# The Ubuntu Forum Community > Ubuntu Community Discussions > Mobile Technology Discussions >  Best phone to add Ubuntu OS on?  Any Pre-paid phones?

## PsychedelicWonders

Haven't checked in for a few months now & wondering where the Ubuntu OS is?

I know they are/were trying for their own custom Ubuntu Edge, not sure if it's going to make it or not, looks amazing though.  But either way won't be out for quite some time.

But what is the best phone to load Ubuntu onto right now?  I would like to get a pretty good phone & just buy it new, but will go used worse case scenario.   I don't want a huge phone, but iphone or slightly bigger size.  

I'd like a quality phone as far as screen resolution & materials.  i.e. I like the glass/metal materials on iphones vs mostly plastic on other phones.  I would also like to get the fastest phone I can for this purpose, so getting a phone that's a couple years old isn't something I want to do.

I ONLY want Ubuntu OS, I want NOTHING to do with Android.  I would like the hardware to be as far removed from google/Android as possible.

Are there any phones that are able to be loaded with pre-paid cards once I get Ubuntu OS on them?

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## lukeiamyourfather

Ubuntu Phone, Ubuntu Touch, whatever you want to call it is based on Android. As far as I know the only phone that will run it is a Galaxy Nexus (from Google/Samsung). I have a Galaxy Nexus but have never tried putting Ubuntu on it because in my opinion there's no compelling reason or killer feature to make it worth the trouble.

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## PsychedelicWonders

What do you mean Ubuntu phone is based on Android?  I think you can run it as a dual boot system or even run Android apps to give Ubuntu OS more features out of the box, but Ubuntu OS is a completely separate OS & no need for Android pairing unless you want lots of little bells & whistles in apps.

I want just Ubuntu & NOTHING else with Android.  It will be completely wiped off of the SSD if/when I would install Ubuntu OS.

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## lukeiamyourfather

Ubuntu Touch shares a lot of code with Android under the hood. You say you don't want anything to do with Android, in that case buy a phone with iOS or Windows Phone on it. However yes, you can replace Android with Ubuntu Touch.

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Install

It looks like the other modern Google Play devices are supported in addition to the Galaxy Nexus, like the Nexus 4, 7, and 10.

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## PsychedelicWonders

I don't want iOS or Windows, I want strictly Ubuntu. 

Are you saying I'd be better off putting Ubuntu on an Apple or Windows phone?

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## lukeiamyourfather

I'm saying Ubuntu Touch has parts of Android in it and there's no avoiding that. Ubuntu Touch isn't a product from scratch, they're building upon the development of Android. The only phones you can use Ubuntu Touch on right now are Android phones, specifically the Nexus products from Google.

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## PsychedelicWonders

Hmm.  Alright thanks for your help!

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## saibaggins

i'm not convinced by this. Like you i'd love to have ubuntu only on my phone but i'd be very suprised if ubuntu touch is in any way based on android. I think the posters here must be getting confused with ubuntu for android which came out first.

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## PsychedelicWonders

> i'm not convinced by this. Like you i'd love to have ubuntu only on my phone but i'd be very suprised if ubuntu touch is in any way based on android. I think the posters here must be getting confused with ubuntu for android which came out first.


Yes exactly, I hope that Ubuntu Touch OS is completely separate & has NOTHING to do with Google/Android and they are confusing it with the Ubuntu for Android app that runs them together, which is understandably based around Android for it to work correctly in/with Android.

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## saibaggins

Ubuntu itself has nothing to do with android. Touch is just the touch GUI, why would it have anything to do with Android. I'm very confident they don't know what theyre talking about. 

The great thing about Ubuntu edge is it would have given Canonical perfect reference hardware to make everything work on. It's really disappointing it didnt happen, it'll love to know what the next best hardware is. I wonder if fairphone will open up their hardware.

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## colliers-barci-westnet

It looks to me like it is still happening!  Patience folks!

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## callumpears0n

As said before Ubuntu touch is based on the android operating system and requires a build of the CyanogenMod 10.1 ROM which is available for many phones, the android OS is needed as Ubuntu touch uses the Linux kernal from android, and also OpenGL, stagefright and RILD.

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## ChiefWOTJ

I installed Ubuntu Touch on an old Samsung Galaxy Nexus (Unlocked, GSM from Google) and have been playing with it for a couple days now.  Obviously, UT is still in developer preview, so take any commentary with that in mind.  It seems a bit sluggish on the GN, which is running on 1GB RAM.  I think it would probably run better on 2GB, but I'm not going to buy a Nexus 4 just to find out.  Aside from that, it seems to be coming along nicely...much better than when I tried it several months ago anyway.  Many features still don't work, but I'm going to reserve judgement until after the 17 October release.  

As far as hardware, from what I understand it is only officially supported on Nexus devices, but there has been work done on porting UT to other Android devices as well, including the Samsung Galaxy SIII (but not the IV).  I've got a no-contract T-Mobile SIM card in mine right now, and everything works (phone, text, data).

Not sure if that answered your question or not, but good luck.

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## dasche

I also tried Ubuntu touch on my galaxy nexus. I removed it after 1 hour. it is way too slow to be usable.

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## saibaggins

> As said before Ubuntu touch is based on the android operating system and requires a build of the CyanogenMod 10.1 ROM which is available for many phones, the android OS is needed as Ubuntu touch uses the Linux kernal from android, and also OpenGL, stagefright and RILD.


seriously where are you getting this from and why are you pushing it so hard? 

Ubuntu touch does NOT require android! 

try http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubuntu_Touch

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## fpaseintelliprox

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Touch/Devices Apparently all of these have been tested working! Hmmmm.... It seems though as there are more supported Devices that should be listed...

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## wesblake

I'm not 100% sure either, but I did apparently read more than callumpears0n and possibly others did. Should read information fully before replying to something.
The early version, as I understand it, was not based on Android, but used Android libraries. It was also, as someone else mentioned, hardly functional and slow, it was (as it said if you read on!) only a developer preview and known to have these issues. Going forward, as much if not all Android stuff will be stripped out. It is UBUNTU, not ANDROID, Ubuntu 14.x as I understand it will be for phone, tablet, or desktop, doesn't matter. Also, don't confuse Ubuntu for Phones with Ubuntu for Android, the latter will be a dual boot ability between Android and Ubuntu.
And the huge advantage of Ubuntu over any other Smartphone OS that most miss is FULL UBUNTU DESKTOP when docked. This could not be achieved if it were based on Android, etc. Imagine no more need for laptops, desktops, etc. Just a dock at your desk, when you drop in your phone, you get a FULL desktop (not some poor attempt like the other mobile OS' have done) operating system, external mouse, keyboard, monitor.... As a developer myself, I've dreamed of that day. My phone, a dock at work, and a dock at home. Yes, there's the newer Windows that has a "full desktop", but come on, it sucks, most un-user friendly OS for a long time, still requires too much from hardware. Most of the world has said so, and 8.1, etc have not fixed the issues people have voiced.

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## Nr90

I think basing the images of off Android (CM) images served multiple purposes, including, but not limited to:
- Usage of available binary blobs needed to use the available hardware
- Usage of Android tools while Ubuntu replacements are prepared. One example: Surfaceflinger.

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