PocketShell
What you can do with Linux on your Android phone
A recent phone has a fast multi-core CPU and a capable GPU. With a real Linux system it can do real work. These guides show what, with numbers measured on two devices, and say plainly what does not work.
Blender on an Android phone
EEVEE renders on the phone GPU, a 240-frame cinematic made on a Galaxy Z Flip 3, real timings and limits.
AI coding agentsClaude Code, OpenCode and Codex on your phone
Start a task, pocket the phone, get a notification. What works and what does not.
Video and photosFFmpeg and darktable on an Android GPU
Denoising 2–7× faster on the GPU, hardware H.264/HEVC encoding, and where the CPU still wins.
Game developmentThe Godot 4 editor on a phone or tablet
All three renderers on the Adreno GPU, measured fps, and the limits.
The devices behind the numbers
| Device | Chip and GPU | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Galaxy Z Flip 3 | Snapdragon 888, Adreno 660 | phone, Android, kernel 5.4 |
| Galaxy Tab S7 (SM-T870) | Snapdragon 865+, Adreno 650 | tablet, Android 13, kernel 4.19 |
Every measurement names its device and software. Other phones will differ, and phones without a Qualcomm Adreno GPU run graphics on the CPU for now.
Also good on a phone (no guide yet)
- Python scripts, data work and notebooks-style analysis with apt and pip.
- Web development: run a dev server and open it in Chromium or Firefox on the Linux desktop.
- Git: pull, review, commit and push, with a Git plugin on Home.
- Keeping an eye on servers and your home lab over SSH.
Written by Muhammad Taha Raees, the developer of PocketShell. Measurements are single runs on the devices named, unless the text says otherwise. Last checked: 2026-11-04.