Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0: support for “notches,” rounded corners and a fresh Chromium

The UBports project has released Ubuntu Touch 24.04-2.0 — the latest feature release of the mobile operating system built on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. The update follows the beta version unveiled a month earlier and is still aimed at a limited list of smartphones and tablets.

New devices

The Zinwa Q25 smartphone has been added to the roster of supported hardware. Beyond it, the system runs on a whole range of models, among them the Asus Zenfone Max Pro M1, F(x)tec Pro1X, Fairphone 4 and 5, JingPad A1, the second-generation Lenovo Tab M10 HD tablets, OnePlus Nord N10 5G and N100, the unusual Rabbit R1 gadget, Sony Xperia X, several generations of the Volla Phone, as well as the Xiaomi Poco X3, Redmi 9 and Redmi Note 9.

What has changed

The main technical achievement is an update to the Chromium engine that powers the built-in Morph browser. The developers have finally moved from the thoroughly outdated Chromium 87 to version 134, which should noticeably improve compatibility with the modern web.

Support for screens with “notches” and rounded corners has been singled out. The improvement was long overdue: plenty of current smartphones have a cutout for the front-facing camera, and until now Ubuntu Touch had not worked correctly with such displays.

The Lomiri shell has gained a screenshot editor. In addition, the reliability of the mobile data connection has been improved, new emoji have been added and a number of bugs have been fixed. An important step toward maturity: encryption of user data is no longer experimental on devices that support FSCRYPT v2.

What comes next

The UBports team continues to move toward its next major goal — porting Ubuntu Touch to the current Ubuntu 26.04 LTS base. Details about the current release have been published on the project's website.

Source: Phoronix