17 votes

PinePhone Linux Smartphone priced at $149 to arrive this year

6 comments

  1. [5]
    Crestwave
    Link
    It's great to see companies that ship mainly Linux-preinstalled hardware; between Purism and Pine64, we already have a high-end vendor and a cheaper Chinese one. It's also great to see that both...

    It's great to see companies that ship mainly Linux-preinstalled hardware; between Purism and Pine64, we already have a high-end vendor and a cheaper Chinese one. It's also great to see that both of their phones will have hardware killswitches.

    5 votes
    1. [2]
      alyaza
      Link Parent
      i'm hoping this trend in general will continue, because i'm sure it's expensive as shit or at the bare minimum a pretty decent risk (in theory anyways) for companies like purism to bank on...

      i'm hoping this trend in general will continue, because i'm sure it's expensive as shit or at the bare minimum a pretty decent risk (in theory anyways) for companies like purism to bank on creating and shipping technology of this sort and i imagine that dissuades a lot of people who might otherwise get into the market themselves and ultimately keeps things more expensive on the user end than they might be otherwise.

      5 votes
      1. Flargus
        Link Parent
        idk i think with System76 already having broken through the linux laptop scene in a pretty big (& growing) way, this is a lil less of a risk, tho obv plenty of different challenges

        idk i think with System76 already having broken through the linux laptop scene in a pretty big (& growing) way, this is a lil less of a risk, tho obv plenty of different challenges

        1 vote
    2. [2]
      Akir
      Link Parent
      Unfortunately with the choice of SOC and small amount of RAM, it is pretty far down in the low end range for a modern phone. That being said, it's a pretty decent price for what it is. At the end...

      Unfortunately with the choice of SOC and small amount of RAM, it is pretty far down in the low end range for a modern phone.

      That being said, it's a pretty decent price for what it is. At the end of the day, the software on it is going to be what makes or breaks it. If they get every feature to work with PostmarketOS, this may just turn into a must-buy.

      5 votes
      1. patience_limited
        Link Parent
        The trick is going to be finding Linux applications optimized for mobile use - battery-conservative, designed for touchscreen interaction, and so on. The PinePhone's got too little memory for a...

        The trick is going to be finding Linux applications optimized for mobile use - battery-conservative, designed for touchscreen interaction, and so on. The PinePhone's got too little memory for a good dev platform, and the ecosystem is too constrained even for a Linux-expert userbase. Also, there are a couple of current Linux mobile OS projects which aren't so tied to vendor hardware (e.g. postmarketOS, Plasma Mobile - I'm really disappointed I didn't get to try this as my Intel-based tablet just died).

        5 votes
  2. userexec
    Link
    I was seriously considering getting a PineBook but the model I wanted was a few months out so I ended up going for an education edition Dell Chromebook 11 and putting GalliumOS on it (Xubuntu but...

    I was seriously considering getting a PineBook but the model I wanted was a few months out so I ended up going for an education edition Dell Chromebook 11 and putting GalliumOS on it (Xubuntu but with Chromebook fixes). I may have to get one of these.