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I have been using the OG Pinephone full time for a month in the US (Mobian Phosh). I am able to use VoLTE Calls, SMS, MMS, Visual Voicemail (so all of the basic

by kop316 5y ago

I have been using the OG Pinephone full time for a month in the US (Mobian Phosh). I am able to use VoLTE Calls, SMS, MMS, Visual Voicemail (so all of the basic feature phone stuff works). It is very very slow however. Firefox takes 40 (EDIT: ok more like 15-20) seconds to load, and I don't even bother to load heavy resource sites without uMatrix. Also, battery life is not great. Screen on time is 3-4 hours, and standby time is approximately 12 hours.

prox 5y ago
So as a phone it works great? I just want a device that calls, and having a bit of fun with Linux is a plus for me. I wonder if they can’t use a raspberry pi like base, since in the Pi3-4 loading Firefox is quicker by a margin.
- kop316 5y ago
  > So as a phone it works great? So far for me it has yeah. I really don't know enough about how well it works outside of the US (but many of the devs seem to be in Europe, so I imagine it works well there?) For me the biggest thing that hurts is battery life, but normally I am in areas where I can just plug it in, so it isn't a big issue. If I am out and about for a day, I just carry around a battery pack (or a spare battery). > I wonder if they can’t use a raspberry pi like base, since in the Pi3-4 loading Firefox is quicker by a margin. You could probably get an EG-25 USB modem and play around with it, but AFAIK no one is doing that, so you'd be largely on your own.
  - notswiley2 5y ago
    >You could probably get an EG-25 USB modem and play around with it, but AFAIK no one is doing that, so you'd be largely on your own. I think a lot of the devs actually do this.
    - kop316 5y ago
      AFAIK most devs cross-compile on a beefy machine then debug in the Pinephone (or have some fancy configuration to do it automatically). I personally develop/compile/debug all on phone (but I know I am an outlier in that regard).
- opan 5y ago
  >I wonder if they can’t use a raspberry pi like base, since in the Pi3-4 loading Firefox is quicker by a margin. This would be a massive downgrade as far as freedom. Raspberry Pis are full of blobs. The original PinePhone uses what is basically the Pine A64 as its base. A very old and slow SBC of Pine64's (and it was right at the PinePhone's release). The PinePhone Pro uses what is basically the RockPro64 as a base, better than most if not all Raspberry Pis. The same (but slightly modified) RK3399 SoC used in their Pinebook Pro laptop.
  - prox 5y ago
    That is a shame in a way, I should check the benchmark on the Pro.
notswiley2 5y ago
>Firefox takes 40 seconds to load You might try experimenting with different configurations. With a lightweight X11 WM on PMOS Firefox takes ~10 seconds to load cold for me (and it's closer to 4 if I've just killed it.)
- kop316 5y ago
  Ok so maybe I exaggerated a bit (or it just feels like 40 seconds!), I just timed a couple of times, it's closer to 15-20 seconds, so not as bad.
pengaru 5y ago
How should one interpret this (and other "it's very slow, short battery life" comments) WRT the newly released "pro" model? Are these the primary issues improved upon?
- kop316 5y ago
  The Pinephone Pro is much faster, and I wouldn't call it "slow" at all. However, the Pinephone Pro does not have as mature drivers/kernel/etc. as the OG Pinephone, so I think trying to compare battery life at this point is unfair, as we are comparing something folks have had lots of time to refine versus a brand new product.

by kop316 5y ago

prox 5y ago

So as a phone it works great? I just want a device that calls, and having a bit of fun with Linux is a plus for me. I wonder if they can’t use a raspberry pi like base, since in the Pi3-4 loading Firefox is quicker by a margin.

kop316 5y ago
> So as a phone it works great? So far for me it has yeah. I really don't know enough about how well it works outside of the US (but many of the devs seem to be in Europe, so I imagine it works well there?) For me the biggest thing that hurts is battery life, but normally I am in areas where I can just plug it in, so it isn't a big issue. If I am out and about for a day, I just carry around a battery pack (or a spare battery). > I wonder if they can’t use a raspberry pi like base, since in the Pi3-4 loading Firefox is quicker by a margin. You could probably get an EG-25 USB modem and play around with it, but AFAIK no one is doing that, so you'd be largely on your own.
- notswiley2 5y ago
  >You could probably get an EG-25 USB modem and play around with it, but AFAIK no one is doing that, so you'd be largely on your own. I think a lot of the devs actually do this.
  - kop316 5y ago
    AFAIK most devs cross-compile on a beefy machine then debug in the Pinephone (or have some fancy configuration to do it automatically). I personally develop/compile/debug all on phone (but I know I am an outlier in that regard).
opan 5y ago
>I wonder if they can’t use a raspberry pi like base, since in the Pi3-4 loading Firefox is quicker by a margin. This would be a massive downgrade as far as freedom. Raspberry Pis are full of blobs. The original PinePhone uses what is basically the Pine A64 as its base. A very old and slow SBC of Pine64's (and it was right at the PinePhone's release). The PinePhone Pro uses what is basically the RockPro64 as a base, better than most if not all Raspberry Pis. The same (but slightly modified) RK3399 SoC used in their Pinebook Pro laptop.
- prox 5y ago
  That is a shame in a way, I should check the benchmark on the Pro.

notswiley2 5y ago

>Firefox takes 40 seconds to load You might try experimenting with different configurations. With a lightweight X11 WM on PMOS Firefox takes ~10 seconds to load cold for me (and it's closer to 4 if I've just killed it.)

kop316 5y ago
Ok so maybe I exaggerated a bit (or it just feels like 40 seconds!), I just timed a couple of times, it's closer to 15-20 seconds, so not as bad.

pengaru 5y ago

How should one interpret this (and other "it's very slow, short battery life" comments) WRT the newly released "pro" model? Are these the primary issues improved upon?

kop316 5y ago
The Pinephone Pro is much faster, and I wouldn't call it "slow" at all. However, the Pinephone Pro does not have as mature drivers/kernel/etc. as the OG Pinephone, so I think trying to compare battery life at this point is unfair, as we are comparing something folks have had lots of time to refine versus a brand new product.