UBports Edition USA buyer

[FOSSagent0]

I have a question about the current state of the PInePhone not just limited to your latest UBports Edition.

1. Is the PinePhone developed further enough that those of us who are tech savvy but not developers would be able to use these phones.
- I am a Linux user and not someone who knows little of IT, I just don't code yet or know any programing languages.

2. I've seen posts of USA Phone carriers may not be supported yet and/or has difficulties. Can anyone shed some light on that? Something to due with frequency bands such as 4G, LTE, 5G etc.

3. Further expanding on point 2, Is T-Mobile supported? If not will it be supported in the future?

4. I understand that PinePhones have been around shortly and that not everything works perfectly, that's fine with me, I see Open-Source as a necessity to this current Duopoly that I believe we really need to break.

5. Is there other Free and Open source Mobile OS's that are begginer friendly for the PinePhone?

6. Which open-source mobile OS is the further above the rest and work very well with the Pinephone currently?

I have been thinking of picking up this UBports Edition but I need more info before I make a decession. Back to points 2 and 3 from the brief comments I have seen I do hope us in the US are not forgotten about.

[fire219]

1. At the current point, the PinePhone would be mostly usable for anyone who is relatively knowledgeable about Linux and how to fix issues as they come up. By the time the UBports CE phones are shipping, it should be even better.

2 and 3. Those discussions occurred before people had the chance to actually try it. In reality, it pretty much just works. It is confirmed on AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. I have not seen anyone try Sprint, but I'd assume it works too.

5 and 6. PostmarketOS (Phosh or Plasma Mobile UI) and a-wai's Debian+Phosh builds are probably the most complete and easy to use at the moment (other than UBports). But there's very rapid development on everything, so this could be subject to change very quickly.

[FOSSagent0]

Thank you this is good news. I do hope it expands beyond just developers and the Linux crowd. I'm really sick of the gatekeeping done by Apple and Google. I got a buddy interested after I mentioned this phone breaking us away from the dictated enslavement from those two. Hope you guys can spread the word as well.

[bcnaz]

Thank you this is good news. I do hope it expands beyond just developers and the Linux crowd. I'm really sick of the gatekeeping done by Apple and Google. I got a buddy interested after I mentioned this phone breaking us away from the dictated enslavement from those two. Hope you guys can spread the word as well.

Sunday April 19,  2020

Obviously,
   Being Linux/Tech savy is a huge plus when playing/using a Pinephone.

That said,  I am mostly a GUI user myself,  and I have been trying several of the Distro's that are currently being released and as most are still in heavy development, there can be problems that I cannot solve.

But I have a large assortment of SD cards, When I find an OS I can work with, I try to save that SD card in particular.

  The most recent releases are not always the most GUI friendly...
Though I do try to at least sample most of the most recent releases.

     One of my favorites at this moment being Debian/Posh,
     "but for me",
             The April 13th release does not work as well   'for me'   as the April 06th version...
                                         (though I have done all the updates through today)

  So having plenty of SD cards to use and some to save various distro's and various releases is helpful for me.

   The SD cards should be of decent quality, but they do not need to be extremely expensive....
      I do look for cards on special, but the price ranges from $5 to $9 USD has been very usable in my experience.
       Most of mine are San Disk Ultra, but GSkill works as well, all of these are 'class 10'
     But you should check the Forum, as there have been some very informative chats about SD cards.
 I CANNOT push any single brand, as I am not qualified for that,
             but I have had satisfactory results with all the Brands "I have tried" I do not think the Brave Heart is picky on SD cards.

 You will find  "MOST"  of the Forum Members are glad to answer any questions you can ask.

  I can currently make and receive phone calls (even speaker phone), send and receive text messages, wifi works great,
   *  I do have a problem with cellular data, I can 'Connect' but att says I do not have a data plan. (I DO) 
   so I cannot actually use cell data at the moment.  ( I do not know if that is a software or a carrier fault.)

   Since the Factory Default is to boot from SD card, it is very easy to distro-hop, just swap your SD card.

         I am currently using my Brave Heart phone on AT&T in Arizona, USA,   on a PrePaid plan.

        Welcome to the Forum     "Pull up a chair and sit a spell"

[colin hodsdon]

Thank you this is good news. I do hope it expands beyond just developers and the Linux crowd. I'm really sick of the gatekeeping done by Apple and Google. I got a buddy interested after I mentioned this phone breaking us away from the dictated enslavement from those two. Hope you guys can spread the word as well.

you can can learn a lot from Rob Braxman on youtube and lbry,  and use his privacy app "brax.Me"

[bcnaz]

Rob Braxman is pretty good, he has the savvy of a high tech, but explains a lot in easy to understand language