Jide may be pulling the plug on the consumer version of its Remix OS Android-as-a-desktop operating system project. But the rival team behind Phoenix OS is still hard at work.

After releasing Phoenix OS 2.0 earlier this year, the team has pushed out a second version of Phoenix OS based on Android 7.1 Nougat.

Phoenix OS 2.1 is available for download in 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and you can either grab an EXE file for installing Phoenix OS on a Windows computer or an ISO if you’d prefer a disk image.

Phoenix OS is designed to be installed on a PC rather than a smartphone or tablet, and it basically looks like a cross between Windows and Android. There’s a taskbar, desktop, and start menu instead of a home screen and notification drawer. You can view notifications and other settings by tapping the icons in the bottom right side of the screen. And the home, back, and recents buttons are all the way on the bottom right side of the screen.

You can run apps in full-screen mode or in resizeable windows that you can position anywhere on the screen. Not all Android apps are really optimized for desktop use or mouse and keyboard input. But that’s where the keyboard mapping feature comes in.

It lets you opt to use keystrokes in lieu of button presses for certain actions in games and other applications to emulate an on-screen gamepad experience.

Phoenix OS 2.1 includes a number of bug fixes and improvements including better hardware compatibility, an updated keyboard mapping feature, and the ability to remember window resizing settings after you reboot.

If you’re already running an older version of the operating system, an over-the-air update is expected to start rolling out on July 24th. But you can download the installer or ISO from the Phoenix website now.

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10 replies on “As Remix OS fades away, Phoenix OS keeps Android-as-desktop OS alive with v2.1.0 release”

  1. I read it needs an Intel processor from the last 5 years. So, we forget older Intel cpus and probably all AMD cpus, or at least those older than Bulldozer. In other words one more OS that would be perfect for older systems but does not run on older systems.
    Bright future ahead….like in the case of Remix OS.

    1. But if you have one of those old slow and inefficient processors, shouldn’t you consider upgrading?
      And if you want to breathe life into it besides Windows 7/10… how about a Linux distro?
      Even stock AOSP won’t run well on those, so you have nothing to lose, and its a worthwhile trade-off that the developers have made.

      Or you know, you can do something about it and try to port it to your hardware yourself rather than complain. Just a thought.

      1. No one wants this OS. No one really wants android, were just stuck with it.

        1. How do you know with certainty that nobody wants this OS? I’m genuinely curious as to where you have this informations.

      2. Some people can’t afford to simply upgrade their old computers, especially in developing countries. Evidently this OS wouldn’t be appropriate for those computers but even the light Linux distros are getting to the point where they won’t run on them. At this point I don’t have any good advice for those running anything weaker than a hyperthreaded Pentium 4 with at least 2GB of RAM.

        I do agree that some of the older CPUs such as the P4s are horribly inefficient. My P4 3.0GHZ equipped computer uses up to 160 watts at full power, my later Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz only uses about 60 watts. The C2D is much more powerful from a data processing standpoint while only using about 40% of the electricity that the P4 uses. My laptop with an AMD E1-2100 1.0GHz CPU has about the same data processing capability as my P4 desktop but only uses about 16 watts at full power. That is 10% of the electricity for the same capabilities — and that evolution in CPU design was accomplished in about seven years.

      3. That’s a bit harsh, isn’t it?

        Both of my desktop machines are about seven years old and use AMD Athlon II processors. They work perfectly fine with Windows 10, CloudReady, and LinuxLite (as well as other Ubuntu-based distributions).

        I’d certainly be interested in trying something like Phoenix OS but, according to their website, the PC version is only supported on Intel processors. I don’t have the time or skills to port this to AMD processors and there’s no reason for me to get rid of my current, perfectly-useful, machines.

        I’ve no idea how many older AMD PCs are out there but Phoenix is definitely missing out on a large chunk of their potential user base.

        1. I’ve tried it on my AMD-FX 8350 PC and it worked just fine, albeit with FileManager crashing sometimes, and the Camera app crashing all the time

    2. Not really the case. I have installed Remix and Phoenix on a Thinkpad SL500 (9 years old hardware). It works pretty decent.

  2. Phoenix os sounded attractive to me already, but i miss additiinal language support. English isnt an issue for me, but my lady would have a hard time using an all english os.,.

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