdated device.... -
@Lakotaubp This is very, very unlikely now for two reasons. 1) Software needs another 1-3 months to mature a bit (also with community's help). 2), More importantly, Guangdong province has prohibited work until Feb 10th, which likely will be extended, due to the coronavirus epidemic. Moreover, Hong Kong - where we ship our devices containing batteries from (due to regulation) - has now closed the boarder to China due to the coronavirus epidemic. So even if we could manufacture phones, we couldn't ship them.
While we have some control over point 1, we have no control over point 2. My guess, however, is April/May.
-
@PINE64 Thanks for the reply. Was waiting for something concerning Coronavirus and officially on point one. Thanks again for the clarity of answer.
-
@WLBI I own one (and with my family a bunch) of the first BQ E4.5 from March 2015 and it is still my daily driver.
-
@guru Sure, it's working for calling and limited for SMS, because of the small, text. If you have perfect eyes, it's probably ok, but I don't have and it's almost not readable.
On Android I can set "screen zoom" and everything is bigger that I can read it.
The menus of the apps, the text in the apps and everything display in the apps.
Also in Android I can set "Font size and style" of the text. It will affect not only the text of the "websites in the browser" It will affect all text of menus and everything.If I am recording a video for my YouTube channels, it's not usable.
Also I can't do live streaming on YouTube.If I use it for photos while we travel around, the quality of the photos is not comparable with my Samsung Galaxy S8 phone.
If I like to use it for browsing the web, it's quite hard, because of the small display.
If I like to use the BQ E4.5 for convergence and connect a external display, it's not possible.
In my opinion, for calling it's fine, but I think for more it's not really a usable device...
Even the phone book and the history is almost not readable. Yes I can read it, but it's quite hard... -
The screen zoom usable on all phones (by spreading two fingers for example) also seems to me a good request to make on github if it doesn't exist.
