[HN Gopher] PinePhone Beta
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PinePhone Beta
Author : pavelsof
Score : 37 points
Date : 2021-03-19 21:08 UTC (1 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.pine64.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.pine64.org)
| rhizome wrote:
| Make a screen+mobo+speakers+... (the top 1/3 of a phone), give it
| an SD slot, and make it a unit that clicks onto a generic
| battery. Case makers will fill in the rest.
| neolog wrote:
| Why is it so cheap? Aren't the customers people who want to
| switch from $1000 phones for freedom (not price)?
| echelon wrote:
| > Aren't the customers people who want to switch from $1000
| phones for freedom (not price)?
|
| That's me at least.
|
| I'm tempted to buy one just as a sign of support. We really
| need PinePhone to grow.
| edoceo wrote:
| One of the reasons I got PineTime. Well, that and to play
| with.
| octopoc wrote:
| In December they said they were thinking about opening up a
| reseller program so they don't have to support end users [1].
| Then they announced the end of the community editions [2]. And
| now this announcement. I think they're trying to evolve into
| something more sustainable.
|
| 1: https://www.pine64.org/2020/12/02/pine-store-community-
| prici...
|
| 2: https://www.pine64.org/2021/02/02/the-end-of-community-
| editi...
| josteink wrote:
| As far as I can tell, this looks like the same hardware theyve
| sold before for the earlier community edition phones.
|
| Im guessing that calling it "BETA" signifies an increased
| confidence in it actually being usable, due to recent software
| improvements in the Linux mobile community?
|
| While thats great in itself, Im looking forward to them moving to
| a beefier SOC.
|
| (Posted from a PinePhone PostmarketOS community convergence
| edition phone)
| tpxl wrote:
| Yes, it was in the march community update [0], they feel the
| software is now beta quality: 'The upcoming production-run, as
| well as the next two or three following it, will be referred to
| as the Beta Edition. The term "Beta" indicates the present
| software status'
|
| [0] https://www.pine64.org/2021/03/15/march-update/
| away_throw wrote:
| Hardware still uses a single band WLAN. Unfortunately, I won't be
| able to use it because of this. The 2.4GHz band in my apartment
| complex is severely degraded due to the sheer amount of channel
| conflicts. My Netgear router can only handle 2-5Mbps.
| prox wrote:
| This looks like my next phone. Will the final release be of the
| same price? And how is the pinephone experience?
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| Still a long way from daily driver. Battery won't last a day,
| and there a lot of unexpected lockups in KDE.
|
| I was hoping to find some time this weekend to try some
| alternate UI's
| prox wrote:
| I really don't mind at this point, my old phone doesn't last
| a day either! If the price is right, I am willing to take the
| plunge.
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| I was scared off attempting to use it when, one day I was
| doing something in a terminal and it locked up. I was
| clicking all over the screen to try and bring up the task
| manager (or any response), when the phone called my other
| phone! Input must have been going through to other apps but
| the screen was showing a blank terminal.
| etaioinshrdlu wrote:
| It's the most disappointing phone ever. A 10-year old Android
| performs better and is more stable.
|
| I wasn't expecting it to work well, but it was far worse than I
| imagined. I tried several ROMs and the software is starting to
| improve slightly, though.
| josteink wrote:
| A pure Linux phone could obviously benefit from being as
| polished and streamlined as its iOS and Android counterparts.
|
| But thats not its main mission. Thats not what it's selling.
|
| Total user control, like on real desktop Linux, for those who
| can wield it, because thats literally what youre getting.
|
| For now this space is for a very specific audience. Maybe in
| time (like Ubuntu did for desktop Linux on PCs) there will
| come a distro which is usable enough OOB to have the same
| effect on mobile.
|
| We mobile Linux users will still be a minority though, and we
| probably wont mind. Just like we dont mind being minority
| desktop users either.
| jay_kyburz wrote:
| I was hoping that there would be a reasonably rock solid
| "feature phone" platform we could start building from, but
| it seems everybody wants to scale down the full linux
| desktop.
|
| I just want a feature phone with a browser.
|
| I would even be keen to see KiaOS running on it, but I
| don't think you can right now.
| linmob wrote:
| If you want to, you can have that; just take
| postmarketOSs new stable release when it's out with your
| prefered mobile shell and put the bare minimum of apps
| you want/need on there and you'll be set.
|
| As for KaiOS, I doubt we'll see that soon, as IIRC like
| FirefoxOS it's designed to run on Android kernels. With
| GloDroid being mostly dormant and incomplete, I doubt we
| can pull that off.
| linmob wrote:
| Have you tried Arch Linux ARM/DanctNIX?
| linmob wrote:
| Pricing is tough to guesstimate right now with the component
| shortage. Given that hardware has not changed in a while, I
| don't see what should hold you back from getting it now, and
| the remaining hardware bugs are acceptible.[0]
|
| The experience has improved quite a bit since I got my first
| PinePhone in June. That said, this device is never going to be
| really fast. It's acceptible now, though, and it turns out,
| that you can adjust to things being a little slow every then
| and now. Most distributions don't use the acceleration
| capabilities the SoC offer as much as they could, and there are
| other areas where improvements for battery life and smoothness
| are still happening. It's been serving me fine as my only
| smartphone on weekends (and as a secondary device on workdays).
|
| I've been tracking the Linux Phone landscape on my blog[1], in
| multiple videos[2]. I have also adopted an App List, to list
| all the apps that run on these nascent Linux Distributions and
| are optimized for smartphones.[3]
|
| BTW: The coolest feature is that you can just put another
| distribution on a microSDHC/XC card and boot it. Like this you
| can carry multiple phone operating systems that fit certain
| circumstances.
|
| [0] https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_v1.2b
|
| [1] https://linmob.net
|
| [2] https://linmob.net/videos/
|
| [3] http://appl.ist
| t-writescode wrote:
| There's an Linus Tech Tips YouTube[1] on that very subject
| that's worth a view
|
| [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fCKMxzz9cjs
|
| edit: added details
| prox wrote:
| Thanks! Going to watch!
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(page generated 2021-03-19 23:00 UTC)