The Meizu PRO 5 was released in October 2015 running Android 5.1 Lollipop out of the box, covered by a custom Flyme 5.0 user interface. Today, roughly 6 months after the Android variant debuted on the market and a couple of months following its official announcement, the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition goes on sale worldwide for the price of $369.99.
Ubuntu for mobile, also known as Ubuntu Touch, is an open source operating system developed by Canonical Ltd. The OS has been in development for several years already, and while official Ubuntu-based ROMs are available for download on certain Android-powered smartphones, a handful of OEMs from China have also adopted the platform for some of their existing Android devices. Such is the case with the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition, which is virtually the same smartphone as the standard PRO 5 unveiled last year. The main difference is obviously the operating system, but the hardware seems to remain unchanged. As such, the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition sports a 5.7-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a pixel density of 386 pixels per inch, Corning Gorilla Glass 3, and the same Exynos 7 Octa 7420 SoC powering the Samsung Galaxy S6 series and the Galaxy Note 5. The CPU is paired with a Mali-T760MP8 graphics chip, 3 GB of RAM, and 32 GB of internal memory which can be expanded by up to 128 GB via microSD. Furthermore, the terminal is equipped with a 21-megapixel main camera with an f/2.2 aperture and phase detection + laser autofocus, a dual-LED dual-tone flash, and a 5-megapixel front-facing sensor with an f/2.0 aperture and 1080p@30fps video recording capabilities. Last but not least, the smartphone conceals a 3,050 mAh battery which benefits from mCharge 2.0 for faster charging, and accommodates a reversible USB Type-C connector.
As far as pricing goes, the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition will set you back $369.99. The smartphone is available for purchase from JD.com (source link below) and seems to be available in only one color option, namely gold. However, it should be noted that Ubuntu Touch is not a fully matured platform, or at least it’s not nearly as widespread as Android OS, iOS, and even Windows Phone. With that in mind, before you decide whether or not the Meizu PRO 5 Ubuntu Edition is for you, consider the fact that you might risk having to deal with poor app support and other such inconveniences.
