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hello and welcome to the android desktop
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shootout
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that's android 86 versus bliss
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versus phoenix os versus prime os
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who wins let's find out
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hey guys it's joel here with make tech
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easier the android desktop scene is
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relatively new
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with a handful of distributions like the
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early days of linux
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these distributions provide the kind of
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desktop and window manager
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pc users expect usually with google play
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handling software
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in theory android desktops provide a new
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way of using your pc
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with a conventional desktop harnessing
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the enormous
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android ecosystem given that android
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apps are written for less powerful
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machines
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old pcs can be made useful again
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and you can even multi-boot between
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windows and linux
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for a powerful combination that's the
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idea at least
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but how do they stack up really we put
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the four main players
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to the test to decide which android
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desktop is the best in 2020
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it used to be said that although you can
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use android on a pc
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you just wouldn't want to it was android
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86 they were talking about
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android 86 is the vanilla build the bare
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bones
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no frills choice current android 86
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is based on lineage os and makes no
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attempt to hide it
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with giant lineage logos appearing
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throughout its setup
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android 86 is also referred to as
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android
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x86 android 86 used to be
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difficult to navigate without a touch
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screen but now it comes with taskbar as
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standard
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a desktop menu popularized by bliss os
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users can still choose a touch screen
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interface if desired
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which breaks down your apps into a nice
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alphabetical system
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and adds a close button to apps when
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multitasking
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app wise there are audio effects and a
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small browser
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but this is still a pretty bare-boned
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system you won't get very far without
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logging into google play
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and grabbing what you need i'm unsure of
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its sleep function too
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there's no obvious sleep button anywhere
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and although it at least disabled the
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screens of our test laptops when we
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closed the lids
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their fans were still running other
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reports suggest it suspends fine though
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so i'll give it the benefit of the doubt
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here
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in the last few years android 86 has
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gone from being just a smartphone
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x86 port to becoming a viable desktop
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this is still very much the basics and
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it has no bells and whistles
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but it works there are no nasty
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surprises waiting for you
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no junk ware and it should work on any
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virtual machine without too many
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problems
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[Music]
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bliss os the bliss team has been at the
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forefront of
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android desktop development for a number
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of years
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run by a team of volunteers they have a
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vision of synchronized os
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spread across multiple devices and form
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factors if you want to know what
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features will be in other android
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distros in coming years
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try bliss its interface is innovative
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and extremely likeable
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letting you switch at will between a
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desktop system and a touch style
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interface
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experimental vulcan support is also
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available
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along with a blissify option that lets
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you fine tune your gui
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in minute detail firefox is also
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pre-installed
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and joy of joys it suspends properly
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unfortunately we've never found a
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release that was stable enough to use on
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a daily basis
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maybe things will work fine on specific
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hardware but we've often been stuck with
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a broken gui
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or repeated intrusive error messages
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in recent versions the desktop menu
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breaks down almost immediately
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forcing you to use the touch style lawn
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chair interface instead
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that said the current release seems more
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stable than last year's
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so the bliss team may be raining back
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the innovation a little in favor of
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tightening up their code
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bliss certainly has its fans and some
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hardware seems to work well
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especially touch devices like the
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surface pro but if you're using a
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keyboard and mouse
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you may want to look elsewhere if you're
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interested in bliss
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now is a good time to check it out just
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don't expect a solid desktop experience
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here
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[Music]
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phoenix os is a difficult thing to rate
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the os
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is now full of adware which it wasn't
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previously
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with the intention that you subscribe to
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their service to remove ads
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it doesn't appear to be open source it's
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also full of chinese software
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that could be used in data collection
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and the occasional parts of the os
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haven't been translated into
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english but underneath all of this is
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the most solid
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android desktop with a familiar window
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manager
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somewhat like windows 7 and a good set
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of desktop tools and keyboard shortcuts
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to keep windows users happy
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it also has a working sleep function and
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seems to have
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a decent hit ratio for working apps
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we won't say how but there are ways to
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remove ads besides subscribing
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were it not for the chinese data
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concerns it would probably be
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deployed on a large scale definitely
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worth considering
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but that junk ware just makes me a bit
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nervous
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[Music]
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of all of these systems prime os is the
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fastest and smoothest
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giving the best first impression with an
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almost scandinavian level of tasteful
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minimalism
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unique to primo s is its native bridge
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feature
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which uses native arm libraries to allow
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better compatibility
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between arm and x86 systems
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this makes it the winner here when it
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comes to successfully running
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apps the prime team have put an emphasis
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on gaming
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with their decker pro gaming center this
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has specific game optimizations to map
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touch screen controls to the mouse
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and keyboard which will be especially
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popular to those who like pubg mobile
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however
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it is massively let down by its broken
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sleep function
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when we tried to suspend the machine the
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screen simply went black while the
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backlight stayed on
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and machines with mechanical hard disks
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emitted an awful noise
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that had us reaching for the power
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button furthermore prime os
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isn't open source and documentation is
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severely lacking
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on the off chance you don't need a sleep
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function prime os would make the nicest
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package
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however this is unlikely among android
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users who will probably be using some
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kind of portable device
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and the winner of android desktop is
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android 86 but not by much
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it's not fancy but it will provide the
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best result
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on average for the greatest number of
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people and probably with the least
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hassle
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if you want something more satisfying
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try one of the other districts
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landing on a stable release of bliss you
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may well stick with it
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and enjoy its innovation if you're not
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bothered by chinese data issues and are
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willing to either put up with ads or
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remove them yourself
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phoenix os has the most mature desktop
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and if only prime os could suspend
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properly
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it would easily be our pick should later
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releases fix the issue then prime os
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would be our recommendation but for now
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it's plain old android 86
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not sure if an android desktop is for
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you what about emulation
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check out our options in our guide on
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eight awesome projects
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that allow you to run android on pc well
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that's it from me as always if you love
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tech as much as we do
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