The Current State of US-capable Linux Phones

I built this table to try to find a phone. I’m located in the US, so the phone has to work in the US. I’d prefer it run a Linux distribution, but if I have to I’ll consider de-Googled phones.

Consequently, this list may or may not be useful to you. It’s roughly ranked in my at-the-moment order of preference. The Mecha Comet looks delicious, but I’ve read one thing that said it’d be available in 2025Q3 (which we’re past), and it hasn’t started the Kickstarter which makes me think we’re looking at sometime 2026, if ever. I need a new phone sooner rather than later, so availability may be the deciding factor for me. My phone is shedding glass shards from the back screen, and the back case is badly damaged; I may try to buy some time with a repair, but this particular screen is notoriously difficult to replace, and it’s a Samsung, and I’m really, really sick of Samsung’s version of Android.

Phone	Display “/nits	Size mm/g	Cameras	CPU GHz	Mem GB	Battery	USBC	Lnx	US	Avail	Price
Mecha Comet								✅	🚫	🚫	£649
FairPhone 5	6.46 OLED 1224x2700	161x76x9.6 212	50/50	QCM 6490 1.9	8/256 SD	4500r	3.0	✅	🚫	✅	€499
Furi FLX1s	6.7 LCD 720 x1600	170x76x8 201	20/13	Cortex 2.4	8/128	5000	2.0	✅	✅	🚫	$550
FairPhone 6 (Murena)	6.31 OLED 1116x2484	156x73x9.6 191	50/32	Snap 7sG3 1.8	8/256	4415	2.0	🚫	✅	✅	€599
Murena HIROH	6.67 AMOLED 1220x2712		108/32	Cortex 3.35	16/512	5000	??	?	✅	🚫	$900
PinePhone64	5.95 720 x1440	??	5/2	ARM 1.152	2/3	3000	??	✅	✅	??	??
Purism Librem 5	5.7 IPS 720 x1440	153x75x15.5 263	13/8	ARM 1.5	3/32 SD	4500	3.0	✅	✅	✅	$799
Purism Liberty Phone	5.7 IPS 720 ×1440	5.7	13/8	ARM 1.5GHz	4/128	4500 r	3.0 (v)	✅	✅	🚫	$1,999
Jolla	4.5 IPS 540 x960	131x68x9.9 141	8/2	Qualcomm 1.4	1/16 SD	2100 r	2.0	⭕	🚫	🚫	N/A
Volla								✅	🚫	✅	Varies
Liberux NEXX								✅	🚫	🚫	~€1000
F(x)tec PRO¹ X								?	🚫	🚫	£649
Murena CMF Phone 1	6.67 SAMOLED 1080x2400	194x77x8 197	50/16	Cortex 2.5	8/128	5000	?	?	✅	✅	$419
Murena Teracube 2s	6.1 IPS 720x1560	155x73x10 190	20/8	MediaTek 2.35	4/64 SD	4000r	2 (¬PD)	🚫	✅	✅	$340
Xiaomi Poco X3	6.67 1080x2400		13/64	Qualcomm 2.3	6/64	5160		✅	✅	🚫	$320

I will strive to keep it updated, and to fill in the blanks.

• There are many more potential specs for Display, but not all vendors include all specs: nits, refresh rate, touch sample rates, colors, contrast, and protective glass. This can all be useful information, but not all vendors provide all specs, and it would blow up the table. Therefore, I include the most common information: diagonal size, technology (if provided), and dimensions.

• CPU specifics are restricted to the basics. Most specs list # of performance vs efficiency cores, multiple speed specs, and just a ton of information that wouldn’t fit easily into a table; and not all vendors provide the same amount of data in anything like a standard format. So, I include the family and the fastest clock speed, because I’m not sure that even with all the other variables you could calculate an expected standby run time by knowing the slower clock speeds. Cameras are in megapixels, and are back/front resolutions. I do not care about video capture frame rates, modes or anything else about the camera. I have a real camera for photography.

• Mem is RAM/storage, and whether the phone takes SD cards

• Battery is in mAh, and an r suffix means replacable

• USBC is the supported version of USB-C on the device; (v) means I confirmed it supports 3.0’s video-over-USB; 2.0 never does, but sometimes 3.0 doesn’t, either.

• Lnx in this context doesn’t mean “you can boot it,” but “you can make calls” – IE, what most people would consider daily driving. A smart phone is considered functional if

  • Calls can be placed and received
  • The screen works
  • The WiFi works
  • The speakers work
  • The USB connection works (you can charge the phone)

  In particular, VoLTE is becoming mandatory on many networks in the US, and several EU phones apparently don’t support it on US networks (if at all?). Wireless charging appears to require chip support which nobody has implemented Linux drivers for. None of these phones have wireless charging, and if they did, the impression I got was that it wouldn’t work under Linux anyway. Regardless, while some people might have that as a minimum requirement, I do not consider it in the “daily driver” category.

  Murena phones come with /e/OS; some are available with Ubuntu Touch.

• US is whether or not it works on US networks, AFAICT

• Avail is whether you can get your hands on one right now. Several of these are pre-order.

• I did not convert Price to dollars, despite this being a US-centric table, because exchange rates are highly variable. A couple of phones I may not flesh out; the Pine64 has embarassing hardware, and I’m fairly certain by now the the Jolla doesn’t work in the US; since my goal is to get a phone for me, I’m not spending time filling in data for a phone which can’t work.

Therefore, while I’m not including all de- Googled phones, I’m including some – especially if Linux support seems to be coming along. I’m also considering only contemporary technology, because even if the battery is replaceable, I’d really not buy myself into having to upgrade soon. Murena, in particular, sells several Pixels (5, 7, 8) with /e/OS.

This is to the best of my knowledge, gleaned from the product web sites and other information i can find online. Information about US and Linux compatablity are mostly hearsay, and change over time. Included in this list are phones that ship without Linux, but which are known to work well with Ubuntu Touch (nominally via UBPorts), PostmarketOS, or some other Linux. It also includes some de-Googled phones – mainly /e/OS – because the field is so spartan, and sometimes perfect is the enemy of good.

Notes

FairPhone 5

The one phone Murena skipped importing into the US was the FairPhone 5, despite a promising post in 2023 claiming it was coming. It’s the one most interesting, and would probably be at the top of my list. The 6 doesn’t bring a lot to the table and is both larger and more expensive.

The Jolla Phone

Jolla no longer makes this phone, and the specs are quite old.

Jolla phones ran Sailfish, which is neither Android nor Linux, but which apparently was pretty nice. I have no knowledge of whether it was what privacy wonks would consider “secure”, but it isn’t open source and you can not trust anything that isn’t open source.

Volla phones

None of the Volla phones have ever been imported into the US, and I’ve seen commentary that they both work on US networks, and don’t. Volla phones are quite nice, specs-wise, and it’s a shame we can’t get them in the states.

The Ubuntu Touch website lists the Quintus and 22 as fully functional.

F(x)tec PRO¹ X

Another phone with a physical keyboard which looks both fantastic and also perpetually in development with no clear indication of when, or if, it’ll ever be released. The name is absurd and makes me skeptical of the entire project.

Murena Teracube 2s

The bootloader on the Teracube is locked, which precludes installing Linux.

Xiaomi Poco X3

Something of a dark horse, and a phone dating back to 2020, the Xiaomi shows as having every feature functioning under Ubuntu Touch. Unfortunately, the phone does not support VoLTE under Ubuntu Touch, which hinders its use in the US. The phone hardware itself does.

Nobody has this phone in stock, though, so “Availability” is negative, although I suppose it could be found on eBay or something. The non-replacable battery makes buying it used a sketchy proposition.