The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is a

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

designed and produced by the

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

manufacturer

Meizu ‌Meizu (sometimes stylized in all caps) (Chinese name: 星纪魅族集团) ‌ is a technology company registered in Zhuhai, China. Its predecessor, Meizu Technology, was founded by Huang Zhang in 2003 and was famous for its MP3 player and s ...

, which runs on

Ubuntu Touch Ubuntu Touch is a mobile version of the Ubuntu operating system, developed by the UBports community. Its user interface is written in Qt, and is designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Howev ...

. It is an alternative version of the

Meizu PRO 5 The Meizu PRO 5 is a smartphone designed and produced by the China, Chinese manufacturer Meizu, which runs on Flyme OS, Meizu's modified Android (operating system), Android operating system. It is the company's first model of the flagship PRO ser ...

. It was unveiled on February 17, 2016.

History

Rumors about an Ubuntu-powered edition of the Meizu PRO 5 appeared after photos of a Meizu PRO 5 running Ubuntu Touch 15.04 had been leaked. It was reported that this device would be showcased at the Mobile World Congress in April 2016.

Release

The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu was officially released on February 17, 2016. International pre-orders began on February 22, 2016, through online retailer

JD.com JD.com, Inc., also known as JINGDONG (), formerly called 360buy,
, Retrieved 3 December 2013

Features

Ubuntu Touch

The PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is running Ubuntu Touch, which is a mobile operating system based on the

Ubuntu linux Ubuntu ( ) is a Linux distribution based on Debian and composed primarily of free and open-source software. Developed by the British company Canonical and a community of contributors under a meritocratic governance model, Ubuntu is released ...

distribution developed by

Canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean 'according to the canon' the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, ''canonical exampl ...

. Its goal is to provide a free and open-source mobile operating system and deliver a different approach to user experience by focusing on so-called “scopes” instead of traditional apps.

Hardware and design

The technical specifications and outer appearance of the PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is identical with the

. The Meizu PRO 5 features a Samsung Exynos 7420 Octa with an array of eight

ARM Cortex This is a list of central processing units based on the ARM family of instruction sets designed by ARM Ltd. and third parties, sorted by version of the ARM instruction set, release and name. In 2005, ARM provided a summary of the numerous vendor ...

CPU A central processing unit (CPU), also called a central processor, main processor, or just processor, is the primary processor in a given computer. Its electronic circuitry executes instructions of a computer program, such as arithmetic, log ...

cores, an ARM

Mali-T760 The Mali and Immortalis series of graphics processing units (GPUs) and multimedia processors are semiconductor intellectual property cores produced by Arm Holdings for licensing in various ASIC designs by Arm partners. Mali GPUs were developed by ...

MP8

GPU A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed for digital image processing and to accelerate computer graphics, being present either as a discrete video card or embedded on motherboards, mobile phones, personal ...

and 3 GB of

RAM Ram, ram, or RAM most commonly refers to: * A male sheep * Random-access memory, computer memory * Ram Trucks, US, since 2009 ** List of vehicles named Dodge Ram, trucks and vans ** Ram Pickup, produced by Ram Trucks Ram, ram, or RAM may also ref ...

. Meizu Global Brand Manager Ard Boudeling explained in November 2015 that Meizu decided to use the Samsung Exynos SoC because it is “currently .the only option if you want to build a genuine premium device”. The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition has a full-metal body, which measures x x and weighs . It has a slate form factor, being rectangular with rounded corners and has only one central physical button at the front. The PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is only available in with 32 GB of internal storage and with a champagne gold body. The PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition features a 5.7-inch

AMOLED AMOLED (active-matrix organic light-emitting diode; ) is a type of OLED display device technology. OLED describes a specific type of thin-film-display technology in which organic compounds form the electroluminescence, electroluminescent materi ...

multi-touch In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CE ...

capacitive touchscreen A touchscreen (or touch screen) is a type of display that can detect touch input from a user. It consists of both an input device (a touch panel) and an output device (a visual display). The touch panel is typically layered on the top of the e ...

display with a (

FHD 1080p (1920 × 1080 progressively displayed pixels; also known as Full HD or FHD, and BT.709) is a set of HDTV high-definition video modes characterized by 1,920 pixels displayed across the screen horizontally and 1,080 pixels down the scree ...

resolution of 1080 by 1920 pixels. The pixel density of the display is 387 ppi. In addition to the touchscreen input and the front key, the device has a volume/zoom control and the power/lock button on the right side and a 3.5mm TRS audio jack, which is powered by a dedicated Hi-Fi amplifier supporting 32-bit audio with a frequency range of up to 192 kHz. The PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition uses a

USB-C USB-C, or USB Type-C, is a 24-pin reversible Electrical connector, connector (not a Communication protocol, protocol) that supersedes previous USB hardware#Connectors, USB connectors (also supersedes Mini DisplayPort and Lightning (connector) ...

connector for both data connectivity and charging. The Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition has two cameras. The rear camera has a resolution of 21.16 MP, a ƒ/2.2 aperture and a 6-element lens. Furthermore, the phase-detection autofocus of the rear camera is laser-supported. The front camera has a resolution of 5 MP, a ƒ/2.0 aperture and a 5-element lens.

Reception

While the device itself had been praised for its specifications and build quality, critics have criticized the Ubuntu Touch operating system. GSMArena stated that "overall, all the bits and pieces that made the Meizu Pro 5 great are still present, but even on paper, we can already see quite a lot of compromises brought about by the new OS in the Ubuntu Edition at hand". Softpedia gave the device a rating of 4 out of 5 stars, concluding that they "would recommend heMeizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition to those who like smartphones with big screens, Ubuntu Phone fans . as well as very curious people who get bored easily and always enjoy trying something new".

References

External links

Official product page
Meizu {{Meizu Ubuntu Touch devices Mobile phones introduced in 2015 Meizu smartphones Discontinued flagship smartphones