cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/25405532
Qualcomm engineering director Trilok Soni recently confirmed that the company’s Linux team published Linux kernel updates for the Snapdragon 8 Elite processor. Qualcomm unveiled the SoC earlier this month, targeting a new generation of flagship phones and tablets supporting Android and Linux.
Let’s hope it’ll get us a few more Linux handheld devices and maybe closer to the dream of a decent Linux phone. I bought a Pinephone back then, but that’s pretty limited. And we also need better power management, software that is designed for small touchscreens. And support for the dozens of other diverse components in a phone, touchscreen, camera, gps, all the other chips… Having the SoC supported is only the minimum. Without the other drivers in place it doesn’t automatically provide us with an image on the screen etc. It’d be a big good step into the right direction, though.
Have a look at the PostmarketOS device list. There are a ton of devices that boot, but the vast majority are missing critical features that render the device almost useless for anything but a server. The only android phones that I know of that run well with usable features and performance are the Oneplus 6/6T, Poco f1, Pixel 3a, shift6mq and fairphone, though even then there are crucial features missing. A modern phone built for Linux with a modern chipset, working camera, USB and sound would be awesome, but such a device does not exist AFAIK.