Full Circle Magazine FR

The BQ Aquaris E4.5 has the honour of being the world’s first ever Ubuntu phone. They’ve now followed that up with the E5. The Meizu MX4 has the honour of currently being the world's most powerful Ubuntu phone. There is no point in comparing the MX4 with the E4.5 as they are two completely different beasts. What I’ll be concentrating on here is the hardware, and how Ubuntu runs on it. I’ll link to several YouTube videos that I’ve since made showing how to use Ubuntu, and the applications it runs. Specifics The MX4 is a powerful beast. It has a true eight-core CPU (MediaTek 6596, Meizu customized) with 2.2GHz x 4 and 1.7GHz x 4 (all eight cores can be turned on simultaneously), a PowerVR G6200 GPU (again, Meizu customized), 2GB LPDDR3 RAM (at 933MHz), and dual ISP chips with 4-channel processing. It has 16GB of storage for your files. Its display is the most striking thing about it when you first turn it on. There are only a couple of millimeters (at most) between the screen and the metallic edge. It’s a 5.36 inch Sharp/JDI screen with over 2,000 brightness levels, and protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The resolution is 1920 x 1152 pixels.

Le BQ Aquaris E4.5 a l'honneur d'être le tout premier téléphone Ubuntu au monde. Ils viennent de sortir l'E5, un deuxième. Le Meizu MX4 a l'honneur d'être - pour le moment - le plus puissant téléphone Ubuntu au monde.

Il est inutile de comparer le MX4 avec l'E4.5, car ils sont totalement différents. Ici, je vais me focaliser sur le matériel et la façon dont Ubuntu s'exécute dessus. Je donnerai des liens à plusieurs vidéos YouTube que j'ai créées et qui montrent comment utiliser Ubuntu et les applications qu'il peut exécuter.

Détails

Le MX4 est une bête puissante. Il a un vrai processeur à huit cœurs (MediaTek 6596, personnalisé par Meizu) avec 2,2 GHz x 4 et 1,7 GHz x 4 (les huit peuvent être activés simultanément), un processeur graphique PowerVR G6200 (à nouveau personnalisé par Meizu) 2 Go de LPDDR3 RAM (à 933 MHz) et des doubles puces ISP, le traitement étant sur 4 canaux. Il y a un stockage de 16 Go pour vos fichiers.

Quand vous l'allumez la première fois, vous serez frappé surtout par l'affichage. Il n'y a que deux millimètres (tout au plus) entre l'écran et le bord métallique. C'est un écran Sharp/JDI de 5,36“ avec plus de 2 000 niveaux de luminosité, protégé par Gorilla Glass 3. La résolution est de 1920×1152 pixels.

The rear camera is where I have an issue with Meizu. They state on their site that it’s a 20.7 megapixel (MP) camera. All the photos I’ve taken show as being 14.7MP. From what I’ve seen around Launchpad, it seems that the problem may be the camera app within Ubuntu Touch. The sensor is a Sony IMX220 Exmor RS. It has a 300-degree panoramic view which I noticed immediately as any items close to you look quite distant on screen. The camera is capable of 30 photos per second, and is also protected by Gorilla Glass 3. The front camera is a similar model, but is 2MP and apparently has (and I quote from Meizu) ‘FotoNation smart selfie enhancement’ (whatever that might be!). The camera is placed in the center and about three quarters of an inch down on the back of the phone. Below the lens are the dual-colour flashes. The MX4 does all the usual wireless stuff that you’d expect such as WiFi (dual-band), Bluetooth (v4), and GPS. It has sensors for light, gravity, hall effect, IR proximity, gyroscope and ambient light, and a digital compass. For audio files, it can accept FLAC, APE, AAC, MKA, OGG, and (of course) MP3. For video; MP4, 3GP, MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV and MPEG. Images; JPG, PNG, GIF and BMP. All of the above is powered by a Sony/Samsung 3100mAh battery.

La caméra arrière du Meizu me pose problème. Il est décrit sur le site comme un appareil photo de 20,7 mégapixels (MP), mais toutes les photos que j'ai faites sont de 14,7 MP. Selon ce que j'ai vu sur Launchpad, il paraît que le problème peut venir de l'appli caméra d'Ubuntu Touch. Le capteur est un Sony IMX220 Exmor RS. Il a une vue panoramique de 300 degrès que j'ai remarquée tout de suite, car des objets près de vous paraissent très loin sur l'écran. L'appareil peut prendre 30 photos par seconde et, lui aussi, est protégé par Gorilla Glass 3. La caméra avant est similaire mais est de 2 MP et a, apparemment (je cite Meizu) « l'amélioration intelligente de selfies de FotoNation » (je ne sais pas du tout ce que c'est !). La caméra est centré à environ 2 cm du haut sur le dos du téléphone. Les flash à deux couleurs se trouvent sous l'objectif.

Le MX4 fait tous les trucs sans fil habituels attendus, tels que CiFi (double bande), Bluetooth (v4) et GPS. Il a des capteurs de lumière, gravité, effet Hall, proximité IR, gyroscope et lumière ambiente, et une boussole numérique.

Les fichiers audio acceptés sont FLAC, APE, AAC, MKA, OGG et (bien entendu) MP3. Vidéo : MP4, 3GP, MOV, MKV, AVI, FLV et MPEG. Images : JPG, PNG, GIF et BMP.

Tout cela est alimenté par une batterie Sony/Samsung de 3100 mAh.

The top edge of the phone has the power button and the headphone jack. Bottom edge has the speaker, microphone, and the USB (and charging) port. The left edge has the volume buttons, while the right edge has no functions. On the front are the speaker (top middle) front camera (top right) and a home button (bottom middle). The back has a nice bluish tint to the brushed metal cover. This is removable – to let you insert your SIM card. I created a YouTube video showing what you see on first use of an MX4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XCQKZlwWve8 Ubuntu Touch The phone I received came with Ubuntu 15.04 r0 installed on it. This was upgraded to r1 (on first boot) and a further upgrade (to r2) has since been released as I write this. By the time you read this, I expect there will have been another update. At the moment, the Ubuntu Touch OS is using a similar codebase to desktop Ubuntu, but this is set to change soon with Touch using the new Snappy base. Needless to say, Ubuntu is as smooth as silk on the MX4. Getting used to scopes can be tricky at first, but it becomes second nature in no time. Some scopes are good and helpful, but some are really just downloading a list of images with links which open in the browser, so they’re pretty pointless, I think.

Transferring files via USB is done using MTP since almost all devices nowadays don’t mount as a USB device. I had problems with this in KDE Plasma 5 (works fine in Plasma 4), and other users have had no problems with it in other desktops. To see how to use Ubuntu Touch on a phone, I made a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUGHhGWDNB0 Apps Everything works out of the box. Ubuntu Touch comes with the usual phone, SMS messaging, contacts, browser, calculator, gallery, music, media, email, and social media apps. There’s also the Ubuntu Store for adding/removing apps and scopes. Be aware that some apps are quite basic. The camera app springs to mind. It has only the most basic of options. The gallery app has basic cropping and rotation of photos. The Gmail app is really just the mobile web pages, but it does work and give notifications. The unofficial dropbox app (udropcabin) lets you upload/download files, but has no way of sharing files. These quirks aren’t the end of the world, but just something to be aware of.

To show that there are Ubuntu apps for Android appsI use, I created a video showing some: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bDHf9wJGM8 Conclusion This is a beautiful phone. I was immediately impressed with the screen when I turned the phone on for the very first time, and, for the amount of power in there, it’s a surprisingly light device. There isn’t a huge amount of customization over Ubuntu itself though. You can add wallpapers, but it’s only seen on the lock screen (and covered by the notification circle which can’t be turned off), and the icons are set and cannot be replaced with your favourite icon pack. Having said all those good things about it, there are some things you should be aware of. Since Ubuntu Touch, like its desktop counterpart, is constantly under construction, you should expect to find things that may, or may not, work at times. As I write this, I’ve been having some quirks with the GPS where it seems that some apps don’t release their hold on it when you start up another GPS compatible app. I’ve also yet to see a notification LED. I’m sure any and all problems will be ironed out over time. But I’d be neglecting my duties if I didn’t warn you about these things before you spend your money on this. While Canonical is, as of writing, throwing out updates almost monthly, that will soon change to updates being released every six weeks. In short: as long as you don’t mind being on the bleeding edge of Ubuntu Touch, you will absolutely love this phone.