Current State of PIne Phone Pro
#21
(03-25-2022, 01:23 PM)サーバント Wrote: The microphone on the PPP is non--funtional for phone calls on any distro or even the android test image. Its important to let people know this. The most basic aspect of the PPP does not work. I own a PPP just to be clear. If you are using it as a PDA its fine. But its not a functioning phone at the moment.

The microphone for me works perfectly fine on Arch Phosh.  Quality is not amazing at the moment, but very functional.  If attempting to use speaker, the other party does get some static, so I don't use that for now.
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#22
(03-27-2022, 02:27 AM)expant Wrote: Just trailing the new builds atm good to see the progress being made. One suggestion which i'm sure we could all agree with is don't go scanning wifi on initial startup without user consent? Happy to explain why this can be problematic if necessary.

Please open a bug report in the bug tracker of the OS you're using, as this is the wrong place here to report such issues.
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#23
I've been DD-ing my PPP for over a month. I also noticed the volume only needs to be set to about 50%, to equal other smart-phone's max volume setting. I am using Tow-Boot and running Arch from the SD Card. Other than maybe the camera not working yet, I have no complaints at all. Even battery-life is fine in my case. And, as I'm not able to contribute anything worthwhile towards the efforts to get the camera working, I'm hardly in any position to actually complain about that.

That's not to say that the out-of-the-box experience wasn't somewhat panic inducing though. But, once I educated myself on how to correct the errors, those problems have largely been corrected. And it's fun to have a device that's DD-able, and can be tinkered on. Almost like having a Raspberry Pi in my pocket, that can also send/receive calls and texts. Looking forward to using the camera some day.. But, in the meantime, I just picked up a cheap, tiny little point-n-shoot, which works just fine.
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#24
(03-23-2022, 09:03 AM)tckosvic Wrote:
(03-19-2022, 09:00 AM)fxc Wrote:
(03-19-2022, 08:14 AM)ojimek Wrote: 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.

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.
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#25
(03-21-2022, 07:05 PM)codefossa Wrote: I am currently daily driving the PPP, and not having any real issues with it, though it didn't start off that way.  Long story short, I'm on my 2nd PPP and I've tried to set myself up for success.

Wiped eMMC to avoid booting into it and have a 32G SD set up with Arch Phosh.  With my first PPP, one of the many unfortunate things that happened is uboot update killing the installed OS and even using the bypass button on the back, was never able to get it to boot from an SD.

I saw the info posted under the Arch software section for using btrfs with the PPP, but didn't have any luck with that yet, though I plan to try again soon.  For now, I'm just pulling backups to a PC every so often.

Just like running Arch on my work laptop, I don't update when I'm not able to take the time to take care of it.  I wait until I'm home and can fix it if needed.  This has caused me to update about once a week, which is plenty.

There's an issue with sound sometimes after suspend.  Basically causes all sound to play in fast forward.  My fix is to just suspend it again and once it wakes up that's generally resolved.

The suspend mentioned previously has a desktop file so it appears on the app drawer.  Due to that bug, this has been necessary because typing it in a terminal would be a pain with how often it occurs.

The last gotcha I have is of course app availability.  I assume this is not an issue if you're currently running the PP, but I have had to create some of my own apps, as well as find some workarounds to deal with using some browser plugins and sites.  Firefox has been my browser of choice and has been doing well for me.  I used Chromium while there was a bug with Firefox 98, and it wasn't quite as good, though the gestures for back, forward, etc. was nice.  Of course, using Chromium will allow you to cast YouTube and whatnot to TV if that's something you care about.  Worked perfectly for me.

Call quality is good enough for me as I don't do many calls.  The speaker is just okay, though I really wish it wasn't on the back as it's not the best experience for media consumption.  Again, it's good enough for me.  I also use it as my alarm clock, so I do have it set to not suspend while charging, and I just leave it on a charger all night.  I'll probably have to replace the battery a little sooner because of that, but at least with these phones that's an option.

Texting has been working fine for me as well.  Both calls and texts are waking the phone from suspend, as far as I know, all the time.  I haven't tried MMS, and I can't guarantee that I haven't missed anything.

Suspend works fine most of the time, though once in a while it will not let me wake, so I have to hold the power button to shutdown and boot back up.  Otherwise, suspend has been great, and I'm able to just charge it when it's convenient, and have the phone all day.

The battery doesn't last forever, but while suspended, it can last quite some time.  I haven't been super active on my PPP like I was with Android, and this is probably my main reason for daily driving it already.  I have found it so peaceful to be away from app notifications, chats, etc.  I can still access everything I need, but my phone doesn't bug me to do anything.  This phone is literally making my life better.

Bluetooth audio in the car has been fine.  I use YouTube Music.  I currently have premium, but that will probably be cancelled soon.  The only problem with this is that I believe the app on Android preloads the next song, while the site is not, so there's a delay between song changes.  On Android, I can switch song after song rather quickly, while the PPP I switch about one song every 5 to 10 seconds.  Again, this is an app vs browser comparison, so probably unfair, but it is what I have to work with.

If you care about the camera, well it doesn't work at all right now, so that could be a killer for you.

Sorry if this is all over the place.  Just spit out thoughts as I thought of them.  I switched from a Pixel 3 XL, and this is a decent summary of my experience.  Once in a while I do have to swap the SIM back when I need to be using Android Auto, or when the family goes geocaching, but these are rare.  There's also some apps that just don't have the option to exist, like Kasa.  Because of that, my Android phone sits around and I try to keep a charge in it, but I just rarely touch it.  Lastly, I'm using Mint Mobile, and everything has seemed great for me.

That review was very good.  Thank you.
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#26
(04-06-2022, 05:26 PM)james8880 Wrote:
(03-21-2022, 07:05 PM)codefossa Wrote: I am currently daily driving the PPP, and not having any real issues with it, though it didn't start off that way.  Long story short, I'm on my 2nd PPP and I've tried to set myself up for success.

Wiped eMMC to avoid booting into it and have a 32G SD set up with Arch Phosh.  With my first PPP, one of the many unfortunate things that happened is uboot update killing the installed OS and even using the bypass button on the back, was never able to get it to boot from an SD.

I saw the info posted under the Arch software section for using btrfs with the PPP, but didn't have any luck with that yet, though I plan to try again soon.  For now, I'm just pulling backups to a PC every so often.

Just like running Arch on my work laptop, I don't update when I'm not able to take the time to take care of it.  I wait until I'm home and can fix it if needed.  This has caused me to update about once a week, which is plenty.

There's an issue with sound sometimes after suspend.  Basically causes all sound to play in fast forward.  My fix is to just suspend it again and once it wakes up that's generally resolved.

The suspend mentioned previously has a desktop file so it appears on the app drawer.  Due to that bug, this has been necessary because typing it in a terminal would be a pain with how often it occurs.

The last gotcha I have is of course app availability.  I assume this is not an issue if you're currently running the PP, but I have had to create some of my own apps, as well as find some workarounds to deal with using some browser plugins and sites.  Firefox has been my browser of choice and has been doing well for me.  I used Chromium while there was a bug with Firefox 98, and it wasn't quite as good, though the gestures for back, forward, etc. was nice.  Of course, using Chromium will allow you to cast YouTube and whatnot to TV if that's something you care about.  Worked perfectly for me.

Call quality is good enough for me as I don't do many calls.  The speaker is just okay, though I really wish it wasn't on the back as it's not the best experience for media consumption.  Again, it's good enough for me.  I also use it as my alarm clock, so I do have it set to not suspend while charging, and I just leave it on a charger all night.  I'll probably have to replace the battery a little sooner because of that, but at least with these phones that's an option.

Texting has been working fine for me as well.  Both calls and texts are waking the phone from suspend, as far as I know, all the time.  I haven't tried MMS, and I can't guarantee that I haven't missed anything.

Suspend works fine most of the time, though once in a while it will not let me wake, so I have to hold the power button to shutdown and boot back up.  Otherwise, suspend has been great, and I'm able to just charge it when it's convenient, and have the phone all day.

The battery doesn't last forever, but while suspended, it can last quite some time.  I haven't been super active on my PPP like I was with Android, and this is probably my main reason for daily driving it already.  I have found it so peaceful to be away from app notifications, chats, etc.  I can still access everything I need, but my phone doesn't bug me to do anything.  This phone is literally making my life better.

Bluetooth audio in the car has been fine.  I use YouTube Music.  I currently have premium, but that will probably be cancelled soon.  The only problem with this is that I believe the app on Android preloads the next song, while the site is not, so there's a delay between song changes.  On Android, I can switch song after song rather quickly, while the PPP I switch about one song every 5 to 10 seconds.  Again, this is an app vs browser comparison, so probably unfair, but it is what I have to work with.

If you care about the camera, well it doesn't work at all right now, so that could be a killer for you.

Sorry if this is all over the place.  Just spit out thoughts as I thought of them.  I switched from a Pixel 3 XL, and this is a decent summary of my experience.  Once in a while I do have to swap the SIM back when I need to be using Android Auto, or when the family goes geocaching, but these are rare.  There's also some apps that just don't have the option to exist, like Kasa.  Because of that, my Android phone sits around and I try to keep a charge in it, but I just rarely touch it.  Lastly, I'm using Mint Mobile, and everything has seemed great for me.

That review was very good.  Thank you.


Yea codefossa was very helpful. I have made the plunge and ordered my PPP a few days ago!!!!!

What is the story with the on board storage, is it a hard pass to install on it?

As much as I told myself I would wait for more maturity in the PPP before switching from my OG Pinephone codefossa's post really highlighted the issues and none of them are deal breakers for me.

I will report back once I receive my PPP as I think we need more reviews in here for others to see.
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#27
(04-06-2022, 03:22 PM)tllim Wrote: 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.

Can you share a datasheet so people can check for compatible alternatives if/when you run out of spares, or want to use a locally sourced part? People would need to check pin assignment as well as footprint as for example Molex have connectors that look outwardly similar but have slight dimensional differences and a different pin assignment so aren't interchangeable.
https://docs.rs-online.com/5809/0900766b814e373f.pdf
https://docs.rs-online.com/7e3b/0900766b814e373e.pdf
  Reply
#28
(03-21-2022, 07:05 PM)codefossa Wrote: I am currently daily driving the PPP, and not having any real issues with it, though it didn't start off that way.  Long story short, I'm on my 2nd PPP and I've tried to set myself up for success.

Wiped eMMC to avoid booting into it and have a 32G SD set up with Arch Phosh.  With my first PPP, one of the many unfortunate things that happened is uboot update killing the installed OS and even using the bypass button on the back, was never able to get it to boot from an SD.

I saw the info posted under the Arch software section for using btrfs with the PPP, but didn't have any luck with that yet, though I plan to try again soon.  For now, I'm just pulling backups to a PC every so often.

Just like running Arch on my work laptop, I don't update when I'm not able to take the time to take care of it.  I wait until I'm home and can fix it if needed.  This has caused me to update about once a week, which is plenty.

There's an issue with sound sometimes after suspend.  Basically causes all sound to play in fast forward.  My fix is to just suspend it again and once it wakes up that's generally resolved.

The suspend mentioned previously has a desktop file so it appears on the app drawer.  Due to that bug, this has been necessary because typing it in a terminal would be a pain with how often it occurs.

The last gotcha I have is of course app availability.  I assume this is not an issue if you're currently running the PP, but I have had to create some of my own apps, as well as find some workarounds to deal with using some browser plugins and sites.  Firefox has been my browser of choice and has been doing well for me.  I used Chromium while there was a bug with Firefox 98, and it wasn't quite as good, though the gestures for back, forward, etc. was nice.  Of course, using Chromium will allow you to cast YouTube and whatnot to TV if that's something you care about.  Worked perfectly for me.

Call quality is good enough for me as I don't do many calls.  The speaker is just okay, though I really wish it wasn't on the back as it's not the best experience for media consumption.  Again, it's good enough for me.  I also use it as my alarm clock, so I do have it set to not suspend while charging, and I just leave it on a charger all night.  I'll probably have to replace the battery a little sooner because of that, but at least with these phones that's an option.

Texting has been working fine for me as well.  Both calls and texts are waking the phone from suspend, as far as I know, all the time.  I haven't tried MMS, and I can't guarantee that I haven't missed anything.

Suspend works fine most of the time, though once in a while it will not let me wake, so I have to hold the power button to shutdown and boot back up.  Otherwise, suspend has been great, and I'm able to just charge it when it's convenient, and have the phone all day.

The battery doesn't last forever, but while suspended, it can last quite some time.  I haven't been super active on my PPP like I was with Android, and this is probably my main reason for daily driving it already.  I have found it so peaceful to be away from app notifications, chats, etc.  I can still access everything I need, but my phone doesn't bug me to do anything.  This phone is literally making my life better.

Bluetooth audio in the car has been fine.  I use YouTube Music.  I currently have premium, but that will probably be cancelled soon.  The only problem with this is that I believe the app on Android preloads the next song, while the site is not, so there's a delay between song changes.  On Android, I can switch song after song rather quickly, while the PPP I switch about one song every 5 to 10 seconds.  Again, this is an app vs browser comparison, so probably unfair, but it is what I have to work with.

If you care about the camera, well it doesn't work at all right now, so that could be a killer for you.

Sorry if this is all over the place.  Just spit out thoughts as I thought of them.  I switched from a Pixel 3 XL, and this is a decent summary of my experience.  Once in a while I do have to swap the SIM back when I need to be using Android Auto, or when the family goes geocaching, but these are rare.  There's also some apps that just don't have the option to exist, like Kasa.  Because of that, my Android phone sits around and I try to keep a charge in it, but I just rarely touch it.  Lastly, I'm using Mint Mobile, and everything has seemed great for me.

How did you make the desktop file so suspend shows up in the app drawer? That would be a real time saver.
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#29
(04-06-2022, 03:22 PM)tllim Wrote:
(03-23-2022, 09:03 AM)tckosvic Wrote:
(03-19-2022, 09:00 AM)fxc Wrote:
(03-19-2022, 08:14 AM)ojimek Wrote: 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.

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.
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
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#30
(04-08-2022, 08:54 AM)tckosvic Wrote: 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.
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