BQ and Canonical announced Aquaris E5 HD Ubuntu Edition, the second Ubuntu-powered mobile to come from the vendor.

Alberto Mendez, CEO of BQ, said: “We have devised the BQ-Canonical collaboration as a long term project. Our next objective, which we are already working on, is convergence. We firmly believe in Ubuntu and the philosophy behind it.”

As the name suggests, the big change to the device is the shift to a 5-inch HD (720×1280 pixel) display, from 4.5-inch (540×960 pixel) in BQ and Canonical’s earlier device (Aquaris E4.5 Ubuntu Edition).

In line with the earlier device, it is powered by a 1.3GHz quadcore MediaTek processor with 1GB of RAM, although onboard storage has been increased (to 16GB from 8GB), as has the megapixel count for the main camera (to 13MP from 8MP).

As with all BQ smartphones, Aquaris E5 Ubuntu Edition comes unlocked with dual-SIM support.

The new smartphone will be available for purchase from mid-June, across the EU, priced €199.90 from the BQ online store.

As yet, BQ is the only vendor to commercially offer Ubuntu-powered mobile devices. But Meizu, the other named partner of Canonical, is making available a device for developers.