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DistroWatch reviews the Meizu Pro 5 Ubuntu Touch phone
When most people think of smartphones, they think of Android and iOS. But there are alternatives to those two mobile platforms. Enter the Meizu Pro 5 phone, which runs Ubuntu Touch as its operating system.
DistroWatch has a detailed review of the Maizu Pro Ubuntu Touch phone, and found it to be a pleasant alternative to Android and iOS phones.
Jesse Smith reports for DistroWatch:
...Ubuntu running on the Pro 5 offered me a pleasant phone and communications experience. Using the phone and the touchpad to navigate automated services worked very well. Texting worked well too and I found I liked typing on the Ubuntu keyboard a little more than the Android keyboard. After two days with Ubuntu I was making fewer typos than I did after 18 months with the Android on-screen keyboard. I was a little concerned at first with the size of the Pro 5, it is taller than any phone I have owned in the past. However, the Pro 5 is also lighter. This made it a squeeze to get it into my pocket, but pleasant to hold in my hand.
It took me a while to get used to the difference between using scopes and running applications. Scopes are a slightly unusual concept in the smart phone market, but I grew to appreciate the idea. What eventually gave me the "a-ha" moment when it came to scopes was when I realized scopes are for looking at information and apps for doing things. Scopes are always on, always waiting in the background to provide us with small bits of data. Applications are for performing tasks. A scope will tell me what is on my calendar for the day, an application will create new appointments. A scope will tell me who called me recently while an app will place a new call.
...the Ubuntu phone takes a user-oriented or, perhaps more accurately, an information-oriented approach while Android and iOS take an application-focused approach. People who use Android or iOS are probably familiar with the phrase, "There's an app for that." When I wake up in the morning and look at my Android phone I go through a series of apps. I want...