ahoneybun.net/content/posts/mobile-linux-2025.md
2025-12-28 09:55:21 -07:00

3.8 KiB

+++ title = "A 2025 review of Mobile Linux with postmarketOS v25.12" date = 2025-12-31 draft = false

[taxonomies] categories = [ "reviews", "mobile-linux", "aarch64" ] tags = [ "postmarketOS", "v25.12" ] +++

{% note(header="Note") %} This was tested on a OnePlus 6T using Phosh as the desktop/shell {% end %}

Hardware

This is an updated table based on my testing with v25.12:

Core Feature Status
Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Works
Touchpad Works
Touch Screen Works
Fingerprint Reader Works
Cameras Basic
Speakers Works
Headphone port N/A
USB-C port Works
SIM Slot Not tested
  • work but not ideal quality

Cameras

Both work but they are not fully color and the quality is not best but I did not test them on Android using this hardware.

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth

I was able to connect to my home network without issues including using scp (to transfer the screenshots in this post) and ssh without issue.

Speakers

The speakers work and sound great!

Battery

Checking upower -d shows the following information:

Device: /org/freedesktop/UPower/devices/battery_bq27411_0
  native-path:          bq27411-0
  vendor:               Texas Instruments
  power supply:         yes
  updated:              Sun Dec 28 09:43:56 2025 (14 seconds ago)
  has history:          yes
  has statistics:       yes
  battery
    present:             yes
    rechargeable:        yes
    state:               discharging
    warning-level:       none
    energy:              4.6904 Wh
    energy-empty:        0 Wh
    energy-full:         21.5776 Wh
    energy-full-design:  16.016 Wh
    voltage-min-design:  3.4 V
    voltage-max-design:  4.4 V
    capacity-level:      Normal
    energy-rate:         0.396 W
    voltage:             3.744 V
    charge-cycles:       N/A
    time to empty:       11.8 hours
    percentage:          40%
    temperature:         27.5 degrees C
    capacity:            100%
    technology:          lithium-ion
    icon-name:          'battery-good-symbolic'
  History (charge):
    1766940175	40.000	discharging
  History (rate):
    1766940236	0.396	discharging
    1766940205	0.383	discharging
    1766940175	0.405	discharging
    1766940145	0.352	discharging

USB-C port

The port works for power and data as expected, I did not test any external docks and such though.

Fingerprint Reader

I was not able to test this.

Software

Phosh

Phosh with running applications

The animations in Phosh are smoother than this video shows when shown in person.

NOTE: The empty space on the bottom of applications in the overview is because of the keyboard placeholder being there.

Music Player

The default music player in v25.12 is called Gapless and it works well on mobile plus it supports my FLAC files without issue.

Gapless music player

Video decoding

YouTube works without issue though Netflix (and I suspect other streaming websites) do not work, I suspect it is because postmarketOS ships with Firefox ESR rather than default Firefox.

Closing marks

Here is a small list of a few articles with information:

Additional tracking

There are some more resources for updated information about Linux on this device: