Just ordered one. I had a chat to the BQ team in London recently. They're selling CyanogenMod Android phones as well. The CEO was quite clear that flashing a new OS wasn't going to void the warranty.<p>I didn't get to play with their Ubuntu tablets, but their Android ones are well built, responsive, and have very clear screens.<p>This isn't going to replace your totally tricked-out MacBook - but as a portable web-browser / word processor / coding machine, I have high hopes for it.
"<i>A tablet when you want it, a PC when you need it</i>"<p>I'm not sure if I'm being naive, but it seems to me that for a decade, the <i>laptop</i> market has had a ridiculous hole. There is a market for something which is not windows, at a sub $500-$600 price that is good. Tablet UI, desktop, whatever. Something that can run skype, whatsapp, tinder and the other network-effect apps that can replace their 3 year old home laptop and be an improvement.<p>How is it possible that all the mobile stuff from the last decade has not opened up real and substantial competition to Windows in that bracket.<p>Anyway, this looks easily worth €259 if think you may want one.
The linked page states it's using Ubuntu 15.04 as OS, however 15.04 is marked as EOL-ed on <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases" rel="nofollow">https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Releases</a>
Is there an easy OS upgrade path? I wonder why they did not go with an LTS release, 16.04 is just around the corner in April and would probably serve their release better.
I want to be really excited by this because this seems very cool but the mediatek processor and the 2 GB of RAM makes this a lot less interesting. Mediatek usually provides a closed off, low price, low performance chip which kind of clashes with what I want from an Ubuntu device.
I've seen a lot of Linux tablets, and so far they've always been a touchscreen added to an early 2000's desktop-style interface: small touch targets, gestures don't work in obvious places etc.<p>That said, it's been a while so I could be out of date: is the Linux desktop UI and apps used by the Ubuntu tablet touch focused?<p>Edit: Linux as in the common usage of 'Linux kernel, glibc, X', not Android. Which you knew.
Anyone have experience with BQ HW? Is it any good?<p>For the price (300eur) I'd actually be willing to try the HD 1920 x 1200 version, IF the HW and battery life turn out to be solid.
As per usual; I wonder what the battery life is like. That is really / still the only thing I look for. If it's good enough I would pre-order.
It's exciting that Ubuntu offers phones and tablets. But what's the gain to have a PC frontend while not having a real PC? Ubuntu should seriously consider to offer an additional Tablet with 4 GB RAM and real Linux, at least in a docker like vm.<p>Only such a device would be really interesting for Linux developers and sys admins. 2 GB are good for basic things (surfing, emails, office) but compilation, simulation, testing etc. would be problematic. If such things are not possible then a notebook remains the better choice.
All looks really interesting but only 16 GB internal memory? I mean if I could move my user directory in it's entirety to the MicroSD I could see that working as 16 would be way more than enough for system, but that seems hackey. I feel like they could easily get that to 64 GB and add a few bucks to the price tag, I would buy one of these in a hot second if they did.
IT says it has external memory expansion. Does this mean that there's a micro SD card slot anywhere? The only real issue I see is that (after the OS) I'd only have about 10 gig for applications and files. If I could put an sd card in there, no problem, otherwise it would hardly suffice as a PC.
interesting. Think Webstorm/Intellij would run decently on this? I've been looking for a new tablet; and have been dreading getting an Ipad...
Looks like it's ARM. I suppose that's okay for many, but if you need programs like R, you're out of luck. I'd immediately buy one if it had an Intel or AMD processor.
>no dedicated full sized USB port<p>Why is the surface the only tablet to have a dedicated full sized USB port? It seems like one of the most important things to have in any tablet.
> The world’s first convergent tablet<p>Sorry guys, M$FT had you beat to market by about... what, four years?<p>> 16 GB internal memory<p>Come the fuck on, now. I don't want to deal with the atrocious read/write speeds of MicroSD. 16 GB internal memory hasn't been impressive since sometime around 2007.<p>This looks promising but it's definitely not for me. I hope someone uses it and likes it, but I think it still has a ways to go before it's more than a novelty.
As a consumer, I find it completely uninteresting unless it can run Android apps. If Play Store is an impossibility, support alternative apps stores such as F-Droid or 9apps.