Comment by adrian_b
1 month ago
Those have a ridiculously low performance.
While this phone still does not have an Armv9-A CPU, but only a quadruple Cortex-A78, that is nonetheless like 4 to 10 times faster than the phones mentioned by you and faster than a light notebook of a decade ago.
The other Linux phones are barely competitive with a laptop of 25 years ago and they are not really usable as a personal computer today, unless you like waiting for your computer.
Specs do not show the whole pucture: https://puri.sm/posts/the-danger-of-focusing-on-specs/
Librem 5 is my daily driver btw.
While I partially agree with what it says at your link, about specs depending on the context, I am also well aware about the actual performance of quadruple Cortex-A53 CPUs and how it compares with alternatives, because about a decade ago I have used many single-board computers with various kinds of such CPUs (including Raspberry Pi, but also other very different SoCs). I eventually abandoned them for better alternatives.
If you have modest requirements, you can be content with such a CPU, e.g. for reading and editing simple documents or browsing the Internet with scripting disabled.
The point is that there is no need to restrain yourself to cope with its limitations, because for more than a decade there have been much better alternatives.
Even when your target is a sub-$100 computer, it makes no sense to use any CPU weaker than a quadruple Cortex-A76, like in the many computer models using Rockchip CPUs or in the current Raspberry Pi. While there are much more sources of Cortex-A76 based computers, the number of those offering much faster Cortex-A78 based CPUs using Qualcomm or Mediatek SoCs, including this smartphone, are steadily increasing.
> The point is that there is no need to restrain yourself to cope with its limitations, because for more than a decade there have been much better alternatives.
Where are those alternatives? Which phones with a better CPU can run GNU/Linux?
19 replies →