Ubuntu phone in South Africa: Aquaris E5 HD unboxing

BQ recently launched its Ubuntu global store, which sells and ships the Aquaris E5 HD and Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu smartphones to countries like South Africa.

While you are required to pay in Euros, no shipping fees or taxes are levied at checkout. You must just pay the relevant duties and taxes over to SARS when the device lands in South Africa.

To test the service, MyBroadband ordered an Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu Edition for €199.90, and a Duo Case for €16.90 from BQ.com

The service was nothing short of amazing.

Not only were there no shipping fees or additional taxes levied, the items were ordered on 13 August and UPS delivered them by 18 August.

SARS did take its pound of flesh: R489.02 VAT, and R72.60 in duties.

UPS was also paid a R119.70 fee for handling all the customs admin for us.

For your money you’ll get the essentials: the phone, a travel charger, a micro USB cable, and a SIM ejector. You can watch our unboxing video of the smartphone, which is embedded below.

Our device is on its way to our regular reviewer, and you can expect an article giving our hands-on experiences with the Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu Edition in the near future.

Note that we bought the Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu Edition from the BQ.com Global Store, not the UK shop as stated in the video.

The specifications are summarised in the table below.

Specifications	Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu Edition
Maker	BQ / Mundo Reader
Dimensions	142 x 71 x 8.65 mm
Weight	134g
Operating system	Ubuntu Touch
Display	5″ 720p (720×1280)
Rear camera	13-18MP
Front camera	5-8MP
Storage, internal	16GB
Storage, expandable	microSD
RAM	1GB
Processor	1.3GHz quad-core MediaTek
Graphics	Mali 400-MP2
Battery	2,500mAh
Cellular data	HSPA+
SIM type	Dual micro-SIM