Initial Product Testing Notes: Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 on Google Nexus 5 Testbed

Ubuntu Touch OTA-7, running on Google Nexus 5 smartphone built by LG

It's been an interesting couple of weeks since I did the initial flash and install of Ubuntu Touch OTA-7, overwriting the stock Android 5.1.1 Lollipop on my Google Nexus 5 handset.

I've kept the installation as basic and in original form as possible, aside from the occasional updates for the standard applications that came with the OS. Although OTA-8 is already out, my intention is to first understand and assess the stock OTA-7 product offering as much as possible in terms of design and performance, then gradually explore how it performs as additional apps are installed from the Ubuntu Touch OpenStore.

The interface on the whole has been a pleasure to view and interact with, from my initial impressions. I never get tired of that beautiful hue of royal purple that has been the Ubuntu mainstay, which appears during startup, the lock screen and the background when using Scopes.

As an initial test, I wanted to see how the testbed performed in terms of battery life, when left on standby mode. After having charged the battery to 100% over a few cycles, I left it over a few days while connected to Wifi. The most recent test run showed a standby time of 118 hours to deplete from 100% to approximately 4%, finally tapping out at 120 hours. That equates to 5 days of standby time. I was impressed - not bad for a newly released Linux OS, running on a 4+ year old handset that had already been heavily used. Some photos taken at the end of the test run are shown below.

Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 on Nexus 5 at the end of discharge cycle on standby mode

Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 on Nexus 5: Battery charge app graph and power settings

Battery charge graph on Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 at the end of standby mode test, portrait mode

In addition, I was curious to see how the detection and mounting process would work if the handset were connected to the USB port of a computer. I tested that with a USB cable and my System76 laptop. The handset was successfully detected and mounted on Ubunut's GNOME desktop and Nautilus file system as a Nexus 5 mobile device. So far, so good. It's interesting to note that the stock Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 installation does not expose much of the OS-specific system files or folders to the user when mounted via USB. It only displays the Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures, and Videos folders. Note the interesting system path and mounting point data shown via Nautilus' Location column, in the screenshot below.

LGE Nexus 5 with Ubuntu Touch OTA-7 registered and mounted on Ubuntu 18.04 filesystem

Running the lsusb and dmesg commands respectively, I noticed the following data generated during the mounting process. The lsusb ouput shows the Nexus 5 registering and being detected as a Google Nexus 4/10 device. However, dmesg shows it correctly registering as an LGE Nexus 5.

LGE Nexus 5 with Ubuntu Touch OTA-7: Device detection and registration output data on terminal

One final point of interest for now. I had randomly wondered if Ubuntu Touch kept the screenshot taking key configuration for the Nexus 5 that was used under Android - simultaneous holding of the Power and Volume Down buttons. I had tried that, but didn't notice any notification on the screen. However, when checking the mounted filesystem on my laptop, I was surprised to see a photo registered in the Screenshots folder under the Pictures main folder. So it does work after all.

Ubuntu Touch OTA-7: Screenshot functionality test verified

Those are my initial notes at the end of the battery discharge and standby mode tests. I'll be doing a deep dive into the UI/UX in the next post, and discussing my findings in more detail. Let's see how things go as product testing continues!