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PinePhone Pro Announced

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Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#291

Post by int_19h »

amelius wrote: post #275
robbedpeter wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many hundreds or thousands of enthusiasts are needed before it's suitable to be a daily driver? I see the fragmented approach on the software side as a major hindrance to the goal of achieving a device that can be used by a normal person as a reasonable replacement for other smart phones. I check in on it every l every 6 months or so, update my pinephone and give it a few days. So far, it doesn't meet reliability…

One problem is even governments support only the duopoly of smartphone makers. For example, try downloading a "Covid App" for a Linux phone. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/COVID-19_apps

In my state, the "app" is actually a website (https://myirmobile.com/).

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#292

Post by int_19h »

novok wrote: post #270
robbedpeter wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many hundreds or thousands of enthusiasts are needed before it's suitable to be a daily driver? I see the fragmented approach on the software side as a major hindrance to the goal of achieving a device that can be used by a normal person as a reasonable replacement for other smart phones. I check in on it every l every 6 months or so, update my pinephone and give it a few days. So far, it doesn't meet reliability…

TBH I think having a flutter port for this operating mobile system is probably the most likely way for it to succeed. That way you can do a flutter app and it will work on this too, while still having mainline OS support. Then you would need to fill in some common services like push and such.

The most likely way to succeed would be to jump on the PWA bandwagon, IMO.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#293

Post by oynqr »

nottaylorswift wrote: post #244
necrotic_comp wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Android handsets aren't really linux boxes. I can't ssh into them, I can't write little python scripts, etc. An actual, general purpose, real foss portable phone factor computer will be amazing as it matures.

There's nothing new here. I remember having those features in the Nokia N900 in 09. I think this product is grossly overpriced for a cheap generic Android phone loaded with a beta Linux distro. In Shenzhen they'll sell you a case of 50 for $400. Save your money or buy a Quest 2.

Except this one is going to run a close to mainline kernel pretty soon and those android phones will be stuck in the last decade, forever.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#294

Post by mixmastamyk »

bluGill wrote: post #237
mixmastamyk wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately I'm fully booked, and would gladly pay an extra hundred or two for someone else to do it. Not clear on who that is yet.

Unless you are talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars though your money isn't really useful. Developers are on the higher end of the income curve and so few people alone can afford to hire them like that. You can donate a few hundred so several projects, it will make a difference, but thousands of other people need to do the same before they can hire even one person (and the first people hired will do more IT…

It's done by purchasing the device, many folks purchasing it, which I already did. In fact someone might consider starting a company (haha), or funneling the money to a single engineering source.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#295

Post by int_19h »

necrotic_comp wrote: post #205
nottaylorswift wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then buy any of the 3 billion Android handsets. Most average $100 and were out of beta in 08'.

Android handsets aren't really linux boxes. I can't ssh into them, I can't write little python scripts, etc. An actual, general purpose, real foss portable phone factor computer will be amazing as it matures.

> I can't ssh into them

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.xnano.andr...

> I can't write little python scripts

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.iiec.pydroi...

And those don't even require an unlocked bootloader. If you do unlock, sky's the limit - it really is a general purpose portable computer then.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#296

Post by Fnoord »

Klasiaster wrote: post #34

For me the main pain point of the current PinePhone is not its performance, it's the driver and firmware issues. Mainline Linux does not work well with the current PinePhone and various patches are not upstreamed or not even written yet to fix the remaining bugs. The cameras don't work with most software, the out-of-tree WiFi driver has stability issues to the point where I rather use LTE or USB, the USB-C firmware i…

> but at least there is a better WiFi chip.

Strangely, it sports Bluetooth 4.1, while 5.1 is from December 2019.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#297

Post by mixmastamyk »

bluGill wrote: post #236
robbedpeter wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many hundreds or thousands of enthusiasts are needed before it's suitable to be a daily driver? I see the fragmented approach on the software side as a major hindrance to the goal of achieving a device that can be used by a normal person as a reasonable replacement for other smart phones. I check in on it every l every 6 months or so, update my pinephone and give it a few days. So far, it doesn't meet reliability…

> How many hundreds or thousands of enthusiasts are needed before it's suitable to be a daily driver? Zero. What is needed is a few hundred developers writing actually code to make it useful. The enthusiasts are at best nice to haves. You can blur the line if you write good bug reports, but right now the pinephone doesn't need end users. The above will change over time. Millions of users would be enough to force carr…

Enthusiasts with wallets are another story.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#298

Post by Fnoord »

officeplant wrote: post #71
belval wrote: post #7

I curious about the opinion of HN on the absence of 1080p (it's still 720p). Specially this part of the blog post: > The decision to maintain the original PinePhone’s screen resolution of 1440×720 was made early on; higher resolution panels consume more power and increase SoC’s load, resulting in shorter battery life and higher average thermals. A few extra pixels aren’t worth it.[1] While I understand the point they…

>1080p feels like the baseline in 2021. The lower end Android market is still dominated by 720p(ish) phones. Especially the sub $150 market. Having used a few of them I don't think its an issue. Especially when you get a phone with a 720 screen, a modern low end efficient octo-core SoC, and a 4000mAh battery. The 3-4 days of battery life feel like you've gone back in time 15 years to cellphones lasting most of the we…

Yeah, but... the Pro is not in a low-end sub $150 market. The Pro is twice as expensive as the normal Pinephone: 400 USD + taxes. I don't see how its worth the money if it still isn't gonna be usable as daily driver.

Steam Deck only supports 1280 x 800, and that's gonna be OK for handheld gaming. I rather have 120 Hz and OLED but it ain't gonna happen for now.

I really doubt you get 3-4 days on a Pinephone once you start using sync services (for photo's, e-mail, IM, etc). Or use the screen extensively (browsing, video, etc). Of course the device lasts long if you don't use it for much.

While a Pinephone would be good for watching video's, it isn't because no Widevine, and that's what people need. Without Android emulation, it ain't gonna be popular. Microsoft knows this. Its why they're going for rolling out WSLg's successor on Windows 11, targeting Android GUI apps.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#299

Post by mixmastamyk »

jjulius wrote: post #114
jjmellon wrote: post #17

I received a Pinephone in the latest shipment, about three weeks ago. I also got the convergence dock to be able to attach a monitor, keyboard and mouse. I am extremely motivated to get off Android on my phone, and yet my Pinephone has already been discarded (and I never even put a SIM card in it). There are far too many out-of-the-box bugs and glitches to consider this a usable product. For example, the convergence…

>There are far too many out-of-the-box bugs and glitches to consider this a usable product. Their phones are clearly marked as "Beta" on their store[1]. Forgive me for being so blunt, but what did you expect? [1] https://pine64.com/product-category/pinephone/?v=0446c16e2e6...

Beta traditionally means it works in the common case, with some glitches and bugs around obscure uses that wider testing will identify.

The PP I received was crashy and couldn't even update the OS because a file or library was broken. :-(

I had to start it up ten times, run a terminal with a mobile keyboard in a 4pt font to fix the updater before it crashed at the one minute mark.

I'd call it pre-alpha.

Re: PinePhone Pro Announced

#300

Post by int_19h »

_v7gu wrote: post #68

> Thus, the device cannot considered a consumer-ready product. Right off the store page. Why are people in the comments expecting to daily drive this? You buy this for the excitement and sense of accomplishment of actually managing to run things.

In fact, it seems to be impossible to pre-order PinePhone Pro as a consumer right now. If you click on the button to pre-order, this is what you get:

https://preorder.pine64.org/#/pinephone-pro-dev

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