Current State of PIne Phone Pro

[tckosvic]

We have secure some PinePhone and PinePhone Pro microSD/SIM card connectors from supplier. We don't want to place this in Pine Store due to this is limited quantity. If you have the sim slot issue and able to ask local repair shop to make the repair, support team can file a request to send out this spare part. When file the support time at https://support.pine64.org, please provide your order number and sim slot damage photo shows, support team will help up on this arrangement. Please note that this spare part is free but you still need to pay for the Pine Store standard shipping. Due to this is a special arrangement, support team will not help up on combine shipment type of request.

This is a pretty worthless response by PinePhone for a problem they created by making a user use the sim/sd card slot so many times it wears out in order to try out new OS/desktops in lieu of using dedicated storage eMMC as any normal phone works.

Looking at  the referenced response by Pinephone member, first you have to take your phone to a repair shop.  I am unaware that Pinephone has dedicated repair shop chain. Then the shop has to request a replacement part including photos of the broken part.  I see no reason why an owner can't make a request for a replacement and why it needs to be a repair shop. Then it needs to be approved and mailed from China,  You are probably looking at 2 months elapsed time.  And, also what if you want to replace it yourself as lots of us can solder.  And, also, publish the part name and number so others can look for the item; what's the secret???

Pinephone !, "get a pack of these parts and make them avaiable in the parts store".  You owe this to your customers as you caused the problem.

tom kosvic

I'm not aware of wear-related issues, there hasn't been such a case in the chat reported yet either. What occasionally happens is that the pins of the SIM slot break off due to the SIM card falling out of the adapter and folks getting hasty and then pulling on the adapter with force. On rare cases the microSD card detection pin broke, I'm aware of 3 cases in the chatrooms.

Be advised that the SIM and microSD card slot is something even soldering experts will have difficulties doing, that will require special soldering techniques. I would recommend having a look at how the slot is fixed to the mainboard. Please make sure to ask for the opinion of other users regarding the difficulty to replace that part specifically, to make sure you're getting accurate information here, for example via https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Main_Page#Chat_Platforms.

---

We have secure some PinePhone and PinePhone Pro microSD/SIM card connectors from supplier. We don't want to place this in Pine Store due to this is limited quantity. If you have the sim slot issue and able to ask local repair shop to make the repair, support team can file a request to send out this spare part. When file the support time at https://support.pine64.org, please provide your order number and sim slot damage photo shows, support team will help up on this arrangement. Please note that this spare part is free but you still need to pay for the Pine Store standard shipping. Due to this is a special arrangement, support team will not help up on combine shipment type of request.

This is a pretty worthless response by PinePhone for a problem they created by making a user use the sim/sd card slot so many times it wears out in order to try out new OS/desktops in lieu of using dedicated storage eMMC as any normal phone works.

Looking at  the referenced response by Pinephone member, first you have to take your phone to a repair shop.  I am unaware that Pinephone has dedicated repair shop chain. Then the shop has to request a replacement part including photos of the broken part.  I see no reason why an owner can't make a request for a replacement and why it needs to be a repair shop. Then it needs to be approved and mailed from China,  You are probably looking at 2 months elapsed time.  And, also what if you want to replace it yourself as lots of us can solder.  And, also, publish the part name and number so others can look for the item; what's the secret???

Pinephone !, "get a pack of these parts and make them avaiable in the parts store".  You owe this to your customers as you caused the problem.

tom kosvic

I'm not aware of wear-related issues, there hasn't been such a case in the chat reported yet either. What occasionally happens is that the pins of the SIM slot break off due to the SIM card falling out of the adapter and folks getting hasty and then pulling on the adapter with force. On rare cases the microSD card detection pin broke, I'm aware of 3 cases in the chatrooms.

Be advised that the SIM and microSD card slot is something even soldering experts will have difficulties doing, that will require special soldering techniques. I would recommend having a look at how the slot is fixed to the mainboard. Please make sure to ask for the opinion of other users regarding the difficulty to replace that part specifically, to make sure you're getting accurate information here, for example via https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/Main_Page#Chat_Platforms.

I am surprised that you think that the failures of the sim/sd card are not related to repeated use.  That flies in the face of all the reports in the chat threads.

[bcnaz]

The ADAPTERS are the Problem !

I have been "Swapping cards" since the original Brave Heart phone... (Both the sim cards and the micro-sd cards.)

Sliding the "correct sized cards"  in and out of the holder has NEVER been a problem for me.

"It is the adapter that rips out the contacts of the card holder" !

This discussion should list peoples "OPINIONS",  and the "FACTS"  as  2 separate items.

*******************

I have 5 original Pine phones and one Explorer Pine phone.

[codefossa]

How did you make the desktop file so suspend shows up in the app drawer? That would be a real time saver.

I apologize for the delayed response, but in general I just grab a random desktop file and copy then alter it to what I need.  I use Arch Phosh, so the GNOME category may make no sense for you, and of course I use systemd on my PPP, but feel free to make modifications.

/usr/share/applications/suspend.desktop

Code:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Suspend
Comment=Put the PC to sleep.
Exec=/usr/bin/systemctl suspend
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Icon=system-shutdown
Categories=GNOME;
StartupNotify=false

[Chief]

Hey folks, looking for some opinions from current PPP users.

I am a regular Pine Phone user and I use it as my daily driver. I am really happy with the sate of the software and while it has some bugs that require a restart here and there its becoming less and less almost to the point where I don't notice issue really.

The big things for me are MMS and proper wake / suspend to conserve battery as I generally have access to a charger but I hate being plugged into it all day.

That being said I really do want a faster version of what I have, I just don't know if the PPP is as far along as the regular PP as the PP had so much more development time.

I would love to hear from anyone who has upgraded from the PP to the PPP or anyone that is daily driving the PPP.

Thanks for the help.

I have the Covergence and the PPP and my PPP has a busted sim slot even though I had read about the problems. After the 4th sim card insertion (testing) the pin finally broke. I haven't bothered to fix it yet as the phone has sound call difficulties. I got rid of the Manjaro KDE as it is basically broke and have installed Manjaro Phosh which works well. The PPP is quick no doubt but my daily driver is the Convergence. Where updates are concerned there is hardly anything going on with the PPP so I suspect that it might be a little while before it is usuable.
My opinion.

[kmsgli]

I have received my Pro!!!

This is a blistering fast upgrade compared to the OG pinephone. I believe it is close to daily driver status but not there yet.

Arch phosh with towboot as the boot loader seems to be the closest setup. The only issue I found keeping me from using it daily is upon resume from suspend when someone calls you the audio of the phone call can not be heard and the person can not hear you. I tried this setup on internal storage as well as sd card with the same results.

Manjaro phosh is in a similar spot. Manjaro is however having issues with mms settings that arch does not suffer from. That bug also occurs on the OG pine phone Manjaro as well though (you cant adjust the mms settings in chatty or via command line).

The other thing that seems to be lacking which would not keep me from daily driving it but would be nice to have is the Qi charger back cover does not work for the pro. I put a ticket into pine64 to see why that is as that is purely a hardware thing but I have seen one or two other people saying the same thing.

I am really hoping this gets squared away soon because the speed of the pro really puts it all together and makes for a very enjoyable experience.

[IHaveALinuxPhone]

I'm also a pinephone user, using it as my main phone. I did buy a pinephone pro in january and got it in february. Less than a month after, it was dead. Not dead dead, but the sim card slot is broken, so now it's basically just an overpriced raspberry pi with a touchscreen.

I'm not the only one either, if you look at this forum, you'll find plenty of people mentioning having problems with the sim card slot, which is apparently a poor component. I haven't seen pine64 ackowledging it so far. So I wouldn't recommend to buy it for now, until the problem is acknowledged and fixed.

There is no SIM card slot issue. Occasionally people put empty SIM adapters in the slot or lose the SIM from the adapter (both cases user errors), in which case the contact pins can bent or break if the user applies brute force to remove the card again (second user error). The combined SIM card slot and microSD card reader is used since the original PinePhone and received a slight upgrade with the Pro, so I don't expect Pine64 folks to swap that component (and I doubt there are practical alternatives) to reduce user errors. Just be careful, don't apply force. I think that is common sense.

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ojimek, please refrain from repeating accusations in further replies and wishing people a broken device, that kind of language is really unasked for. I would suggest you to have a look at the community rules.

It is stated above that there is no sim card issue.  There is no sim card slot issue until you have to use it, and use it, and use it. Then there is a sim card slot issue. Until the boot issues are fixed and you can just boot from eMMC and install a sd card (once) to use for extra storage, sim card slot issues will reappear here.  In 6 or so years with an android phone, I put the sim card in once and an sd card in once and never touched them.  

I have a borked sim card slot in PPP due to repeated inserts/removals.  I can't get pinephone company staff to even supply a part number to get a replacement after multiple emails.  My PPP is on the shelf.  Amazingly my PP is functioning well.  It charges when you connect it through usb rather than discharging.  It runs off of dedicated built-in memory.  It doesn't automatically continually reboot when you are trying to charge it. Everything except MMS works to some extent. Even the camera.  PP is using manjaro-phosh,beta23.

We have secure some PinePhone and PinePhone Pro microSD/SIM card connectors from supplier. We don't want to place this in Pine Store due to this is limited quantity. If you have the sim slot issue and able to ask local repair shop to make the repair, support team can file a request to send out this spare part. When file the support time at https://support.pine64.org, please provide your order number and sim slot damage photo shows, support team will help up on this arrangement. Please note that this spare part is free but you still need to pay for the Pine Store standard shipping. Due to this is a special arrangement, support team will not help up on combine shipment type of request.

A thing that would help me to be more confident would be a simple drawing of what's inside the SIM and SD slots and how the cards fit in.

[wibble]

Some photos of what not to do with the SIM socket:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16412

It seems to be a bit like the self assembly furniture problem - to some it's so obvious that they don't see why the instructions are needed at all, while others can't understand what the instructions are trying to tell them. We need someone who didn't understand, but managed to work it out, to explain what's wrong with the pictogram above the socket, and the further explanation already in the wiki, and make the necessary improvements.
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_P...time_setup

[daveman1010220]

I've had my Pinephone Pro for many months. It has literally never worked for me as a phone, so it's really just a toy that I don't use very often. Maybe it's the SIM slot, maybe it's a software issue, maybe it's my working SIM, who can really tell? I've tried to figure it out myself and tried to get help on these forums. It's not the easiest thing to troubleshoot. I've found that nobody on this forum is interested in helping. I'd recommend against it.

---

Some photos of what not to do with the SIM socket:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16412

It seems to be a bit like the self assembly furniture problem - to some it's so obvious that they don't see why the instructions are needed at all, while others can't understand what the instructions are trying to tell them. We need someone who didn't understand, but managed to work it out, to explain what's wrong with the pictogram above the socket, and the further explanation already in the wiki, and make the necessary improvements.
https://wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_P...time_setup

I can tell you one problem. Most of your users have never seen a SIM that isn't a nano SIM. Literally every phone sold in the past ten years has used Nano SIM, so the SIM port probably doesn't even look like a SIM port to most of your users. That could actually be the entire problem, not the diagram. I understood the diagram, the problem was I had never seen an elephant size SIM.

[apink]

It has been several months since users have responded to this thread and I am wondering what up-to-date hands-on progress has been. 

Specifically, I would like to know the following four things:

1.  Does the PPP reliably send and receive phone calls?
2.  If so, does it do so with U.S. phone carriers?
3.  Does the PPP reliably send and receive texts?
4.  Can the PPP survive a day as a mobile phone with perhaps one or two stops at a charging station?

Thank you for any feedback.

[apink]

Arch phosh with towboot as the boot loader seems to be the closest setup. The only issue I found keeping me from using it daily is upon resume from suspend when someone calls you the audio of the phone call can not be heard and the person can not hear you. I tried this setup on internal storage as well as sd card with the same results.

Manjaro phosh is in a similar spot. Manjaro is however having issues with mms settings that arch does not suffer from. That bug also occurs on the OG pine phone Manjaro as well though (you cant adjust the mms settings in chatty or via command line).

Just to clarify:  You say clearly that Arch phosh has problems with phone call audio upon resume from suspend.  Does Manjaro also have this problem?

To be clear, I am interested in knowing if there is an OS that allows for call audio to work reliably when the call initiates a resume from suspend.  Several people have said that the PPP handles phone calls just fine.  Is this to say that as long as the phone is not in suspend mode to begin with, phone calls work fine? or is there an OS that handles waking to a call?

Thanks for any input.  I have been using linux on various handhelds along with on my desktop for decades (currently running devuan).  The PPP is such a nice project.