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Pinephone – “BraveHeart” Limited Edition Linux SmartPhone
- branon 7y agoI'm really looking forward to getting one of these when the non-Brave Heart editions ship later next year. Planning to run Leste[0] on mine. [0] https://maemo-leste.github.io/ https://maemo-leste.github.io/
- CareyB 7y agoScroll to the bottom of the page, and you’ll notice it weighs 0.50 kg, or approximately ONE POUND. Just NO! Lots and lots of ‘finger errors’, as they call them in Formula 1.
- duckland 7y agoWill I have to pay extra to get it shipped to the US? I know that there will be a 10-15% tariff on smartphones starting Dec 15.
- blankdebut 7y agoI'm putting off buying a new phone in general until we get a decent Linux variant. Currently rocking a Samsung S4 running LineageOS.
- bluGill 7y agoI've concluded that any linux phone will lack the frequencies my provider (t-moblie) is using for the next few years so I'm trying to figure out what to get for the next two years. I'll probably buy a pine-phone sometime after the full release though.
- TwoNineFive 7y agoSo this Pinephone has everything but T-Mobile LTE band 66 and 17. That's pretty good and puts it on par with something like the old OnePlus 5T.
- bluGill 7y agoI use my phones in areas where it is 2g, or LTE bands not covered by the pine phone (or my current phone which just died so I need to upgrade anyway). Thus my concern.
- Rotareti 7y ago> I'm putting off buying a new phone in general until we get a decent Linux variant. Me too. I want a smartphone which can run an up-to-date OS for more than 5 years, just like my laptop. LinageOS dropped official support for my current phone a couple of month ago, which means no more updates for this phone... EOL... The phone was released July 2016. The hardware works just fine. I would use it for many more years if it was still receiving updates. What a waste of resources and time. Once again I'm looking for a new phone, because my old one died of planned obsolescence.
- heyflyguy 7y agoDoes lineageOS run faster on older hardware? I have a Samsung S5 Active that I loved, and when lollipop came out it really dragged it down. My new S8 active already has cracked screen and screwed up case, while my S5 is in perfect physical condition. I'd love to install some other OS and make it usable.
- 7y ago
- mike-cardwell 7y agoThese went on pre-order this morning.
- sjg007 7y agoHow is this not a scam?
- gorgoiler 7y agoI’ve bought other Pine64 products before (ARM SoCs) and they were high quality and well supported. I don’t expect my recommendation to mean much, but for $150 I’ll be taking a punt on this phone too. Even if it ends up as a brick I’d be happy knowing I’d supported Pine64’s efforts to make commodity hardware like this succeed. If anyone has experience otherwise I’d be interested to hear.
- ntw1103 7y agoI've ordered a Rock64 board from them before, and it has been fantastic. I justed ordered the pinephone, and I'm excited to get it. :)
- beatgammit 7y agoWhy would it be a scam? They have a variety of products that are well regarded by the community, an active forum, etc, so why would they betray that trust for a $150 phone sold in a relatively small batch? They are also upfront about not providing software support, so their liability ends when they deliver a phone that meets the relatively modest specs they outlined.
- Tepix 7y agoHow is this a scam?
- megous 7y agohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1IKlwePuCg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1IKlwePuCg
- ljcn 7y agoIs the early adaptor included?
- scandox 7y agoWell the mistake is so consistent I started to wonder if they have created a new archetype: someone who not only adopts early but also adapts to the challenges of a beta product...
- megous 7y agopeople will be adapting software to the device, in the next few months :) so it's a nice freudian slip
- ekianjo 7y agoonly if you adopt it
- gorgoiler 7y agoI think you are mocking the site authors’ English language skills? Even if you are just being light hearted and don’t mean any real harm, comments like this foster an environment where it’s acceptable to mock foreign language skills. No one here wants to live in that kind of world.
- peteradio 7y ago> No one here wants to live in that kind of world. A little melodramatic don't you think? Aren't there much bigger fish to fry than a modest jab at the authors misuse of the word?
- foobarbecue 7y agoTrue for personal communications. Not true for a product launch. Proofreading is as important as code testing.
- q3k 7y ago
- mmjaa 7y agoThe more I see these kinds of products coming out, the more I realize that Creative Labs, of all people, had something right when they designed the Zii Egg .. if only they'd put some weight behind the platform and finished PlaszmaOS, which was a Linux OS on par with iOS at the time - but alas cancelled "because Android": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zii_EGG https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zii_EGG I really have to wonder what could have been if CL had the balls to finish this project and make it available to all and sundry to serve as the basis for commercial products. It was a delightfully cheerful little system for the time ..
- classified 7y agoThis introduces some interesting new terms, like the "early adaptor" or "Expension". Quite amusing. https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Expension https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Expension
- mosselman 7y agoMaking fun of non-native speakers' mistakes is so cool, it makes you look very clever.
- rkachowski 7y agoI have sympathy for people making a sincere effort to market to foreign audiences but basic language mistakes like this damage professionalism, and when you're trying to get money from people it can make one question whether this is a scam or not.
- dangerface 7y ago> basic language mistakes like this damage professionalism Thats just like your opinion or whatever. I care about professional results I'll meet people half way with their communication.
- classified 7y agoDo you also complain about error messages from your compiler after a syntax error? A dictionary / thesaurus is only a mouse click away. There are even rumors about editors with built-in spellcheckers. Is an effort to get the language right in a marketing document too much to ask?
- dangerface 7y ago> Is an effort to get the language right in a marketing document too much to ask? Yes, expecting some one who doesn't speak your language to speak your language as fluently as a native speaker is too much to ask.
- userbinator 7y agoIt has a removable battery, storage "expension", and a headphone jack! To me, that puts it ahead of the majority of smartphones today... I have a several-year-old generic Chinese smartphone with very similar specs, although it's a Mediatek 32-bit SoC which has a built-in modem for all the communications (GSM/GPS/WiFi/BT/FM combo chip). The Allwinner A64 is not a smartphone SoC so I wonder what the battery life will be like, and what it will actually have for a modem.
- ocdtrekkie 7y agoIt has a Quectel EG-25G according to the specs, which is even a Verizon approved module. Librem 5 didn't go with a smartphone SoC either. My presumption is that you can't get as open a platform as they wanted to go with the traditional ones?
- kop316 7y agoMy assumption is this creates a boundary in which the phone manufacturers can physically sever, as both have physical hardware switches for camera, Wifi/Bluetooth, Cell, Mic. Additionally, I have seen the SoCs with integrated modems require proprietary blobs in order to even boot. I am getting a "Birch" Librem 5 and I just ordered a Pinephone, so I am curious to see how they compare to my Google Pixel 3a. I really hope one or both can be a daily driver.
- chewz 7y agoAnd switches ... > Privacy Switches: LTE (include GPS), Wifi/BT, Mic, and Camera
- Hitton 7y agoI read somewhere that those switches are actually accessible only if you remove the battery, so they aren't that useful. Still better than not having them at all though.
- MartijnBraam 7y ago
- squiggleblaz 7y agoIt is tempting; I have been waiting for a while. Having just moved to Europe I don't know what getting the delivery here will be like. Anyone have any reasonable indications about customs etc?
- dangerface 7y ago> Anyone have any reasonable indications about customs etc? Depends on the country, in the uk you get the package, then if you are unlucky a few months later customs will send you a bill. 90% chance they wont send anything and you won't have to pay customs.
- Lex-2008 7y agoBetter to check rules for your specific country, but usually you have to pay VAT tax (about 20%) plus customs fees. This page provides some info: https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/individuals/buying-goods-services-online-personal-use/buying-goods/buying-goods-online-coming-from-a-noneu-union-country_en https://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/individuals/buying-goo... - but I'd start with asking locals and then google for "${country_name} vat".
- fimdomeio 7y agoIn Portugal it works something like this. If it's below 100€ it's very likely not to be taxed (but not sure if it's a hard rule) if it's above it gets stuck in custums you have to send the purchase documentation and you're charged for VAT (23%). Any other costs if exist are very low value compared to the rest.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gorgoiler 7y ago$150 is a pretty nice price point compared to a €450 Fairphone or a $1000 iPhone. When the price is low, the expectations are low, which I find increases the amount of fun you can have with a platform. It’s not about the raw technical specs, it’s about what doors a platform can open. Kind of like what Arduino did for making hardware fun. The phone would have to actually be usable though. The last time I did anything like this was a few years ago with a £30 Alcatel device that I repurposed as a GPS tracker, but which I couldn’t get root on. I Want To Believe
- megous 7y agoYes, I recently someone hack an e-ink reader to add GPS and show maps. I can't find the link anymore. :) Other avenue for fun is buying broken stuff on auction sites, and reverse-engineering/fixing it.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- dxxvi 7y ago$150 is the price I pay for a Moto Z3 play (of course after a discount from Motorola, which is applied to everybody). The Z3 play might not be as "open" as this one, but it's a very nice phone, rootable, able to install TWRP. So $150 for this phone is a little too much.
- fimdomeio 7y agoTo me it seems quite cheap. I paid 150€ for my current huawei with all sorts of the usual spyware installed (from google huawei, facebook) that I can't really get rid of. Paying a smilar price for a phone that I can fully control seems a great deal
- Tepix 7y agoPerhaps you haven't read the product description. Here it goes: An Open Source Smart Phone Supported by All Major Linux Phone Projects Perhaps you’re in a line of work where security is a must, or a hard-core Linux enthusiast, or perhaps you’ve just got enough of Android and iOS and you’re ready for something else – the PinePhone may be the next Phone for you. Powered by the same Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit SOC used in our popular PINE A64 Single Board Computer, the PinePhone runs mainline Linux as well as anything else you’ll get it to run. The purpose of the PinePhone isn’t only to deliver a functioning Linux phone to end-users, but also to actively create a market for such a device, as well as to support existing and well established Linux-on-Phone projects. All major Linux Phone-oriented projects, as well as other FOSS OS’, are represented on the PinePhone and developers work together on our platform to bring support this this community driven device. The Moto Z3 is not competing with this phone.
- seba_dos1 7y agoBeing deeply in this open smartphones thing for more than a decade already, $150 for PinePhone is insanely cheap, with practically no profit margins. But I guess somebody will always complain regardless of how low it gets ;)
- i_am_proteus 7y agoCan anyone here comment on the maturity of the supported OSes? UBPorts and Sailfish(!) look like the farthest along of the bunch from a read of the docs.
- em-bee 7y agosailfish has been production quality for years. it'd pick it again without hesitation.
- arethuza 7y agoAs a total aside - perhaps worth noting that the phrase "Brave Heart", at least in a Scottish context, has quite an interesting story that is nothing like the movie and actually comes from the alleged last words of Robert 'Black' Douglas during a battle in Spain against the Moors where he is supposed to have shouted: "Lead on brave heart, I’ll follow thee." and thrown the casket containing the heart of Robert the Bruce at his foes before diving into the fight: https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/robert-the-bruces-heart https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/robert-the-bruces-heart:
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- gregjw 7y ago'developer and early adaptor' 'storage expension' guys, english proof reading, please!
- MrMember 7y agoI'm really excited about a true Linux, non-Android, phone, but how far are we from something that's actually usable? There's Pinephone and Librem 5 on the horizon, but any news about their release comes with a lot of caveats. "Early adopters and developers only, experimental software, use at your own risk," etc. I'll happily buy one once it can reliably be used to make and receive calls and text messages and browse the internet, but how far away is that?
- megous 7y agoI don't see it having a problem browsing the internet or sending SMS. Making/receiving/managing calls is more complicated, and I haven't seen it demonstrated, yet. I really like that they're trying to break the chicken-egg problem and kickstart the actual community oriented development of SW. I think this is better in the long run than trying to do SW inhouse.
- PhasmaFelis 7y ago> Small numbers (1-3) of stuck or dead pixels are a characteristic of LCD screens. These are normal and should not be considered a defect. Wait, what?
- MartijnBraam 7y agoWhile it's stated very explicitly here, it's also in the manual for every monitor you've ever bought, you need >n dead pixels before the monitor is seen as defect and good for warrenty replacement.