u/YOYASHAS

I’ve been looking into getting a phone for some casual 3D room scanning and camera motion tracking for VFX/projects, and it’s honestly kind of crazy that if you want actual 3D depth hardware, you basically have to buy an iPhone Pro.

I know a few years ago some Android flagships (like the Galaxy S20 Ultra or Note 20) used to have ToF (Time of Flight) sensors, but it seems like every single Android OEM completely phased them out. Now, everything relies on Google ARCore and pure software/AI depth tracking.

For standard photography, the AI and laser autofocus work totally fine. But for actual spatial tracking and AR apps, pure software still feels a bit janky and prone to drifting/glitching compared to dedicated hardware.

Do you think any Android company will ever bring back proper 3D depth sensors to the rear cameras, or is the industry totally settled on letting software handle it all? If you're doing any 3D scanning or motion tracking on Android right now, what's your current setup or workaround?

hey guys, i have an old Lenovo G50-30 from around 2014-15, specs are Intel Pentium N3540 (Bay Trail), 4GB RAM, 128GB SSD. tried Zorin OS Lite 18.1 recently and had a bunch of issues - screen tearing, audio bugs, high CPU usage and the Intel Bay Trail graphics were just acting up constantly with tearing and stuttering.

i had no idea Bay Trail is a pain on Linux, just wanted to ask what distro you guys would actually recommend for this hardware that works without needing a bunch of fixes out of the box. my family uses it too so it needs to be simple and close to Windows.

already tried Zorin, not going back to that. open to suggestions but please don't give me 10 options, just tell me what actually works on Bay Trail specifically.

thanks