TL;DR:
A small, audio-first handheld released as an open dev platform, derived from PinePhone hardware, designed to be capable of a Rockbox port. Physical controls, great battery life, optional PineBuds + external display support. I would buy one immediately and actively work on the Rockbox port — I’ve been wanting an open hardware Rockbox target like this for a long time.
I wanted to float an idea that feels very aligned with Pine64’s strengths: reuse existing work, document it well, and let the community do interesting things with it.

Concept:
A single-purpose handheld primarily intended as a media player, but released explicitly as an open development platform, not a polished consumer product.

Think: “PinePhone without the phone.”

High-level hardware direction:

• Start from the PinePhone hardware lineage (SoC, audio path, power, USB-C)
  
• Remove phone-specific components (modem, cameras, etc.)
  
• Reduce overall size
  
• Add a small, low-power screen
  
• Physical controls (rocker / select / hold)
  
• Headphone jack, microSD
  
• Focus on battery life
  

• Rockbox already solves the hard problems for this class of device (audio quality, codecs, physical controls, power efficiency).
  
• Pine64 already excels at open ARM hardware where the value is documentation, reuse, and community ports
  
• There’s growing interest in calm, offline, single-purpose devices (especially for music) that don’t try to compete with phones.
  

• PineBuds support for local playback and experimentation
  
• Modest mic + compute for on-device translation / transcription experiments (not positioned as an “AI gadget”)
  
• Optional external display support over USB-C for docking or experimentation, while remaining clearly a handheld media player first
  

I'm using the pine a64 with 512mb of ram. i used like 5 different operating systems and all of them couldn't detect my Ethernet connection. what could be detected was a USB Ethernet dongle, however none of the operating systems had drivers for it. I'm pretty sure there's something broken on the board and wanted advice on confirming that and what to do next. thank you

My Pinebook Pro had stiff hinges. It eventually broke the case. I now have a new "Palm case  including keyboard".

Now to do a transplant. Has anyone else done this - are there any instructions? The order in which to do this is not obvious - hidden screws etc.

Yes I've read (most of) the page https://pine64.org/documentation/Pineboo...eassembly/
and seen the advice there about stiff hinges...

Many units come with the hinges too stiff from the factory. You can tell if it affects your device by carefully observing if operating the lid on a fully assembled notebook flexes the case. This repeated flexing can lead to plastic and metal fatigue and eventually broken parts. Consider carefully using a flat screwdriver or similar object to unbend the hinges a bit by wedging it into the slot (requires the display part to be fully detached from the main bo

Many units come with the hinges too stiff from the factory. You can tell if it affects your device by carefully observing if operating the lid on a fully assembled notebook flexes the case. This repeated flexing can lead to plastic and metal fatigue and eventually broken parts. Consider carefully using a flat screwdriver or similar object to unbend the hinges a bit by wedging it into the slot (requires the display part to be fully detached from the main body).

stiff from the factory. You can tell if it affects your device by carefully observing if operating the lid on a fully assembled notebook flexes the case. This repeated flexing can lead to plastic and metal fatigue and eventually broken parts. Consider carefully using a flat screwdriver or similar object to unbend the hinges a bit by wedging it into the slot (requires the display part to be fully detached from the main body).

Many units come with the hinges too stiff from the factory. You can tell if it affects your device by carefully observing if operating the lid on a fully assembled notebook flexes the case. This repeated flexing can lead to plastic and metal fatigue and eventually broken parts. Consider carefully using a flat screwdriver or similar object to unbend the hinges a bit by wedging it into the slot (requires the display part to be fully detached from the main body).

Greetings!

I am interested in getting a Linux-based tablet for grading. I unfortunately have to use BlackBoard Ultra for grading, or else download student papers (PDF or Word format usually). I don't plan to use the tablet for anything else except reading journal articles and/or books.

Would the PineTab or PineNote be better for this particular use (primarily grading)? My sense is the stylus would be great for making grading faster (as opposed to typing comments, which requires highlighting particular passages using BlackBoard's clunky in-browser system and typing, which I think is slower than my writing), and the PineTab (I think?) isn't compatible with a stylus.

Advice on one or the other would be greatly appreciated. Thank you kindly!

Hi everyone,

Using PineWatch and reading Open BLE was very easy to implement to my App.
Just with Built in OS.
So far, im using HeartRate in my App, no Gatebridge needed, just simple as can be. 

Thanks for that.

Greets

Hi,

I am interested in knowing if anyone has been able to run Instagram or discord apps using waydroid (or alternative setups) on the pinephone with stable performance. I am also interested in knowing if anyone has been able to run any youtube app with stable performance. 

Aside from the proprietary apps, I would also love to hear from anyone using alternative opensource apps? I know some projects exist for discord, such as WebCord, ArmCord and maybe there are more projects like those some of you have had success with and would like to share.

Please also share what OS + mobile shell combination you are using and anything else you can think of that was important for performance and stability.

cheers!

dustfinger

Hi,

I re-registered my nick yesterday on IRC because I have been inactive for a while. I have not received a confirmation email and I just wanted to let you know incase my registeration got missed somehow. My IRC nick is dustfinger, just like my forum username.

Thanks,

dustfinger.

Would cpu rk3576 be suited for running a phone? My information is that the cpu rk3576 is able to run
on free software except from a ram training blob. Thank you.

I noticed mesa updated on my pinetab2, so i tried it out.

both mpv and browsers got a HUGE speed boost, with almost perfect video playback.

I would further recommend

Debian 13 / xfce with Daniel Thompon's ancient 5.7 kernel and updated touchpad firmware (too long ago that I remember the details).

Under xfce -> settings -> mouse and touchpad, I checkmarked "tap touchpad to click". Tap to click works with one finger taps, only. For 2 or 3 finger clicks, I need to press the touchpad.

On other computers running Debian / xfce, I can tap with two and three fingers as well.

What about you? Does it work for you on the Pinebook Pro and I just need to dig deeper?