Welcome to the Ubuntu Phone

I got my hands on a BQ Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition.

This is the hardware specification:

Screen

• Screen size: 4,5"
• Screen Technology: Capacitive IPS multi-touch screen with 5 simultaneous-detection points
• Screen resolution: qHD 540 x 960 px, 220 HDPI
• Aspect ratio: 16:9
• Viewing angle: 178º
• Others: Dragontrail Protection Glass

Memory

• Internal mechanics: 8 GB eMMC
• Expandable memory: Via microSD™ card (up to 32 GB)

Battery

• Battery: LiPo 2150 mAh

Supported Formats

• Video formats: .avi, .mkv, .mov, .mp4
• Audio formats: .mp3, .ogg, .wav
• Image formats: .bmp, .gif, .jpeg, .png
• Text formats: .pdf, .txt

Dimensions and weight

• Weight: 0.1230
• Dimensions: 137 x 67 x 9 mm

Operating System

• OS: Ubuntu

Connections

• Connections: 3.5 mm headphone jack, Dual Micro-SIM

Functions

• Functions: Ambient noise cancellation, FM radio, Microphone, Notification LED, Proximity sensor

Processor

• RAM: 1 GB
• CPU: Quad Core Cortex A7 up to 1.3 GHz
• GPU: Mali 400-MP2 up to 500 Mhz

Camera

• Front camera: 5 Mp
• Rear camera: 8 MP with autofocus and flash

Connectivity

• Bluetooth: Bluetooth®
• Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi™ 802.11 b/g/n
• 3G: 3G + (HSPA+/UMTS/GSM)

It has 2 Micro SIM slots, so the first thing to do was to cut down my regular sized SIM card to a MicroSim.
Here's how: http://smartphones.wonderhowto.com/how-to/cut-your-sim-card-down-mini-micro-nano-size-0149154/

I changed from using Android, and everything is looking good so far:

•  I could set up Google accounts for Mail and Contacts sync

Here's the problems I ran into:

• Q: Google Calendar is not present to sync. How to change this?
  this post shows that there could be a checkbox for Calendar, but I see none.
• A: Have to install Calendar Application from Store first. Then it is possible.
• Q: GPS location is off by 30 km. How to make it more exact? GPS is not really working, i.e. 'Here' cannot find my location.
• A: this solved itself after some time.
• Bluetooth is either turned off or discoverable. How to set it hidden, while keeping it turned on?
• Q: How to set the Weather measurements to Celsius and meter on the Today scope? Why is it in Fahrenheit?
• A: This depends on the Region you set for your phone. English (US) will use imperial and Fahrenheit, and English (UK) will use metric and Celsius.
• This probably changes the Spelling auto-correction too, but I will not use it anyway.

Some of my essential apps I would want to use on Ubuntu Phone too:

• Facebook messenger
• opening m.facebook.com/messages in the browser is a huge help
• Google Tasks
• Google Keep

After the first afternoon with the dual SIM UbuntuPhone I quickly went back to using the previous Android device for The Phone For Work, as my professional life requires the usage of a variety of stable Android apps, which UbuntuPhone currently cannot provide.

However, as my private phone, Ubuntuphone will probably be a lot of fun :)

Ideas to check out:

• Android emulator for UbuntuPhone
• Python and Bash: what is possible on the phone with scripts?
• General knowledge on the dev possibilities
• Installing desktop apps like Facebook Messenger
• Creating Web Apps like Facebook Messenger

Some interesting links on development and dev tools and so on:

• Python3: http://chaosmail.github.io/programming/2015/04/09/runninng-python-and-pip-on-ubuntuphone/