All the other discussions I found on Lemmy dismiss it because they find the idea of a second phone ridiculous. Or because they don’t buy into the “dumb phone” concept. But I think it makes a compelling phone on it’s own, and you wouldn’t need a second.
But really look into it. By every indication it appears designed to be a fully featured main phone. It has some compromises made to fit the keyboard first philosophy, but it has everything you’d need and more. Dual SIM (eSIM+physical), a headphone jack, micro SD Card support, a 50mp camera with OIS (I know megapixels don’t mean much but I think it shows it’s not gonna be the cheapest crap camera), NFC/Google Pay support, Android Auto, Qi2… That doesn’t read “second phone” to me. It’s just… phone.
They have now said that it will have an unlockable bootloader too. I’m not finding much to dislike here. 8GB of RAM is somewhat low but should be fine. The processor is still a question mark but honesty as long as it’s not bottom of the barrel it should be perfectly fine. I have always gone for flagship phones but honestly I’ve started analyzing what I actually do on my phone and I pretty much never push the hardware. I like knowing I have the top of the line but I basically just web browse, message, read email, scroll Lemmy, and listen to music/podcasts. Very occasionally watch some YouTube but that’s usually on my TV or PC. No gaming or anything. I should be able to do all of that on this device, some of it won’t be as good on that screen obviously but it should still be doable. I need the camera to at least be decent. Not great just not garbage. Like it’s fine if the low light performance is meh and the video isn’t the best. But I don’t want to look at my photos and regret taking it with that device, so we’ll see.
I don’t want a dumb phone, and I don’t think this is one. You should be able to do everything any other phone can. I don’t think it’s a second phone either. I think they’re just leaning into that for marketing reasons, so that when anyone points out the tradeoffs of this form factor they can just wave it away as a secondary device.
It appeals to me because it’s a small phone. Seriously nobody makes one worth using. Unihertz sure, if you want a bad software experience with no updates ever. But otherwise you just have the non-plus sized iPhone/Galaxy S. Those are considered small. Or maybe the flip-foldables. It also appeals to me because it has major character and (imo) style. I’m bored of glass and metal sandwiches. Give me this! A plastic device with a swappable back that has a (vegan?) leather option? Hell yeah.
$499 no thanks.
$200, Linux. I’ll accept no less. And take your AI crap and you can cram it up your ass.
I have a pinephone, it was $200. It is also hot garbage, with the performance of a 56k modem with the software cohesion of liquid shite with sprinkles.
And I knew going in that it was bad. But it was so much worse. I tried using it as my main phone for a few days, and jesus it was pain. From programs not scaling, UI elements being inaccessible, the phone locking up, the lock screen freaking out, the camera not working, the fact that it only ‘works’ on 1/3 carriers in the US, I don’t think I ever got hotspot functionality working, then I threw it in a drawer for a few months, tried it again, manjaro’s package manager freaked out and corrupted itself (and some other stuff, it’s been a few years), and the only way to fix it without going insane and restoring file-by-file was to reinstall from scratch… which required setting up the distro from inside another system.
Jesus fucking christ, what a shitshow. And I’ve been using Linux off and on for just about 20 years now for desktops, 10 years for servers.
‘you get what you pay for’ couldn’t be any more true here. For a niche device, it can be good or it can be cheap. If it is both, it is using economies of scale, and thus is not niche. And let me tell you, every single phone that is running ‘full’/‘desktop’ Linux, I assure you, is a niche product.
$500 for a niche device that won’t sell millions of units and that comes with not medium-high specs, isn’t too bad. And it has unlockable bootloader.
$200 and Linux is impossible unless it’s something with a CPU from a decade ago like the pine phone (the allwinner a64 was launched in 2015 and it was a low end one, imagine using it today)
You’re just making numbers up now there’s no way that a $200 phone is going to be any good. Especially if it’s a niche product like a Linux phone.
Come on you got to be even moderately reasonable
That’s really aggressive… I said they’re NOT pushing AI with this which is great.
Do you have a recommendation for a full featured Linux device usable as a phone? I’d love that but most seem more expensive and in my country basically none of them can even make a phone call due to not supporting VoLTE so it’s not yet a realistic option.