ahoneybun.net/content/posts/mobile-linux-2025.md
2025-12-28 09:36:12 -07:00

3.5 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 on Ubuntu 23.10/24.04/24.10:

Core Feature Status
Wi-Fi/Bluetooth Works
Touchpad Works
Touch Screen Works
Fingerprint Reader Works
Cameras
Speakers Works
Headphone port N/A
USB-C port Works
SIM Slot Not tested
  • Not in the default configuration ** Can be enabled in Ubuntu 24.10 with steps in this review *** They are very low due to active speaker protection not being enabled source

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 battery should last 5.8 hours while Lenovo quotes 25-28 hours on Windows. I tested the system with no changes including TLP and with the 6.5 kernel from Ubuntu and I saw about that while doing the following things:

  • Writing this review using helix, nano, Text Editor
  • Researching how to fix the Widevine issue so basic web browsing including some YouTube here and there
  • Downloading updates, installing new applications including snaps and Debian packages

Suspending does not seem to work correctly as the display is still on when the lid is closed but it does turn off if you use the menu to suspend. The battery does still seem to drain while suspended much higher then one would expect when in that state. This system does work with S0ix and we can confirm with this output from this command:

aaronh@drack:~$ cat /sys/power/mem_sleep 
[s2idle]

USB-C port

Cameras

Fingerprint Reader

Software

Phosh

Phosh with running applications

The animations in GNOME Shell are really smooth and great with the touchpad! See the video below for yourself!

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: