Bq is now taking pre-orders for the world’s first Ubuntu tablet — just like we told you they would last week!
The Aquaris M10 Ubuntu Edition is the first tablet to run Ubuntu (Touch) and is also “…the first device to offer PC convergence”, as Bq note in their product page description.
The Spanish hardware company say its new device is “Light and powerful, with excellent battery life and a Full HD display,” and add that “its ability to switch to an Ubuntu PC makes it the ideal work tool.”
Bq will ship the M10 Ubuntu Edition tablet within the EU and to select countries outside of it, including the USA.. A full list of delivery locations can be found on the Bq website.
Deliveries are planned to get underway in the second week of April — which means, fingers crossed, you should have your tablet by the time Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is released!
For a limited time, Bq is offering a free M10 duo case worth €24.90 and a screen protector worth €9.90 with all pre-orders!
The M10 Ubuntu Tablet Specs
Two versions of the M10 tablet are available to pre-order from the Bq website.
‘Ubuntu is worth paying a premium for, right?’
The cheapest has a 10.1″ HD (1280×800) screen, 5MP rear camera and 1.3GHz quad-core ARM processor. This model is available in white.
For around €40 you can grab a tablet with a 10.1″ FHD (1920×1200) screen, 8MP rear camera and 1.5GHz quad-core ARM processor. This model comes in black.
The price difference between the Ubuntu models is minimal:
The M10 (HD) Ubuntu Edition costs from €249/€259¹
The M10 (FHD) Ubuntu Edition costs €289/€299¹
The price difference compared to the Android-powered M10 tablet is more pronounced — but Ubuntu is worth paying a premium for, right?
The M10 (HD) Android version costs from €229
The M10 (FHD) Android version costs from €259
Depending on your locale you may also need to pay shipping and import costs.
Convergence Is Here
The ‘unique’ feature of the M10 is that it supports convergence. It can function as a tablet, with apps and scopes opening full screen, and you can ‘dock’ apps to the side of the screen in a portrait-size window called ‘Side Stage’.
But when you pair a bluetooth mouse and keyboard to the M10 Ubuntu Tablet all your full-screen windows will become windowed, letting you work in a multi-window way like (somewhat regular) Ubuntu desktop.
You won’t be able to freely install all your favourite legacy apps right away (not without putting your device in write mode and getting fancy with the Terminal) but this feature should be possible in a few months. To get you started a few legacy apps ship pre-installed, including Mozilla Firefox, The GIMP and LibreOffice.
You can watch this video to see a demo of xorg apps running through the XMir compatibility layer.
We’d love to be able to tell you more about the tablet from a first-person perspective but Bq (politely) declined our request for a review unit. You can expect to read reviews on other Linux blogs in the coming weeks, so that’s something… 💁
Buy
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Because we’re unashamed nosy parkers we want to know if you plan on buying an M10 Ubuntu tablet.
We’ve already asked those of you who follow us on Twitter (and the result was… unexpected) but let us know your plans in the poll below.
¹ The total listed price varies depending on which version of the store you buy from. The ‘worldwide’ store includes the delivery price in the overall total, the English store doesn’t.