Shortly after introducing a new Linux-based operating system for tablets and phones called JingOS, Chinese company Jingling has unveiled the first tablet that will ship with the operating system pre-installed.

The JingPad A1 is an 11 inch tablet with support for optional pen and detachable keyboard accessories. It’ll also support 4G and 5G cellular networks.

But the main thing setting this tablet apart from others is the software. It’s powered by Jingling’s custom Linux distribution that’s been optimized to offer a touch-friendly user interface inspired by iOS and Android. Underneath the pretty UI though, it’s basically a Linux distro which means you should be able to run desktop programs as well as mobile apps.

Jingling hasn’t announced pricing yet, but the company say the JingPad A1 will be available for pre-order soon, and there’s a page where you can sign up to receive more information when it’s available. Pricing should be announced in May.

With some details not expected to be released until June, it seems likely that the tablet won’t be ready to ship until this summer at the soonest.

Here’s what we know so far though:

Display11 inch
AMOLED
2368 x 1728 pixels
266 pixels per inch
4:3 aspect ratio
“almost 90%” screen-to-body ratio
109% NTSC color gamut
Processor4 x ARM Cortex-A75 CPU cores @ 2 GHz
4 x ARM Cortex-A55 CPU cores @ 1.8 GHz
PowerVR GM9446 GPU @ 800 MHz
RAM8GB
Storage256GB
Cameras16MP rear
8MP front
Battery8,000 mAh
Connectivity4G/5G modem
(Not supported in all countries, a list is coming in June, 2021)
InputCapacitive touchscreen
Pen  with 4096 levels of pressure sensitivity (optional)
Keyboard with 6-rows and touchpad (optional)
SoftwareLinux-based JingOS
Support for Android apps
Dimensions6.7mm thick (0.26 inches)
Weight500 grams (1.1 pounds)

via TuxPhones

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8 replies on “JingPad A1 is a Linux tablet powered by JingOS”

  1. it would be interesting a comparison with chromeos, imho the best os for x86 tablet at the moment.

  3. The specs are very nice. I wouldn’t trust that thing though. It’s probably full of spyware like most chinese stuff.

    But, if its easy to wipe it and put your own distro on it…

    I’d still rather support Pine64 though. Choices… Though choices. Been waiting for months for Pine64 to restock, seems like its not going to happen any time soon.

  5. I would buy the hell out of this if it were made by Lenovo and ran Fedora.

    But as it is, I simply do not trust the vendor or their OS.

  6. I really don’t want to generalize here, but as a longtime Linux user, I haven’t seen the best practices from Chinese companies that create Linux-based operating systems. It seems that within the Chinese computer industry, theres a lack of willingness/incentive to abide by licenses like GPL. These practices often put them at odds with the community, especially developers.

    A typical scenario like this is that a Chinese company uses open source software to build something, and then refuses to release the source for some/all components of it. Then everyone gets mad and shuns them.

    Again, it doesn’t feel right to generalize about this, except….

    ….when I look at their website, I see no signs whatsoever that they have any commitment to Open Source software. Infact, when I use google to search their domain, the phrase isn’t mentioned anywhere, except some community posts within their forum from users.

    I’d like to see some commitment from them to the open source community, and the various open source licenses that they are using.

    1. Hello Grant Russel, here, you can find the License of JingOS. It is mentioned GPL 3.0 (https://github.com/JingOS-team/JingOS#jingos), but if you scroll to the FAQ, it is said :
      “Is JingOS going to be opensource? And free software?

      Yes, JingOS will open-source step by step. We will update the Github project every half year. And JingOS will be free forever."

      Therefore, it is not clear if the code is now fully opensource or “what you see only on github is open source”.

      1. Seems like a very vague and half-assed commitment from them.

        “JingOS will be open-source” doesn’t really tell me much. For all we know, that could be referring to a very small fraction of the software used by this device. “JingOS” might just refer to the desktop environment.

        And a biannual github update isn’t very reassuring.

        Looks to me like a company that wants to reap the benefits of using open-source software, but probably isn’t interested in upholding the ideals of open source.

        They would have been far better off to simply deliver this product with no software, and just offer driver support.

Comments are closed.