Google's Android may be the world's most widely used operating system, while Apple has shipped billions of iOS and iPadOS devices since 2007. But a relatively small group of developers and enthusiasts have been working to make mobile Linux into a viable alternative. There are a handful of phones that are designed to support operating systems that use a mainline Linux kernel.

On paper the Liberux NEXX looks like it could be the most powerful smartphone to date that's purpose-built to run free and open source GNU/Linux-based software. But it's kind of a tough sell at this point for a few reasons: the NEXX is the first product from a company that's never shipped anything before. The closest thing to a working prototype so far is just a mainboard.

Ubuntu Touch is a mobile Linux distribution designed to run on smartphones and tablets. But since the project was abandoned by Canonical, it's been maintained by a relatively small team of volunteers at UBPorts, so the list of officially supported devices is fairly small, and major updates don't come around all that often. But Ubuntu 24.04-2.0 Beta is a fairly big update that brings a number of major improvements including better support for a common feature on modern smartphones, and better support for recent websites and web apps. While the new release is still based on a version of Ubuntu that was released for desktops and servers…

Phosh is a user interface designed for smartphones running Linux-based operating systems. First developed by Purism for the Librem 5 smartphone, it's now available for a wide range of devices and works with most major Linux distributions. While Phosh has long had many of the core features you'd expect from a smartphone user interface, it's still a little rough around the edges compared with more mature software like Android or iOS.

Shortly after the EU forced Apple to allow third-party app stores on iOS (in the European Union, at least), Epic announced it was bringing its Epic Games Store to iPhones and Android. Up until recently it's mostly been a place for installing Epic games like Fortnite, Fall Guides, and Rocket League Sideswipe. But now Epic has announced the availability of third-party titles in the Epic Games Store for mobile devices.

Discover the Top 5 Linux Mobile Operating Systems You Should Try in 2025. Explore freedom, privacy, and innovation beyond iOS & Android.

The Rockchip RK3588 processor family has been around for a few years now, and it has proven to be a popular option for single-board computers, laptops, and other devices that generally run Android or Linux-based software. More recently we've started to see folks tap this chip for use in Linux smartphones. The first was the Liberux NEXX that was announced earlier this year…

The PinePhone Pro is a Linux-friendly smartphone that launched in early 2022 as a higher-performance alternative to the original PinePhone. With a faster processor, more memory and storage, and a better camera, among other things, it was a significant upgrade... on paper, at least. But with a $400 price tag, it was also twice as expensive as the original PinePhone and never generated as much interest from buyers or developers.

The Furi Labs FLX1S is a new smartphone with a a 6.7 inch FHD+ display featuring a 90 Hz refresh rate, 8GB of RAM, 128GB of storage, and a MediaTek Dimensity 900 processor (which was released in 2021). The phone is up for pre-order for $550 and it's expected to ship in October. While that price might seem a little steep for a phone with those specs, there are a few things that make the FLX1S unusual.

Over the past few years a number of companies including Pine64 and Purism have released smartphones designed to run mobile operating systems based on a mainline Linux kernel. But the Liberux NEXX is a work-in-progress Linux phone that could be the most powerful to date... if it actually makes it to mass production. First introduced earlier this year, the NEXX features a 6.34 inch, 2400 x 1080 pixel OLED display, a Rockchip RK3588S processor, 32GB of memory, and 512GB of storage, as well as support for 5G networks.

The Humane Ai Pin was supposed to be a wearable device that allowed you to interact with an AI assistant throughout the day without using your phone or computer. But when it hit the streets last year it was widely panned as an overpriced, underpowered device that largely failed to deliver on its promise. So it wasn't a huge surprise that when HP acquired the company this year, it shut down Humane's servers and effectively turned existing devices into expensive paperweights.

Last week news started to make the rounds that Lenovo has published a web page spelling out the pros (and many cons) of PCs running Android. But Lenovo has since removed that website and claimed that it had nothing to do with Google's plans to bring Android to PCs in the future... although it's unclear why Lenovo published that page in the first place.

Some folks at Google Japan have a habit of designing impractical keyboards. A few years ago we saw a single-row keyboard with every letter, number and character laid out along a 5.4 foot strip. There are also Teacup, bubble wrap, and spoon bending keyboards, among others. Now the company has introduced its latest horribly inconvenient keyboard: the Gboard Dial Version…

Radxa has a new Raspberry Pi-sized single-board computer on the way powered by an Allwinner A733 processor. Pricing hasn't been revealed yet, but the developers at the linux-sunxi wiki have posted some details. Meanwhile Orange Pi also has a new single-board computer on the way. But since it's powered by a Loongson 2K3000 processor, it's pretty clearly designed specifically for the Chinese market, since LoongArch architecture isn't widely used elsewhere.

Earlier this year the folks at Liberux announced plans to build a Linux smartphone that combines the kind of features you'd expect from a modern phone with the hardware you'd expect from a pretty good single-board computer. The Liberux NEXX is expected to have a RK3588s Processor, a 6.34 inch, 2400 x 1080 pixel OLED display, 32GB of RAM, and 256GB of storage, along with dual USB 3.1 Type-C ports, a headphone jack, hardware kill switches, and a 5,300 mAh battery.