Used to hate it being on the bottom but now prefer it as it’s easier to reach. All the way at the top with as large as phones are these days isn’t as convenient. But ya, at least they give the option for either.

Glad it has an actual display as compared to all those previous imposters /s.

I really want to get one, mainly because of the smaller size. The only thing holding me back is lack of video out over USB-C. If they had that, it’d be perfect for me.

While Termux doesn’t require root, my device is rooted which allows for a lot more.

A few examples:

• Using mitmproxy to capture and analyze app traffic from phone apps (automated w/ a widget shortcut to configure android proxy settings on launch and then reset back when I’m finished).
• SSHing into my servers (mosh is useful to keep connections alive if network cuts out). I have my own homescreen widgets to automatically launch for specific nodes. Also use tmux everywhere to handle multiple sessions.
• Scripting my android phone as a USB keyboard input (simulating BadUSB).
• I’ve implemented my own “lost phone rescue” so I have a way to remote into my device if I lose it.
• Reading man pages about a command
• Git cloning projects to examine source code when I’m feeling curious
• Running web servers for sample projects
• Managing files on device (sometimes easier with CLI)

Termux

This app alone is one of the huge reasons why I prefer Android. I love that I can natively run a bunch of Linux utilities directly on my phone and use it like I would a regular computer. Everything from Vim, Python, and various networking utilities, I’ve played around with so many different tools which has helped expand my skillset over the years.

I also use the Termux-X11 addon to have a full xfce desktop environment running on an external monitor with HDMI out over USB-C.

Phones are quite capable devices and using tools like these really unlocks their full potential.