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Ask HN: 2021 PinePhone Review?

5 pointsthx4y ago4 comments

i searched Algolia & the most recent review of Pinephone was 2 years ago

does anyone have more current, year+, hands-on experience with a Pinephone & wouldn’t mind doing a quick review?

want to give one a go & probably will soon anyhow but thought to check with HN. Possible Qs:

- how do you like the interface?

- is the “experience” of typing pretty smooth? (some phones have a suck touch-keyboard

- likes/dislikes? What needs to improve?

thanks for taking the time to read

4 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

d--b4y ago· 1 in thread

I got one after reading good things about it.

The default OS plainly doesn't work. It's not that it's slow or that it crashes. It's that it's totally unpredictable. Things pop out from no where, you get error alerts from things you don't know. I couldn't figure out how to make my sim card work...

Then I installed Ubuntu touch. It's way better, but still I couldn't make the phone work. I received a text at some point, and then I had to take care of my kid and I didn't pick it up since...

thxOP4y ago

An unpredictable OS is somewhat disconcerting but thank you for the review

Think I will still give it a shot but from the sounds of it, may be best to wait for a next gen model

linmob4y ago· 1 in thread

I have been writing and doing a number of videos about the PinePhone on https://linmob.net.

There is not one interface, there are many. I personally like Purism's Phosh the best, as Plasma Mobile has had more problems for me. The typing experience is overall ok, but it's not fancy (no autocorrect on Phosh, no swiping on any keyboard). I think watching videos can help you getting an idea on that.

What needs to improve? Overall reliably. I've inevitably always run into slowness and lockups after some time (postmarketOS Phosh did best, I could go a week without reboot). But things are slowly coming together, even video acceleration is coming with a future GStreamer release.[1]

[1] http://briandaniels.me/2021/06/27/hardware-accelerated-video...

thxOP4y ago

> I have been writing and doing a number of videos about the PinePhone on https://linmob.net.

Thanks for posting - have had a hard time finding quality reviews & will definitely check out at length

Also the “Purism Phosh” pro-tip on the interface is much appreciated. Had no idea you could actually do multiple interfaces (like with a Linux Box) but I guess that makes sense.

My impression is they’re really spearheading the open-source functionality all at once in these smartphone devices & at the moment, it’s too new / may be a lot rn to tie together all the loose-ends of its potential .. am hopeful with each iteration, the Pinephone will be a more solid / reliable phone.

Looking forward to giving it a go

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