BQ Aquaris E5 HD with Ubuntu OS, 5-inch HD display announced for €199.90

Nearly four months ago, the first Ubuntu smartphone was launched, and named BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition. That was a region-specific launch, and the phone was exclusive to only the European market. We don’t know how well it did there, but the successor to it is coming out this month. It is the same Spanish manufacturer BQ who is making this phone, but according to Canonical, the creator of Ubuntu OS, there are a lot of improvements that would be seen here.

The name itself talks of the first improvement in Aquaris E5 HD, as this will have an IPS HD display compared to the qHD screen in Aquarius 4.5, and now, the screen is bigger by half an inch. The company has chosen to use the same Mediatek quad-core chipset clocking at 1.3 GHz, the internal storage is now increased from 8GB to 16GB.

The camera combination seems good though, as the Aquaris E5 HD comes with a 13-megapixel rear and a 5-megapixel front-facing shooter. It is the same Ubuntu OS as in the predecessor, complete with Scopes, which is a type-specific screen filled with content based on the usage, and the OS is going to be gesture-based.

While Canonical mentions that the Ubuntu OS competes against Android OS, it has a long way to go. Though, mobile VP Cristian Parrino of the company also mentions that development in the OS is very easy.

The BQ Aquaris E5 HD is going to be available fully unlocked for the price of €199.90, and this will be available only in Europe. While there is one Ubuntu phone from Meizu coming very soon to the same European market, this one from BQ is already announced and will be available very soon, making it the second in the list.