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PinePhone – Open Source Smart Phone Supported by Major Linux Phone Projects

peter_d_sherman 5y ago
>"Full specifications [...] Bootable Micro SD [...]" Also, from further above on the page: "the PinePhone runs mainline Linux as well as anything else you’ll get it to run."
- userbinator 5y ago
  as well as anything else you’ll get it to run ...how about Windows 10 ARM? Wouldn't be very practical, but would definitely be an interesting challenge.
katmannthree 5y ago
The pinephone is great, in fact I'm typing this comment from mine. That said, fair warning to anyone thinking about getting one: it's slow, buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline linux distribution.
- 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
  "... jut a phone and a mainline linux distribution." From the OP: "... the PinePhone runs mainline Linux as well as anything else you'll get it to run." Linux is great but being able to run several different OS is, IMO, on a whole `nother level. For example, I am interested in running NetBSD. About 12 years ago, there was a phone called the T-Mobile Sidekick. What OS did it run. That phone was allegedly the first to sync the user data to the "cloud" and provide an "app marketplace". The founder of the company that created it later went on to co-found Android.
  - dsr_ 5y ago
    The Danger Hiptop was branded as the T-Mobile Sidekick; later T-Mo used the Sidekick name for some other devices. DangerOS required all applications to be written in Java and distributed via their store; if you stopped paying your subscription fee you would lose access to the store and to the online backup service as well. Microsoft bought Danger and eventually closed it, killing all usage. For a while it was the best device for sysadmins and the Deaf community -- because it had a keyboard and an SSH application.
    - 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
      "DangerOS required all applications to be written in Java..." Was Java a requirement of the OS or was it just a design choice by the developers. The OS was NetBSD AFAIK; of course one can run a JVM on NetBSD but that's not a requirement; I never do. Is Pinephone limited only to running Java applications. I want more programming options than just Java.
      - dsr_ 5y ago
        No end user could run anything on a DangerOS device that didn't come from the store; nothing went into the store that wasn't written in Java and met their guidelines. Pinephone is completely orthogonal to this.
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
        1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
        "Pinephone is completely orthogonal to this." Do you mean Pine64 has no intention of trying to control what people do with the device? Did anyone ever try to "root" the Sidekick? Always interested to hear more about it.
        dsr_ 5y ago
        I mean that that the Pinephone is not a DangerOS device, so anything that I say about the Danger Hiptop has nothing to do with the Pinephone.
- that_guy_iain 5y ago
  > Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline linux distribution. I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones. How can we honestly expect a small team of developers to compete with the larger teams a commerical project can afford? The reality is, we can't. And we'll always compare PinePhone and other things to iOS and Android and they'll always come up short. Also, a large part of using a smart phone is the apps. Without apps the phone is just really a phone. For me, to want to use PinePhone they would need to make it super easy to have Android on there.
  - matkoniecz 5y ago
    > I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones. That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. > How can we honestly expect a small team of developers to compete with the larger teams a commerical project can afford? In many cases they win by default. If "no leaking of personal data" is on mandatory feature list then Pinephones are already better than Android! And there are many projects where there is simply no commercial product at all and is unlikely to ever appear.
    - deltaonefour 5y ago
      >That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. I would argue Linux is only superior from the IT software perspective. This is a very narrow perspective that is only inflated if you're in IT or on an IT related site like HN. From almost every other dimension Linux is inferior and therefore from an Overall perspective it is inferior. The most important dimensions for an operating system are usability and compatibility. Average users are like this while hard core masochist programmers are willing to spend years decoding an interface
      - throwawayswede 5y ago
- pabs3 5y ago
  > Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. This sentence reminded of the OpenMoko days, hopefully the hardware choices were better than in that era.
  - linmob 5y ago
    I had a FreeRunner back in the day and have had a PinePhone for over a year now, and it has gotten me back to blogging [0] and creating videos after years of not doing that. The hardware choices are in so far better, as this looks like a normal phone, is not limited to GPRS in a world where connected services based on 3G are taking off, and there‘s also no graphics decelerator built in. Imho, the biggest design flaw is the size of the battery: You don’t get much screen on time with this. The AllWinner A64 is clearly not the most advanced piece of Silicon though, and support in Linux for that old chip is still advancing so things are a lot better than they were a year ago. As far as user space software is advancing, there‘s more and more coming which I try to list at [1]. The key difference here is that PINE64 is just providing the hardware and is not very involved in software at all. Thankfully Purism make software for their Librem 5 (which would have been shipping for real by now, but than a component shortage hit the industry), which also runs on PinePhone and works quite well. Projects like Plasma Mobile are catching up, and long standing Mobile Linux efforts like Sailfish OS and Ubuntu Touch have also been ported over. [0] https://linmob.net https://linmob.net [1] https://LINMOBapps.frama.io https://LINMOBapps.frama.io
- axegon_ 5y ago
  > buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Out of curiosity, how do these bugs/unreliability manifest in realty? I've been fiddling around with making a mobile Linux distro specifically for a car navigation/entertainment system so I'm curious to get some circumstantial feedback.
  - fsflover 5y ago
    I have a Pinephone. It works well most of the time, but occasionally apps crash, or it cannot connect to WiFi, or becomes very slow. Reboot usually helps. A good thing is that even if you buy it now and decide it's not reliable enough, you can be sure that the development will never stop and at some point it will be better than Android in every way. I would say in a year.
    - hutzlibu 5y ago
      "be sure that the development will never stop and at some point it will be better than Android in every way. I would say in a year" The current stage is pretty much unusable if you need a reliable phone. So in one year already, it is supposed to be better than android in every way? That is a very bold assumption. I mean, would be nice, but I doubt it and would be happy if it gets stable enough to simply use it as a phone and chatdevice, without hickups.
- theodric 5y ago
  You have a strange definition of "great." If any other phone exhibited those characteristics, I would write it off as garbage, not excuse its faults with a promise that they'll be fixed Real Soon Now™
  - emteycz 5y ago
    Don't forget about the price: $200 doesn't get you flagship experience.
    - nousermane 5y ago
      Depends on which year's. Pine64's SoC, Allwinner A64 is 4x 1,2 GHz Cortex-A53 chip, giving you about the same level of raw performance as a 2013 flagship phone.
      - fsflover 5y ago
        And it will run smoothly, if you choose simple software: https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/ https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/.
        lasagnaphil 5y ago
        Though from a few videos it's got an incredibly primitive UI that mainly uses the side buttons instead of the big touchscreen. The interface seems much more apt for a feature phone than a smartphone. (Though I realize there can be some niche demand for a non-touchscreen Linux phone with a hardware keyboard... Maybe that's what might be more achievable in the FOSS Linux hobbyist scene than something like the Pinephone or the Librem 5.)
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
    - tluyben2 5y ago
      Lately I have been trying out $200 range phones (with Android): the galaxy A31 for instance: it is the experience of a flagship phone from a few years ago. If the pinephone was that, I think everyone would be happy and yes, this is possible for $200. At least if you are Samsung? So yeah, not flagship but close enough for a lot of people (side by side, the a32 vs s21, for me is not worth the 4x+ pricetag, as in the difference between flagship and not flagship is shrinking fast, ymmv), however... The pinephone is worse hardware though (In almost all respects but the dipswitches) and the software, at this point, is really alpha quality mostly. But we know this: the promise it will run Linux smoothly on a phone is enough to buy one. It will take time but I would buy any phone that allows me to freely run multiple OSs new out of the box with all hardware supported.
- Aeolun 5y ago
  Yeah, that’s my main complaint. I want it to actually work as a phone before I want it to work like a small computer.
- dogma1138 5y ago
  I think the main thing that PinePhone has going for them is the price $150-200 for what essentially is a hobbyist device at this point is more than reasonable. This is in stark contrast to the Purism phones which offer about the same hardware (slightly better CPU but worse GPU) at flagship prices. This is somewhat also proof that the prices that Purism charges aren’t due to lack of economy of scale you can make these devices on the cheap, the hardware is available. I have a similar complaint about their laptops they charge a hefty premium for what is essentially a bog standard OEM laptop from China which you can get for almost half the price in many cases including from other direct to customer vendors.
  - fsflover 5y ago
    > This is in stark contrast to the Purism phones which offer about the same hardware (slightly better CPU but worse GPU) at flagship prices. This is very far from truth: https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-phones/6827 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-p... The i.MX 8M Quad is better than the Allwinner A64: 30% faster CPU clock speed, 140% faster RAM standard, 140% better OpenGL performance, USB 3.0 and support for higher resolution cameras. (and performance is just one of many reasons to prefer Librem 5 over Pinephone, see the link)
  - 29083011397778 5y ago
    > the prices that Purism charges aren’t due to lack of economy of scale you can make these devices on the cheap I've never understood that to be their argument. Purism is actively paying people to improve the mobile experience of Linux. They can't charge for software, and they certainly don't get a cut of app sales like Google or Apple. So to fund the devs that write the software, they mark up their hardware. This improves mobile Linux, makes for a reasonably sustainable company, and gives Pine64 a free ride regarding software like Phosh, Phoc, Calls, Chatty, etc. So without having to pay for developers, Pine can sell their hardware dramatically cheaper. Simply put, I don't think "Good software isn't cheap" should be a surprise to anyone here.
- pjmlp 5y ago
  Like any other failed attempt so far, assuming that they manage to keep enough money around for delivering those improvements over the next few years.
- suifbwish 5y ago
  Unfortunately what will likely happen is if the project becomes extremely successful a big corporate interest will buddy up to the project and pretend to have the best interest of the community in mind as they make the project increasingly dependent on their funding and development resources until finally the shoe drops and the corporate interest has unofficial control over the pinephone project similar to Google with Ubuntu and IBM/Redhat with CentOS. Every one has a weakness and a price.
- Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
  If hardware acceleration is fixed then user experience can see night and day difference. Unfortunately if anything to be seen from Raspberry Pi or other SBCs HW Acceleration seems like Nuclear Fusion due to different graphics API, standards, application/HW support etc.
userbinator 5y ago
Main Camera: Single OV6540, 5MP, 1/4″, LED Flash The official specs here https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_component_list#P.10_CAMERA https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_component_list#P.10_C... also say '6540, but no such model actually exists and the linked datasheet shows that it is actually an OV5640. Nonetheless, 5MP seems a bit low unless they got a really good deal on them, as I have an old Android from almost a decade ago(!) with an 8MP OV8825.
- katmannthree 5y ago
  It barely matters. The camera hardware and software lag like crazy and lack the postprocessing people are used to now -- the photos are terrible with a decent 5MP sensor and would probably be worse with the same weak CPU but more bits to shuffle...
  - userbinator 5y ago
    In my experience that's likely because of software --- there's tons of ultra-cheap cameras with Omnivision sensors in them, and they just use the default settings and reference code which suffice to give not much more than a recognisable image. But they can be run in RAW mode to produce far better quality.
    - katmannthree 5y ago
      If you have the bandwidth to contribute I'm sure the people working on the camera app (https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels) would love any assistance you could give them on postprocessing the RAWs. From my limited experience with it, there's a huge amount of focus lag on the sensor itself, massive shutter lag, and then several seconds of postprocessing lag. I'm sure the last two can be improved in software, although the phone's CPU is so slow I wouldn't expect anything remotely in the realm of Google's GCam computational photography magic.
      - MartijnBraam 5y ago
ekianjo 5y ago
Yeah, it runs many distros, but almost none of them is polished. Let's hope it changes soon.
bullen 5y ago
Add OpenGL ES 3 GPU and I'm sold.
- fsflover 5y ago
  https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-phones/6827 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-p...
  - bullen 5y ago
    the librem is a bit too clunky and expensive, probability of pine adding a newer GPU is higher!
    - fsflover 5y ago
      Probability is higher than what? Librem 5 is already there, whereas next Pinephone is not really on the horizon.
      - bullen 5y ago
        slimmer cheaper librem.
      - rvz 5y ago
        > Librem 5 is already there Again. Just because it 'is already there' is just not good enough. That alone still doesn't tell us how well it runs. For example, the Librem 5 itself is just as sluggish when running general apps and also running Android apps in Andbox. [0] Leads me to think that neither the Pinephone or the Librem 5 are ready for production use or recommendation to the Android user who wants to know if it runs the same apps on it, or even runs better than their Android phone to justify the switch. To Downvoters: So in [0], you are saying that this product runs apps better than a Google Pixel or an iPhone 7? Are you really prepared to recommend Android or iOS users to switch to this even if it the experience is in fact worse than their previous phones? I get that the main selling points has been about privacy (In light of the NSO hacks) but many users won't want to be beta tester of a product that feels unfinished and sluggish. The smart thing to do is to wait for them to improve it over time before coming out as a serious alternative. [0] https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/
sorairopicture 5y ago
this seems cool if distros become more polished from what i have seen this could be amazing
- Findeton 5y ago
  Honestly I'm not looking for an amazing phone, just a less shitty one. I'll probably buy a PinePhone to tinker with it and support the idea, but I don't expect it to be really usable. I hope in the coming years they'll get a usable/stable version. Of course I don't expect a great camera/software or anything like that.
bencollier49 5y ago
I wouldn't buy this, simply based on experience of their other products. I bought one of their laptops. It was terribly slow to the point of unusability for the three days it was working before a child knocked the power plug and ripped the socket assembly off the mainboard, rendering the machine unsalvageable. The whole thing felt poorly built. Contrast the ZX Spectrum Next, built by enthusiasts as a Kickstarter, which is rock solid and has stood up to children for years now.
- Avamander 5y ago
  > ZX Spectrum Next And that's not slow?
  - bencollier49 5y ago
    It's snappier than the Pinebook, even if the clock speed is from the 1980s. But the comparison was more about the build quality.
unicornporn 5y ago
I'd would not like to run "other operating systems", but rather Android/Replicant[1]. The PinePhone is listed as a supported device[2], but I'm finding next to no reports on how it is actually working. [1] https://replicant.us/ https://replicant.us/ [2] https://replicant.us/supported-devices.php https://replicant.us/supported-devices.php
- linmob 5y ago
  I am not aware of any Replicant build for the PinePhone, otherwise I would have had to try it out and make a video about it [0]. GloDroid [1] has incomplete support for the PinePhone (no support for anything the EG25-G does), that‘s all in terms of Android aside from Anbox or WayDroid that run on top of Linux. [0] https://linmob.net/videos https://linmob.net/videos [1] https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases
  - unicornporn 5y ago
    Oh, I'm pretty darn sure I saw it on the supported devices page yesterday. Can't see it now. Hallucinations? :) It's very strange to me that no Android ROM has made it to the PinePhone yet.
    - linmob 5y ago
      Once one (most likely GloDroid) will be closer to “this is now a working Android phone” I expect others to follow.
      - unicornporn 5y ago
        Hope so! Found the page I was thinking of: https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Pinephone https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Pinepho... Very much "not supported".
tomas789 5y ago
Smartphones are often used as a brain for many robotics applications. They tend to be well equipped, physically rebosu, include battery and reasonably fast CPUs. All that for a fraction of the price of the proper robotics equipment (RPi/Jetson, IMU, display, camera, battery, …). This seems like a great compromise between closedness of iOS/android and robustness of the phone based solution.
gnull 5y ago
How much effort would it take to run LineageOS on it? Looks like it could be the fastest way to get it usable for everyday tasks.
ppcar 5y ago
I carry around a Pinephone with my personal SIM and use it for most personal activities. I also carry about a work phone, which I use for work, and personal activites that I can't yet do on the Pinephone (maps, chromecast, etc.) It's liberating to have plain old Linux on my phone. My phone is now introspectable, behaves like my other computers, and only runs software that does not track me. I hack on these and am excited to see how well these continue to mature. The Pinephone is too underpowered (camera, 2.4GHz, small battery) to be the a viable choice for most interested folks. The Pinephone is the phone that will jumpstart developers and early adopters to building an ecosystem, and facilitate more powerful phones.
- karussell 5y ago
  Can you explain why you have to use a different phone for maps? Couldn't you use a browser? Or do you mean navigation? And is the GPS device optional or always included for all pinephones?
  - ppcar 5y ago
    I use GNOME Maps for some things, but it doesn't do navigation. I think GPS is always included on all Pinephones: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#GPS_.2F_GNSS https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#GPS_.2F_GNSS
- intricatedetail 5y ago
  You are still being tracked if you carry that other phone though.
  - ppcar 5y ago
    You're right. I would prefer no tracking, but am happy with having reduced the amount of tracking that occurs.
  - d110af5ccf 5y ago
    Carriers in the US were recently caught selling e911 location data so you should probably assume that you're being tracked while carrying any device with an active cell network connection.
thih9 5y ago
The store page mentions dead pixels; It's the first time I'm seeing a disclaimer like this on a smartphone. Is this normal? Why aren't other manufacturers mentioning this? Source: https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-convergence-package-linux-smartphone-open-for-preorder-soon/ https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve... > A small numbers of stuck or dead pixels (1-3) can be a characteristic of LCD screens. While rare, this should not be considered a defect. If you think that a minor dissatisfaction, such as a dead pixel will prompt you to file a PayPal dispute, DO NOT purchase the PinePhone.
- dogma1138 5y ago
  In the early days of LCD screens different vendors and even resellers had different warranty and return policies for dead pixels, even going as far as cluster vs spread out. E.G. in circa 2007 Dell had a 5 dead pixels policy but if 3 were in a cluster you could replace the monitor too. The reason why Apple or Samsung can have a 0 dead pixel policy is because they have money to buy higher quality screens in the first place and eat the cost of replacing phones / screens because they have a lot of money and a mature supply and sales chain. PinePhone doesn’t it would potentially cost them as much to replace a phone post sale as the hardware in the phone is worth so they are making it clear to people that they shouldn’t expect a perfect device. Would this actually pass consumer protection laws probably not.
  - intricatedetail 5y ago
    I got 1 dead pixel on fairly recent XPS 13. Appeared shortly after warranty lapsed.
- Caprinicus 5y ago
  Displays are frequently binned based on quality. They are probably just buying the cheapest they can, and end up with a lot of prematurely dead pixels.
- MartijnBraam 5y ago
  All webshops I've ever ordered monitors from basically had the same rules, except they're usually slightly more hidden. I have 7 pinephones here and not a single dead pixel, only defect I've ever had was dust in a display on a pinetab prototype.
t0bia_s 5y ago
PinePhone is too big for me. I cannot use any smartphone with over 72mm weight. It is difficult to use by one hand and have it in pocket. Im curious when reasonable sizes (like old iPhone SE) come back to market.
- MartijnBraam 5y ago
  Well the PinePhone is this size because it's impossible to fit the parts in it otherwise.
Amin699 5y ago
Best of luck
intricatedetail 5y ago
What is the barrier to make such phone but with e.g. Snapdragon 888?
- fsflover 5y ago
  Proprietary drivers with closed specs.
- Avamander 5y ago
  Qualcomm is a shitty company with terrible mainlining efforts and documentation.
- MartijnBraam 5y ago
  Minimum order quantity and software support
dannyw 5y ago
I own a PinePhone. Great device to tinker with. For me I'd consider it more of a tinker-toy than something with realistic expectations of being your main phone.
ghgr 5y ago
Do these alternative Smartphones are able to seamlessly run native Android/iOS apps in containers? It'd be great if they could "embrace" such walled gardens, and possibly "extend" some of their functionality :-)
- fsflover 5y ago
  There is Anbox for that.
  - rvz 5y ago
    Great, but it seems to be quite 'experimental' (and buggy) rather than production ready for people wishing to switch from Android to the Pinephone. Just saying it is 'There' doesn't really tell us how well it actually runs on it. To quote the grandparent comment mentioning the word 'seamlessly' as the requirement.
    - fsflover 5y ago
      https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ (It's not the Pinephone, but another GNU/Linux phone. Should be similar apart from the performance)
      - rvz 5y ago
        As I already said [0], it is just as sluggish as the PinePhone. The grandparent comment asked if it could 'seamlessly' run Android apps (Obviously not iOS) and clearly in that video, it is not the case and it is already struggling with running simple Android apps. I'm afraid Android users hoping to jump on either of these phones right now will be disappointed. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27948695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27948695
boba7 5y ago
It won't run MS Teams, right?
- linmob 5y ago
  I don't think so, but I really should try running that on my PinePhone. Chatting might work, video chat would certainly require tons of tinkering with a slow Electron app.
everdrive 5y ago
I keep hearing that this phone is not good for texting or calling. Can someone describe why? Is call quality poor? Are calls missed? etc.
- ppcar 5y ago
  Most issues I hear about are missed calls during phone sleep, due to wake being too slow. This has been recently improved in most distributions: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-broadband/ModemManager/-/issues/321 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-broadband/ModemManager...
Const-me 5y ago
I wonder how hard is gonna be to remove the complete GUI including display manager from that Linux, and replace with something else? Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have GLES 3.1 GPU. Still, I might be able to back port to GLES2, the GPU side is not terribly complicated: https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/ https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/
xbmcuser 5y ago
Looking at how the Western and Eastern economies are making blocks supporting USA or China. It is my prediction that in the coming coldwar/economic war ironically it will be China from where we will be getting free/opensource hardware rather than the west where corporate IP and patent monopolies control everything.
dang 5y ago
Ok, if we're gonna go there—here are the past threads with meaningful comments. Others? Ask HN: 2021 PinePhone Review? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27665011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27665011 - June 2021 (4 comments) Ask HN: Smartphone As Exclusive Word-Processor Device? (& Pinephone) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27654403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27654403 - June 2021 (8 comments) Librem 5 Evergreen vs. PinePhone (Part 2) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27605712 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27605712 - June 2021 (96 comments) Upgrading a PinePhone Braveheart edition to 3GB - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27567009 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27567009 - June 2021 (2 comments) The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27494006 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27494006 - June 2021 (219 comments) Pinephone Keyboard Update - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26929153 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26929153 - April 2021 (20 comments) PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26566373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26566373 - March 2021 (300 comments) PinePhone Beta - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26518162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26518162 - March 2021 (71 comments) Fedora on the PinePhone: Pipewire Calling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26080207 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26080207 - Feb 2021 (90 comments) Can the PinePhone replace your Android or iOS device? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25995418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25995418 - Feb 2021 (3 comments) Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25338633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25338633 - Dec 2020 (121 comments) PinePhone KDE Community Edition is now available - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25264515 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25264515 - Dec 2020 (196 comments) PinePhone multi-distro demo image - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25221666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25221666 - Nov 2020 (1 comment) Pine64 November Update: KDE PinePhone CE and a Peek into the Future - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25133428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25133428 - Nov 2020 (132 comments) PinePhone – KDE Community edition - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25100694 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25100694 - Nov 2020 (152 comments) Let's talk about safety of Pinephone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24596248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24596248 - Sept 2020 (76 comments) Review of Pinephone PostmarketOS CE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24525210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24525210 - Sept 2020 (1 comment) Putting 13 PinePhone distributions on a 8GiB USD card - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24474150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24474150 - Sept 2020 (2 comments) PinePhone – Multi-Boot of 9 distros on a single SD card - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405946 - Sept 2020 (3 comments) PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24329900 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24329900 - Aug 2020 (166 comments) How to update U-Boot for PostmarketOS on the Pine Phone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24244407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24244407 - Aug 2020 (8 comments) Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24184091 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24184091 - Aug 2020 (146 comments) The Linux-based PinePhone is the most interesting smartphone I've tried in years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24168226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24168226 - Aug 2020 (2 comments) $200 PinePhone Linux smartphone comes with physical kill switch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24167497 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24167497 - Aug 2020 (13 comments) Wayland and LVGL on PinePhone with Ubuntu Touch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23947176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23947176 - July 2020 (47 comments) Pine64 announce the Pinecil, TS100 compatible RISC-V soldering iron - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23890848 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23890848 - July 2020 (76 comments) Pinephone – “Community Edition: PostmarketOS” Linux smartphone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23849202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23849202 - July 2020 (209 comments) PostmarketOS // PinePhone CE available for pre-order - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23846588 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23846588 - July 2020 (1 comment) PinePhone: PostmarketOS Community Edition - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528571 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528571 - June 2020 (76 comments) Sxmo: Simple X Mobile – A Pinephone UI that is simple and suckless - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261839 - May 2020 (29 comments) May Update: PineTab Pre-Orders, PinePhone Qi Charging and More - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23193563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23193563 - May 2020 (51 comments) Pinephone first steps - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23130247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23130247 - May 2020 (89 comments) Pinephone – Community Edition: UBports - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22844223 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22844223 - April 2020 (36 comments) KDE’s Plasma Mobile Is Shaping Up Nicely on the PinePhone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377386 - Feb 2020 (4 comments) PinePhone – Unboxing and First Impressions - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22359086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22359086 - Feb 2020 (4 comments) Pine64 February update: PinePhone, PineTab, Pinebook, new products and delays - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22338593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22338593 - Feb 2020 (1 comment) PinePhone Misconceptions - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22145826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22145826 - Jan 2020 (88 comments) Linux Smartphone – Yet Another Librem 5 and PinePhone Comparison - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21850285 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21850285 - Dec 2019 (1 comment) PinePhone review - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21830391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21830391 - Dec 2019 (1 comment) PinePhone Review - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21824962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21824962 - Dec 2019 (259 comments) Manjaro ARM Alpha1 for PinePhone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21727334 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21727334 - Dec 2019 (7 comments) Pinephone – “BraveHeart” Limited Edition Linux SmartPhone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21544059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21544059 - Nov 2019 (69 comments) Pine64 November Update – ANSI Pinebook Pro and PinePhone Preorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21452740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21452740 - Nov 2019 (86 comments) PineTime Is a $25 Smartwatch / Companion for PinePhone Linux Phone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20977788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20977788 - Sept 2019 (124 comments) PinePhone $149 Linux Smartphone Could Support Ubuntu, Sailfish, Maemo, LuneOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20130577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20130577 - June 2019 (4 comments) Software on Librem 5 and PinePhone Linux Phones Is Progressing Nicely - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20120331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20120331 - June 2019 (14 comments) PinePhone Linux smartphone to sell for $149, dev kits coming soon - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19052931 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19052931 - Feb 2019 (10 comments)

>"Full specifications [...] Bootable Micro SD [...]" Also, from further above on the page: "the PinePhone runs mainline Linux as well as anything else you’ll get it to run."

userbinator 5y ago
as well as anything else you’ll get it to run ...how about Windows 10 ARM? Wouldn't be very practical, but would definitely be an interesting challenge.

katmannthree 5y ago

The pinephone is great, in fact I'm typing this comment from mine. That said, fair warning to anyone thinking about getting one: it's slow, buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline linux distribution.

1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
"... jut a phone and a mainline linux distribution." From the OP: "... the PinePhone runs mainline Linux as well as anything else you'll get it to run." Linux is great but being able to run several different OS is, IMO, on a whole `nother level. For example, I am interested in running NetBSD. About 12 years ago, there was a phone called the T-Mobile Sidekick. What OS did it run. That phone was allegedly the first to sync the user data to the "cloud" and provide an "app marketplace". The founder of the company that created it later went on to co-found Android.
- dsr_ 5y ago
  The Danger Hiptop was branded as the T-Mobile Sidekick; later T-Mo used the Sidekick name for some other devices. DangerOS required all applications to be written in Java and distributed via their store; if you stopped paying your subscription fee you would lose access to the store and to the online backup service as well. Microsoft bought Danger and eventually closed it, killing all usage. For a while it was the best device for sysadmins and the Deaf community -- because it had a keyboard and an SSH application.
  - 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
    "DangerOS required all applications to be written in Java..." Was Java a requirement of the OS or was it just a design choice by the developers. The OS was NetBSD AFAIK; of course one can run a JVM on NetBSD but that's not a requirement; I never do. Is Pinephone limited only to running Java applications. I want more programming options than just Java.
    - dsr_ 5y ago
      No end user could run anything on a DangerOS device that didn't come from the store; nothing went into the store that wasn't written in Java and met their guidelines. Pinephone is completely orthogonal to this.
      - deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
      - 1vuio0pswjnm7 5y ago
        "Pinephone is completely orthogonal to this." Do you mean Pine64 has no intention of trying to control what people do with the device? Did anyone ever try to "root" the Sidekick? Always interested to hear more about it.
        dsr_ 5y ago
        I mean that that the Pinephone is not a DangerOS device, so anything that I say about the Danger Hiptop has nothing to do with the Pinephone.
that_guy_iain 5y ago
> Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. No ads, no bullshit, just a phone with a mainline linux distribution. I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones. How can we honestly expect a small team of developers to compete with the larger teams a commerical project can afford? The reality is, we can't. And we'll always compare PinePhone and other things to iOS and Android and they'll always come up short. Also, a large part of using a smart phone is the apps. Without apps the phone is just really a phone. For me, to want to use PinePhone they would need to make it super easy to have Android on there.
- matkoniecz 5y ago
  > I'm coming to the realisation that open source projects will always provide a lower quality than comerical ones. That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. > How can we honestly expect a small team of developers to compete with the larger teams a commerical project can afford? In many cases they win by default. If "no leaking of personal data" is on mandatory feature list then Pinephones are already better than Android! And there are many projects where there is simply no commercial product at all and is unlikely to ever appear.
  - deltaonefour 5y ago
    >That is not true. As far as I am concerned Linux is clearly superior OS for my laptop over commercial alternatives. I would argue Linux is only superior from the IT software perspective. This is a very narrow perspective that is only inflated if you're in IT or on an IT related site like HN. From almost every other dimension Linux is inferior and therefore from an Overall perspective it is inferior. The most important dimensions for an operating system are usability and compatibility. Average users are like this while hard core masochist programmers are willing to spend years decoding an interface
    - throwawayswede 5y ago
pabs3 5y ago
> Once they get the software worked out over the next few years though, it'll be the best thing out there. This sentence reminded of the OpenMoko days, hopefully the hardware choices were better than in that era.
- linmob 5y ago
  I had a FreeRunner back in the day and have had a PinePhone for over a year now, and it has gotten me back to blogging [0] and creating videos after years of not doing that. The hardware choices are in so far better, as this looks like a normal phone, is not limited to GPRS in a world where connected services based on 3G are taking off, and there‘s also no graphics decelerator built in. Imho, the biggest design flaw is the size of the battery: You don’t get much screen on time with this. The AllWinner A64 is clearly not the most advanced piece of Silicon though, and support in Linux for that old chip is still advancing so things are a lot better than they were a year ago. As far as user space software is advancing, there‘s more and more coming which I try to list at [1]. The key difference here is that PINE64 is just providing the hardware and is not very involved in software at all. Thankfully Purism make software for their Librem 5 (which would have been shipping for real by now, but than a component shortage hit the industry), which also runs on PinePhone and works quite well. Projects like Plasma Mobile are catching up, and long standing Mobile Linux efforts like Sailfish OS and Ubuntu Touch have also been ported over. [0] https://linmob.net https://linmob.net [1] https://LINMOBapps.frama.io https://LINMOBapps.frama.io
axegon_ 5y ago
> buggy, and flat out unreliable if you need to be able to receive / answer calls and texts for anything important (e.g. work). Out of curiosity, how do these bugs/unreliability manifest in realty? I've been fiddling around with making a mobile Linux distro specifically for a car navigation/entertainment system so I'm curious to get some circumstantial feedback.
- fsflover 5y ago
  I have a Pinephone. It works well most of the time, but occasionally apps crash, or it cannot connect to WiFi, or becomes very slow. Reboot usually helps. A good thing is that even if you buy it now and decide it's not reliable enough, you can be sure that the development will never stop and at some point it will be better than Android in every way. I would say in a year.
  - hutzlibu 5y ago
    "be sure that the development will never stop and at some point it will be better than Android in every way. I would say in a year" The current stage is pretty much unusable if you need a reliable phone. So in one year already, it is supposed to be better than android in every way? That is a very bold assumption. I mean, would be nice, but I doubt it and would be happy if it gets stable enough to simply use it as a phone and chatdevice, without hickups.
theodric 5y ago
You have a strange definition of "great." If any other phone exhibited those characteristics, I would write it off as garbage, not excuse its faults with a promise that they'll be fixed Real Soon Now™
- emteycz 5y ago
  Don't forget about the price: $200 doesn't get you flagship experience.
  - nousermane 5y ago
    Depends on which year's. Pine64's SoC, Allwinner A64 is 4x 1,2 GHz Cortex-A53 chip, giving you about the same level of raw performance as a 2013 flagship phone.
    - fsflover 5y ago
      And it will run smoothly, if you choose simple software: https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/ https://sr.ht/~mil/Sxmo/.
      - lasagnaphil 5y ago
        Though from a few videos it's got an incredibly primitive UI that mainly uses the side buttons instead of the big touchscreen. The interface seems much more apt for a feature phone than a smartphone. (Though I realize there can be some niche demand for a non-touchscreen Linux phone with a hardware keyboard... Maybe that's what might be more achievable in the FOSS Linux hobbyist scene than something like the Pinephone or the Librem 5.)
        deleted 5y ago
        [deleted]
  - tluyben2 5y ago
    Lately I have been trying out $200 range phones (with Android): the galaxy A31 for instance: it is the experience of a flagship phone from a few years ago. If the pinephone was that, I think everyone would be happy and yes, this is possible for $200. At least if you are Samsung? So yeah, not flagship but close enough for a lot of people (side by side, the a32 vs s21, for me is not worth the 4x+ pricetag, as in the difference between flagship and not flagship is shrinking fast, ymmv), however... The pinephone is worse hardware though (In almost all respects but the dipswitches) and the software, at this point, is really alpha quality mostly. But we know this: the promise it will run Linux smoothly on a phone is enough to buy one. It will take time but I would buy any phone that allows me to freely run multiple OSs new out of the box with all hardware supported.
Aeolun 5y ago
Yeah, that’s my main complaint. I want it to actually work as a phone before I want it to work like a small computer.
dogma1138 5y ago
I think the main thing that PinePhone has going for them is the price $150-200 for what essentially is a hobbyist device at this point is more than reasonable. This is in stark contrast to the Purism phones which offer about the same hardware (slightly better CPU but worse GPU) at flagship prices. This is somewhat also proof that the prices that Purism charges aren’t due to lack of economy of scale you can make these devices on the cheap, the hardware is available. I have a similar complaint about their laptops they charge a hefty premium for what is essentially a bog standard OEM laptop from China which you can get for almost half the price in many cases including from other direct to customer vendors.
- fsflover 5y ago
  > This is in stark contrast to the Purism phones which offer about the same hardware (slightly better CPU but worse GPU) at flagship prices. This is very far from truth: https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-phones/6827 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-p... The i.MX 8M Quad is better than the Allwinner A64: 30% faster CPU clock speed, 140% faster RAM standard, 140% better OpenGL performance, USB 3.0 and support for higher resolution cameras. (and performance is just one of many reasons to prefer Librem 5 over Pinephone, see the link)
- 29083011397778 5y ago
  > the prices that Purism charges aren’t due to lack of economy of scale you can make these devices on the cheap I've never understood that to be their argument. Purism is actively paying people to improve the mobile experience of Linux. They can't charge for software, and they certainly don't get a cut of app sales like Google or Apple. So to fund the devs that write the software, they mark up their hardware. This improves mobile Linux, makes for a reasonably sustainable company, and gives Pine64 a free ride regarding software like Phosh, Phoc, Calls, Chatty, etc. So without having to pay for developers, Pine can sell their hardware dramatically cheaper. Simply put, I don't think "Good software isn't cheap" should be a surprise to anyone here.
pjmlp 5y ago
Like any other failed attempt so far, assuming that they manage to keep enough money around for delivering those improvements over the next few years.
suifbwish 5y ago
Unfortunately what will likely happen is if the project becomes extremely successful a big corporate interest will buddy up to the project and pretend to have the best interest of the community in mind as they make the project increasingly dependent on their funding and development resources until finally the shoe drops and the corporate interest has unofficial control over the pinephone project similar to Google with Ubuntu and IBM/Redhat with CentOS. Every one has a weakness and a price.
Abishek_Muthian 5y ago
If hardware acceleration is fixed then user experience can see night and day difference. Unfortunately if anything to be seen from Raspberry Pi or other SBCs HW Acceleration seems like Nuclear Fusion due to different graphics API, standards, application/HW support etc.

userbinator 5y ago

Main Camera: Single OV6540, 5MP, 1/4″, LED Flash The official specs here https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_component_list#P.10_CAMERA https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_component_list#P.10_C... also say '6540, but no such model actually exists and the linked datasheet shows that it is actually an OV5640. Nonetheless, 5MP seems a bit low unless they got a really good deal on them, as I have an old Android from almost a decade ago(!) with an 8MP OV8825.

katmannthree 5y ago
It barely matters. The camera hardware and software lag like crazy and lack the postprocessing people are used to now -- the photos are terrible with a decent 5MP sensor and would probably be worse with the same weak CPU but more bits to shuffle...
- userbinator 5y ago
  In my experience that's likely because of software --- there's tons of ultra-cheap cameras with Omnivision sensors in them, and they just use the default settings and reference code which suffice to give not much more than a recognisable image. But they can be run in RAW mode to produce far better quality.
  - katmannthree 5y ago
    If you have the bandwidth to contribute I'm sure the people working on the camera app (https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels https://git.sr.ht/~martijnbraam/megapixels) would love any assistance you could give them on postprocessing the RAWs. From my limited experience with it, there's a huge amount of focus lag on the sensor itself, massive shutter lag, and then several seconds of postprocessing lag. I'm sure the last two can be improved in software, although the phone's CPU is so slow I wouldn't expect anything remotely in the realm of Google's GCam computational photography magic.
    - MartijnBraam 5y ago

ekianjo 5y ago

Yeah, it runs many distros, but almost none of them is polished. Let's hope it changes soon.

bullen 5y ago

Add OpenGL ES 3 GPU and I'm sold.

fsflover 5y ago
https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://puri.sm/products/librem-5 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-phones/6827 https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-p...
- bullen 5y ago
  the librem is a bit too clunky and expensive, probability of pine adding a newer GPU is higher!
  - fsflover 5y ago
    Probability is higher than what? Librem 5 is already there, whereas next Pinephone is not really on the horizon.
    - bullen 5y ago
      slimmer cheaper librem.
    - rvz 5y ago
      > Librem 5 is already there Again. Just because it 'is already there' is just not good enough. That alone still doesn't tell us how well it runs. For example, the Librem 5 itself is just as sluggish when running general apps and also running Android apps in Andbox. [0] Leads me to think that neither the Pinephone or the Librem 5 are ready for production use or recommendation to the Android user who wants to know if it runs the same apps on it, or even runs better than their Android phone to justify the switch. To Downvoters: So in [0], you are saying that this product runs apps better than a Google Pixel or an iPhone 7? Are you really prepared to recommend Android or iOS users to switch to this even if it the experience is in fact worse than their previous phones? I get that the main selling points has been about privacy (In light of the NSO hacks) but many users won't want to be beta tester of a product that feels unfinished and sluggish. The smart thing to do is to wait for them to improve it over time before coming out as a serious alternative. [0] https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/

sorairopicture 5y ago

this seems cool if distros become more polished from what i have seen this could be amazing

Findeton 5y ago
Honestly I'm not looking for an amazing phone, just a less shitty one. I'll probably buy a PinePhone to tinker with it and support the idea, but I don't expect it to be really usable. I hope in the coming years they'll get a usable/stable version. Of course I don't expect a great camera/software or anything like that.

bencollier49 5y ago

I wouldn't buy this, simply based on experience of their other products. I bought one of their laptops. It was terribly slow to the point of unusability for the three days it was working before a child knocked the power plug and ripped the socket assembly off the mainboard, rendering the machine unsalvageable. The whole thing felt poorly built. Contrast the ZX Spectrum Next, built by enthusiasts as a Kickstarter, which is rock solid and has stood up to children for years now.

Avamander 5y ago
> ZX Spectrum Next And that's not slow?
- bencollier49 5y ago
  It's snappier than the Pinebook, even if the clock speed is from the 1980s. But the comparison was more about the build quality.

unicornporn 5y ago

I'd would not like to run "other operating systems", but rather Android/Replicant[1]. The PinePhone is listed as a supported device[2], but I'm finding next to no reports on how it is actually working. [1] https://replicant.us/ https://replicant.us/ [2] https://replicant.us/supported-devices.php https://replicant.us/supported-devices.php

linmob 5y ago
I am not aware of any Replicant build for the PinePhone, otherwise I would have had to try it out and make a video about it [0]. GloDroid [1] has incomplete support for the PinePhone (no support for anything the EG25-G does), that‘s all in terms of Android aside from Anbox or WayDroid that run on top of Linux. [0] https://linmob.net/videos https://linmob.net/videos [1] https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases https://github.com/GloDroid/glodroid_manifest/releases
- unicornporn 5y ago
  Oh, I'm pretty darn sure I saw it on the supported devices page yesterday. Can't see it now. Hallucinations? :) It's very strange to me that no Android ROM has made it to the PinePhone yet.
  - linmob 5y ago
    Once one (most likely GloDroid) will be closer to “this is now a working Android phone” I expect others to follow.
    - unicornporn 5y ago
      Hope so! Found the page I was thinking of: https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Pinephone https://redmine.replicant.us/projects/replicant/wiki/Pinepho... Very much "not supported".

tomas789 5y ago

Smartphones are often used as a brain for many robotics applications. They tend to be well equipped, physically rebosu, include battery and reasonably fast CPUs. All that for a fraction of the price of the proper robotics equipment (RPi/Jetson, IMU, display, camera, battery, …). This seems like a great compromise between closedness of iOS/android and robustness of the phone based solution.

gnull 5y ago

How much effort would it take to run LineageOS on it? Looks like it could be the fastest way to get it usable for everyday tasks.

ppcar 5y ago

I carry around a Pinephone with my personal SIM and use it for most personal activities. I also carry about a work phone, which I use for work, and personal activites that I can't yet do on the Pinephone (maps, chromecast, etc.) It's liberating to have plain old Linux on my phone. My phone is now introspectable, behaves like my other computers, and only runs software that does not track me. I hack on these and am excited to see how well these continue to mature. The Pinephone is too underpowered (camera, 2.4GHz, small battery) to be the a viable choice for most interested folks. The Pinephone is the phone that will jumpstart developers and early adopters to building an ecosystem, and facilitate more powerful phones.

karussell 5y ago
Can you explain why you have to use a different phone for maps? Couldn't you use a browser? Or do you mean navigation? And is the GPS device optional or always included for all pinephones?
- ppcar 5y ago
  I use GNOME Maps for some things, but it doesn't do navigation. I think GPS is always included on all Pinephones: https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#GPS_.2F_GNSS https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone#GPS_.2F_GNSS
intricatedetail 5y ago
You are still being tracked if you carry that other phone though.
- ppcar 5y ago
  You're right. I would prefer no tracking, but am happy with having reduced the amount of tracking that occurs.
- d110af5ccf 5y ago
  Carriers in the US were recently caught selling e911 location data so you should probably assume that you're being tracked while carrying any device with an active cell network connection.

thih9 5y ago

The store page mentions dead pixels; It's the first time I'm seeing a disclaimer like this on a smartphone. Is this normal? Why aren't other manufacturers mentioning this? Source: https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-convergence-package-linux-smartphone-open-for-preorder-soon/ https://pine64.com/product/pinephone-beta-edition-with-conve... > A small numbers of stuck or dead pixels (1-3) can be a characteristic of LCD screens. While rare, this should not be considered a defect. If you think that a minor dissatisfaction, such as a dead pixel will prompt you to file a PayPal dispute, DO NOT purchase the PinePhone.

dogma1138 5y ago
In the early days of LCD screens different vendors and even resellers had different warranty and return policies for dead pixels, even going as far as cluster vs spread out. E.G. in circa 2007 Dell had a 5 dead pixels policy but if 3 were in a cluster you could replace the monitor too. The reason why Apple or Samsung can have a 0 dead pixel policy is because they have money to buy higher quality screens in the first place and eat the cost of replacing phones / screens because they have a lot of money and a mature supply and sales chain. PinePhone doesn’t it would potentially cost them as much to replace a phone post sale as the hardware in the phone is worth so they are making it clear to people that they shouldn’t expect a perfect device. Would this actually pass consumer protection laws probably not.
- intricatedetail 5y ago
  I got 1 dead pixel on fairly recent XPS 13. Appeared shortly after warranty lapsed.
Caprinicus 5y ago
Displays are frequently binned based on quality. They are probably just buying the cheapest they can, and end up with a lot of prematurely dead pixels.
MartijnBraam 5y ago
All webshops I've ever ordered monitors from basically had the same rules, except they're usually slightly more hidden. I have 7 pinephones here and not a single dead pixel, only defect I've ever had was dust in a display on a pinetab prototype.

t0bia_s 5y ago

PinePhone is too big for me. I cannot use any smartphone with over 72mm weight. It is difficult to use by one hand and have it in pocket. Im curious when reasonable sizes (like old iPhone SE) come back to market.

MartijnBraam 5y ago
Well the PinePhone is this size because it's impossible to fit the parts in it otherwise.

Amin699 5y ago

Best of luck

intricatedetail 5y ago

What is the barrier to make such phone but with e.g. Snapdragon 888?

fsflover 5y ago
Proprietary drivers with closed specs.
Avamander 5y ago
Qualcomm is a shitty company with terrible mainlining efforts and documentation.
MartijnBraam 5y ago
Minimum order quantity and software support

dannyw 5y ago

I own a PinePhone. Great device to tinker with. For me I'd consider it more of a tinker-toy than something with realistic expectations of being your main phone.

ghgr 5y ago

Do these alternative Smartphones are able to seamlessly run native Android/iOS apps in containers? It'd be great if they could "embrace" such walled gardens, and possibly "extend" some of their functionality :-)

fsflover 5y ago
There is Anbox for that.
- rvz 5y ago
  Great, but it seems to be quite 'experimental' (and buggy) rather than production ready for people wishing to switch from Android to the Pinephone. Just saying it is 'There' doesn't really tell us how well it actually runs on it. To quote the grandparent comment mentioning the word 'seamlessly' as the requirement.
  - fsflover 5y ago
    https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ https://puri.sm/posts/anbox-on-the-librem-5/ (It's not the Pinephone, but another GNU/Linux phone. Should be similar apart from the performance)
    - rvz 5y ago
      As I already said [0], it is just as sluggish as the PinePhone. The grandparent comment asked if it could 'seamlessly' run Android apps (Obviously not iOS) and clearly in that video, it is not the case and it is already struggling with running simple Android apps. I'm afraid Android users hoping to jump on either of these phones right now will be disappointed. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27948695 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27948695

boba7 5y ago

It won't run MS Teams, right?

linmob 5y ago
I don't think so, but I really should try running that on my PinePhone. Chatting might work, video chat would certainly require tons of tinkering with a slow Electron app.

everdrive 5y ago

I keep hearing that this phone is not good for texting or calling. Can someone describe why? Is call quality poor? Are calls missed? etc.

ppcar 5y ago
Most issues I hear about are missed calls during phone sleep, due to wake being too slow. This has been recently improved in most distributions: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-broadband/ModemManager/-/issues/321 https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mobile-broadband/ModemManager...

Const-me 5y ago

I wonder how hard is gonna be to remove the complete GUI including display manager from that Linux, and replace with something else? Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have GLES 3.1 GPU. Still, I might be able to back port to GLES2, the GPU side is not terribly complicated: https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/ https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/

xbmcuser 5y ago

Looking at how the Western and Eastern economies are making blocks supporting USA or China. It is my prediction that in the coming coldwar/economic war ironically it will be China from where we will be getting free/opensource hardware rather than the west where corporate IP and patent monopolies control everything.

dang 5y ago

Ok, if we're gonna go there—here are the past threads with meaningful comments. Others? Ask HN: 2021 PinePhone Review? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27665011 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27665011 - June 2021 (4 comments) Ask HN: Smartphone As Exclusive Word-Processor Device? (& Pinephone) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27654403 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27654403 - June 2021 (8 comments) Librem 5 Evergreen vs. PinePhone (Part 2) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27605712 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27605712 - June 2021 (96 comments) Upgrading a PinePhone Braveheart edition to 3GB - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27567009 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27567009 - June 2021 (2 comments) The PinePhone could bring the Linux mobile ecosystem to life - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27494006 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27494006 - June 2021 (219 comments) Pinephone Keyboard Update - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26929153 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26929153 - April 2021 (20 comments) PinePhone – Beta Edition Linux SmartPhone Preorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26566373 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26566373 - March 2021 (300 comments) PinePhone Beta - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26518162 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26518162 - March 2021 (71 comments) Fedora on the PinePhone: Pipewire Calling - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26080207 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26080207 - Feb 2021 (90 comments) Can the PinePhone replace your Android or iOS device? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25995418 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25995418 - Feb 2021 (3 comments) Librem 5 Evergreen vs. Pinephone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25338633 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25338633 - Dec 2020 (121 comments) PinePhone KDE Community Edition is now available - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25264515 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25264515 - Dec 2020 (196 comments) PinePhone multi-distro demo image - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25221666 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25221666 - Nov 2020 (1 comment) Pine64 November Update: KDE PinePhone CE and a Peek into the Future - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25133428 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25133428 - Nov 2020 (132 comments) PinePhone – KDE Community edition - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25100694 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25100694 - Nov 2020 (152 comments) Let's talk about safety of Pinephone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24596248 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24596248 - Sept 2020 (76 comments) Review of Pinephone PostmarketOS CE - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24525210 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24525210 - Sept 2020 (1 comment) Putting 13 PinePhone distributions on a 8GiB USD card - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24474150 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24474150 - Sept 2020 (2 comments) PinePhone – Multi-Boot of 9 distros on a single SD card - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405946 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24405946 - Sept 2020 (3 comments) PinePhone Manjaro Community Edition - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24329900 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24329900 - Aug 2020 (166 comments) How to update U-Boot for PostmarketOS on the Pine Phone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24244407 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24244407 - Aug 2020 (8 comments) Linux PinePhone has physical kill switches for its cameras, mic, data, BT, Wi-Fi - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24184091 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24184091 - Aug 2020 (146 comments) The Linux-based PinePhone is the most interesting smartphone I've tried in years - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24168226 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24168226 - Aug 2020 (2 comments) $200 PinePhone Linux smartphone comes with physical kill switch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24167497 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24167497 - Aug 2020 (13 comments) Wayland and LVGL on PinePhone with Ubuntu Touch - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23947176 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23947176 - July 2020 (47 comments) Pine64 announce the Pinecil, TS100 compatible RISC-V soldering iron - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23890848 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23890848 - July 2020 (76 comments) Pinephone – “Community Edition: PostmarketOS” Linux smartphone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23849202 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23849202 - July 2020 (209 comments) PostmarketOS // PinePhone CE available for pre-order - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23846588 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23846588 - July 2020 (1 comment) PinePhone: PostmarketOS Community Edition - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528571 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23528571 - June 2020 (76 comments) Sxmo: Simple X Mobile – A Pinephone UI that is simple and suckless - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261839 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23261839 - May 2020 (29 comments) May Update: PineTab Pre-Orders, PinePhone Qi Charging and More - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23193563 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23193563 - May 2020 (51 comments) Pinephone first steps - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23130247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23130247 - May 2020 (89 comments) Pinephone – Community Edition: UBports - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22844223 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22844223 - April 2020 (36 comments) KDE’s Plasma Mobile Is Shaping Up Nicely on the PinePhone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377386 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22377386 - Feb 2020 (4 comments) PinePhone – Unboxing and First Impressions - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22359086 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22359086 - Feb 2020 (4 comments) Pine64 February update: PinePhone, PineTab, Pinebook, new products and delays - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22338593 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22338593 - Feb 2020 (1 comment) PinePhone Misconceptions - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22145826 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22145826 - Jan 2020 (88 comments) Linux Smartphone – Yet Another Librem 5 and PinePhone Comparison - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21850285 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21850285 - Dec 2019 (1 comment) PinePhone review - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21830391 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21830391 - Dec 2019 (1 comment) PinePhone Review - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21824962 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21824962 - Dec 2019 (259 comments) Manjaro ARM Alpha1 for PinePhone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21727334 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21727334 - Dec 2019 (7 comments) Pinephone – “BraveHeart” Limited Edition Linux SmartPhone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21544059 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21544059 - Nov 2019 (69 comments) Pine64 November Update – ANSI Pinebook Pro and PinePhone Preorder - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21452740 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21452740 - Nov 2019 (86 comments) PineTime Is a $25 Smartwatch / Companion for PinePhone Linux Phone - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20977788 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20977788 - Sept 2019 (124 comments) PinePhone $149 Linux Smartphone Could Support Ubuntu, Sailfish, Maemo, LuneOS - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20130577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20130577 - June 2019 (4 comments) Software on Librem 5 and PinePhone Linux Phones Is Progressing Nicely - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20120331 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20120331 - June 2019 (14 comments) PinePhone Linux smartphone to sell for $149, dev kits coming soon - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19052931 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19052931 - Feb 2019 (10 comments)