BQ, makers of the upcoming Ubuntu-powered BQ Aquaris M10, silently pushed back their delivery date from the second week of April (next week) to the second half of April (two to three weeks from now). No statement was sent to customers, OMG Ubuntu is reporting: the wording was simply silently edited on the website.
Pre-orders for the BQ Aquaris M10 Ubuntu edition started late last month. The tablet runs Canonical’s Ubuntu, a popular Linux distro that’s known to be user-friendly and widely supported. This tablet is noteworthy because of it’s versatility. Plug in a keyboard, mouse, and external display and you can use it as a desktop computer.
There are two versions of the tablet — the Aquaris M10 FHD Ubuntu Edition, which costs €299.90 (around $340) and the M10 HD, which costs €259.90 (around $295). The M10 FHD sports a 1080p display, and a 1.5GHz ARM processor. The cheaper M10 HD offers 1,280 x 800 pixels and a 1.3GHz ARM processor. Both models offer 2GB of RAM, 16GB of onboard storage, and an 8MP rear camera.
Those are not the most impressive specifications compared to the market, and notably BQ offers cheaper versions of both tablets running Android. Users who pre-ordered the device are already paying a premium to support their favorite OS, and potentially buy a tablet that also functions as a desktop computer.
The tablet does not come with a keyboard, mouse, or external display. Users need to provide their own display, plugged into the Micro HDMI port, and a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. That brings the high price just a little bit higher, particularly if you were planning on just using your USB mouse and keyboard.
Still, it’s exciting to see Ubuntu come to the tablet, and the convergence feature is interesting. Here’s hoping everyone who pre-ordered gets their devices soon, and enjoys them.
