Crossposted from https://rss.ponder.cat/post/204768
Based in Madrid, Liberux is gaining attention with its Linux smartphones that run on LiberuxOS — a mostly open source operating system built from scratch, completely independent of Android and iOS. Their NEXX line of smartphones distinguishes itself as a Linux phone capable of running standard Linux distributions right out of the box.
Realizing that most people aren’t looking to spend a fortune on niche tech, Liberux recently announced that it was working on a more affordable version to make the NEXX accessible to a broader audience.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s exciting to see organizations working to bring Linux phones into the mainstream.
Liberux NEXX: What Does it Offer?
Let’s start with the original model, which is impressive for what it is. It looks like a legit attempt at creating a daily-driver Linux phone that doesn’t feel like a development kit.
The Liberux NEXX features an octa-core Rockchip RK3588S processor (4×Cortex-A76 + 4×Cortex-A55, up to 2.4 GHz), 32 GB of LPDDR4x RAM, and a 6.34″ 2400×1080 OLED display.
It includes 512 GB of eMMC storage, which is expandable via microSD (up to 2 TB). Connectivity options include dual USB-C ports, 5G, Wi-Fi 5, Bluetooth 5.0, and a 3.5 mm headphone jack.
Those are solid specs, and the price (~$1,485) shows it. 😲
Enter, The Budget-Friendly Alternative
The Liberux NEXX Community edition serves as a more affordable alternative to the original model while retaining many of its core features.
It includes the same 6.34-inch OLED display, Rockchip RK3588S processor, 32MP rear and 13MP front cameras, dual USB-C ports, a 3.5 mm headphone jack, a 5,300 mAh battery, and microSD support up to 2 TB. Both versions run LiberuxOS, a Debian-based Linux operating system.
While the flagship model comes with 32 GB RAM, 512 GB storage, and 5G, the new Community version offers 8 GB RAM, 128 GB storage, and 4G LTE connectivity. There’s also a mid-range option with 16 GB RAM.
🛒 Getting the Liberux NEXX Community
As with any crowdfunding campaign, delays or changes are expected. Currently available on Indiegogo, the Community model with 8 GB of RAM is priced at approximately $900, excluding shipping costs.
Additional tiers such as First Backer and Golden Backer are also available, offering various perks. Shipments are expected to begin globally in July 2026, though availability may vary by country.
Via: Liliputing
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The one concern I have is that banks are app only more and more, not being able to run banking apps (is that the case?) Is a no go for me.
What is this, a sick joke? “Budget-friendly” and “entry-level” means “price similar to a PinePhone” (i.e. $200), not $900!
And with no 5g, probably a shitty screen. I wish ubuntu would have their phone kickstarter again.
It has 5G.
It’s too much money and too much risk. 900 is not affordable.
I’m interested in an alternative, but just to try it out, Ubuntu touch that I can install on an old phone.
The thing is: As far as I could gather, they are planning make this in Spain, which - in addition to small scale production (you pay more per part if you order less) introduces higher wages (and costs due to different regulations etc.).
Would I like it to be cheaper? Yes. But ceteris paribus I would not trust them to make it if this where cheaper.
Regarding alternatives, postmarketOS and Mobian also work on old Android phones.
The price of the flagship actually seems reasonable considering the specs. Especially for a niche phone. But it’s a kickstarter campaign so who knows if it will see the light of day and what the retail version might cost.
The fact that they felt they needed to lead with 32GB of memory in a phone at such huge cost maybe tells you what some of the challenges are, considering even top of the line Android with similar price points cap at 12GB.
I don’t know that you’re going to feature creep your way into mobile OS viability. You’re going to need a legitimate shot at Android out of the gate. Especially at flagship price points. If your pitch is “pay high end prices to give us a shot at succeeding where Windows/MS crashed and burned” you’re going to have to pitch wealthier people than me.
I hope this becomes a product that can be sold at a reasonable price. If so, I might buy one. Won’t be holding my breath, though.
I know PinePhone will probably never be ready like this but Purism should step up to get something like this out. They have their heads too far up their bung hole to see it through despite having good potential. PureOS is also Debian based, but this is good news. Never heard of them until now but if they’re ethical about their hardware (they let us replace parts), then I wish them all the best.
“budget phone” that’s more expensive than a new flagship iphone
and has ancient hardware
and doesn’t have 5G
i sure wonder why linux phones aren’t taking off!!!
I mean linux phones are much more than this one example.
of course, you can run linux on other phones too (and big thanks to all the devs that manage to make that work!)
but most linux-first phones (and tablets) are either like this, super expensive with bad specs, or devkits from Pine64
The fairphone is pretty good and it’s new repairable hardware you can buy.
it’s also not a linux-first phone. idk if they even test that.
Do you have a solution to these problems?
not really, at the end of the day im just an asshole with an internet connection
i get that products for niche markets will be overpriced because there’s little economies of scale, i just wish the product you’d get out of it was good
the framework laptops are pretty expensive for their specs, but the specs are still good, you’ll end up with a good laptop, and it’s repairable! to many people (including me), that makes it worth the price
but when your phone that’s more expensive than Famously More Of A Luxury Fashion Statement Than Tech Device phone has midrange at best specs and a soon-to-be-obsolete cellular connection, why even bother?
Because it’s incredibly difficult to port an OS ecosystem to a new platform …?
At that price I’d rather take a chance on the furios phone.
To save money why are you not including 5g? What a weird thing to cut. How about cutting the extraneous second USB port first?
I could have missed it, but is there any mention somewhere of compatibility with existing android/iOS apps?
One of the reasons the windows phone died was a lack of apps as they entered the market too late and app devs weren’t very keen on building the app on yet another platform.
Most apps these days are just an html page disguised as an app anyways
This is very much untrue
Linux phones can use waydruid to keep using Android apps.
That’s interesting! I hadn’t heard of that yet. I wonder how viable that is on a phone or if it would hog too many resources.
Laptops/ PCs are generally well equipped enough. But a phone? Maybe!
It works already pretty well but it does use a third more battery on Ubuntu Touch.
FWIW, regarding price: The “Tesla model” of creating a new market (EVs that didn’t suck) worked. Have the die-hards pay premium for luxury/performance enabling the profit needed to produce cheaper models too.
The pain point for a new mobile OS will always be a few critical apps like government ID, national payment systems etc. Those that you simply must have on a phone for it to be a viable daily driver.
Are the cheaper Tesla models in the room with us?
Roadster -> Model S -> Model 3
Yes. That forced other automakers to follow suit and I’m now a happy Volkswagen ID.7 driver instead of the previous Model 3.
The “Tesla model” is predicated upon government subsidies.
No, not the part I mentioned. Today, yes, that’s how Tesla is still profitable.
Looks like it’ll have Android APK compatibility through waydroid. I guess this is one of the reasons why is needs heaps of ram.
Ah ok - thanks! I’ll check if those apps for Sweden work in regular Waydroid then. That’s always the biggest obstacle and would be something to promote.
Is this price a high for the punch it packs? You have to wonder if they’re subsidizing the development of an open source OS with a higher price of the phone.
$900
$90.0 is good. $150 is… well, I might consider. $900 isn’t even funny.
This is a phone with the specs of a decent full laptop. And compared to other phones it’s a small-run luxury item: they aren’t Samsung or Google and won’t be making millions of these, so no economies of scale to lower the price like the big players have.
The price seems amazing to me. Almost too good to be true.
Cortex A55 is 2 generations old and from 2017. A76 is 6 generations old and from 2018.
That’s the age of the design. If you look at first use (usually a year later), and then widespread use beyond flagship chips for big cores (2+ years later), you’ll end up with different dates. Not every core ARM puts out ends up being used in a ton of chips across SoC vendors, as some fare better in the trade-of between transistors and real world performance/energy efficiency than others. A76 is definitely popular, if you look at SoC out there. The RK3588(s) GPU was announced in 2021 and shipped in 2022 first - so it’s relatively new, as the SoC is also not that old: RK3588s was introduced in early 2022, and these days it has decent enough Linux support to start building a Linux-first product with it.
The issue for small companies like Liberux is that they
- can’t even get every chip on the market, as the Qualcomms of this world do not care about low volume operations (in addition to that, they need longer availability as they can’t afford to change chips at the pace bigger players do), and
- need to pick a chip that fits the power envelope of their design AND has decent enough mainline Linux support.
That narrows things down very much, and leaves a quite narrow chip selection. Another start-up with the same goal, dawndrums, are designing around the same chip for that very same reason.
If you are in doubt about how competent RK3588(s) is, look into the work that Lucie from MNT does - a lot of future product design is done on MNT hardware, these days powered by that very RK3588.
Fair about the years, let’s call them 2019 models instead.
I do doubt rk3588’s performance because my phone has a76 + a55 and it has nowhere near desktop performance like the person above claimed. And for people with more recent phones it would be a downgrade.
The soc being merely 3 years old despite having older components doesn’t mean much; you could make the same arguement about the phone being brand new regardless of what cpu it has but that doesn’t change the fact that it doesn’t perform like a 2025 device. This is like amd repackaging zen 2 and zen 3 processors as if they were new by declaring the most significant digit ‘year’ and 3rd most significant digit ‘generation’.
And I really doubt rockchip (or any other manufacturer) chose a76 because it was better than its successors in some way. As I see it rk3588 is using these cores because they’re the best available on the 8nm process node that rockchip could afford. Which I suppose isn’t unreasonable for a low cost chip in 2022, but this is a
20252026 smartphone that’s reducing costs by using a 2022 chip that itself reduced its costs by using 2019 tech.
Fine, I’ll grant that. But I still think it’s unreasonable to expect prices comparable to phones from trillion dollar companies.
