[HN Gopher] Comparing the Librem 5 USA and PinePhone Beta
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Comparing the Librem 5 USA and PinePhone Beta
Author : underscore_ku
Score : 46 points
Date : 2021-12-19 18:51 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (amosbbatto.wordpress.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (amosbbatto.wordpress.com)
| yosito wrote:
| This is incredibly detailed, which is impressive. But in the
| first two minutes of reading it, the conclusion is basically,
| neither phone is ready to use as a daily driver.
| zmix wrote:
| I want a phone I can use with a single hand, that has a really
| good camera (within physical smartphone limits, of course), still
| has upper class hardware specs and doesn't place me on Apple's
| property.
| thepete2 wrote:
| I own a Pixel 4a, which although still big in my opinion, is
| still on the smaller side. Smartphones have become crazy big
| for some reason...
| sofixa wrote:
| If those are your only requirements, there are a ton of
| Android-based smartphones out there, based on your hand size.
| Google's Pixel, Samsung's galaxy, Sony's weirdly named series
| to name a few.
| throwawayboise wrote:
| A long and detailed comparison, but if you are looking for a
| summary "which one is better" conclusion or even opinion, there
| isn't one (at least I didn't find it).
| branon wrote:
| Very long and very detailed, and a lot of fun to read. Closest
| thing to a conclusion I found was the notion that the devices
| are quite different from one another. They seek to accomplish
| the same basic goal, but cater to different groups. This seems
| reasonable and I'm glad there's some freedom of choice.
|
| Both projects are rather far along at this point, at least
| relative to other, past attempts. Personally I've had a lot of
| fun with the PinePhone which I opted for mainly because the
| Librem 5's price tag is out of my reach.
|
| I'm excited for the PinePhone Pro to launch which I'll be
| purchasing as well. One thought that the author expressed,
| about buying into these projects not necessarily to receive an
| immediately functional product, but to participate and invest
| in improving the state of affairs as a whole, really resonated
| with me.
|
| I think the Pro will really help tip the scales from
| "technically functional curiosity" to "viable daily driver" --
| the current state of the device, while excellent in a relative
| sense, isn't _quite_ enough to replace Android for me.
|
| It's hard to tell if it's just not ready, or if my expectations
| keep changing even as the device's capabilities improve. It
| feels like the "Year of the Linux desktop" problem, just with a
| phone this time. It's always technically ready, yet somehow
| also simultaneously not ready in a more practical sense. Maybe
| I just need to be more involved?
|
| Perhaps it's even more sinister than that. Maybe the current
| duopoly (Apple/Google) continues to develop their ecosystems
| partly out of self-defense. The faster they "innovate" and add
| useless features (like the author's list of anti-features), the
| further "behind" independent projects like Pine64/Purism appear
| to be.
|
| Thankfully the trained eye can discern that these devices are
| in a class by themselves. Hopefully they don't get compared to
| Android/iOS too often, like I just did. Only with the best of
| intentions, I promise!
| mattl wrote:
| I can't see a compelling reason to spend $2000 on a phone that
| ships with broken audio.
|
| $200 for a Pinephone is okay if you're okay with the idea it will
| be hard to use.
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(page generated 2021-12-19 23:01 UTC)