Hello,
I received my first PinePhone a couple of weeks ago. I transplanted my only SIM card from my iPhone SE (2nd gen) to the PP a couple of days ago and there is no way back for me. After the last Apple announcements I am pretty much done with them and Google is a no-go for me as well.
I am very happy with how useable and stable the PP is - at least for my kinda modest requirements.
I just felt like writing up the setup I currently arrived at; I somewhat doubt I will try many more other distros any time soon.
Here is my setup:
PinePhone model: Beta Edition 3 GB / 32 GB
Distro: Arch (Gnome v. 40.4)
DE: phosh (Wayland)
I installed Arch (build 2021/09/08 from here) on the eMMC via JumpDrive (see here)
Calling someone: Works.
Caveat: Surrounding noises can be (very) annoying for the person being called -- will try a cable headset soon.
Getting called: Works.
Caveat: When the PP is in deep sleep, the caller hears 6 rings while the PP wakes up. Then my provider informs the caller I am not available and that I will receive an SMS / text messages about the call.
My thoughts: I consider this a feature - I do not have to answer the phone when it sleeps which will be the case when a) I am on the road and am not using the phone or b) I am sleeping myself.
In any case I get the SMS and can then call back when/if it suits me - works for me
Receiving SMS / text messages: Works.
Sending SMS / text messages: Works.
Caveat: I manually set mobile to '2G only' beforehand. This may be an issue when 2G gets obsolete.
Battery duration: Should be ok - for me.
It lasts for at least 2 hours of normal use. I will better bring my charger/ power bank/ replacement battery for longer trips..
Camera: Not useful for taking pictures of important memories.
The image quality is just a joke to me. I disabled the front camera via the kill switch. I keep the rear camera for documentation purposes.
Workaround: I will carry my real camera more often now - works for me.
Apps
I regularly use these apps, sorted from hard-to-setup to alread-installed:
Spot (for Spotify)
- see https://flathub.org/apps/details/dev.alextren.Spot
Signal Desktop client
- see https://privacyshark.zero-credibility.net/#packages
- I gave up on Axolotl for now
Lollypop (mp3 player)
- came pre-installed; the work here was to copy music files onto the PinePhone. I did that by connecting my usb disk to the PP via the usb-c dock that came with it. The copying I did using the good old Midnight commander:
sudo pacman -S mc
PureMaps + OSM Scout Server (GPS Navigation)
- Performance + UX is 10 times as good as with the pre-installed 'Maps'
- Offline map data for my region only ate up about 2 GB of disk space
- In-car test: A complete failure. Short version: GPS on the PinePhone is not yet working in real life.
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=puremaps
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php...coutserver
Shortwave (Internet radio)
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=shortwave
- best internet radio app on any platform (fast + no ads ...)
- Caveat: when adding a station be careful not to freeze all of phosh (requires a phone restart for me - but the station gets added)
Weather
- Came pre-installed (I think); otherwise see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=weather
KTrip (Public transport)
- Came pre-installed; otherwise see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=ktrip
- Does the job, also tested it on-the-go, shows slightly less information than similar iOS/Android apps
Calendar.
- Instead of using 'evolution' (I prefer a calender-only app) I installed 'Calendar for GNOME': https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.gnome.Calendar
- I only had to do this:
as per https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php...ted-tweaks
E-Mail
- I use the pre-installed Geary
- as a bonus, this app asks me to unlock my keyring which I need to do anyway for Spotify: this results in me checking my emails everytime before starting spotify, nice
Video Player with hardware acceleration
I use Clapper to play up-to-1080p videos from a 200 GB microSD card perfectly. This guide helped me to have the sd card auto-mounted always: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/fstab#External_devices
Apps I will never get (I think):
Slack
- Flathub failed me here so far.
Spotify client that can remote-control my stereo. The official iOS Spotify app can do that.
Threema. (rather unimportant)
WhatsApp. (good riddance - finally!)
A Browser that supports e.g. the spotify web player (seems to require proprietary codecs / DRM) -- any chance here sooner or later?
Thanks for reading!
I received my first PinePhone a couple of weeks ago. I transplanted my only SIM card from my iPhone SE (2nd gen) to the PP a couple of days ago and there is no way back for me. After the last Apple announcements I am pretty much done with them and Google is a no-go for me as well.
I am very happy with how useable and stable the PP is - at least for my kinda modest requirements.
I just felt like writing up the setup I currently arrived at; I somewhat doubt I will try many more other distros any time soon.
Here is my setup:
PinePhone model: Beta Edition 3 GB / 32 GB
Distro: Arch (Gnome v. 40.4)
DE: phosh (Wayland)
I installed Arch (build 2021/09/08 from here) on the eMMC via JumpDrive (see here)
Calling someone: Works.
Caveat: Surrounding noises can be (very) annoying for the person being called -- will try a cable headset soon.
Getting called: Works.
Caveat: When the PP is in deep sleep, the caller hears 6 rings while the PP wakes up. Then my provider informs the caller I am not available and that I will receive an SMS / text messages about the call.
My thoughts: I consider this a feature - I do not have to answer the phone when it sleeps which will be the case when a) I am on the road and am not using the phone or b) I am sleeping myself.
In any case I get the SMS and can then call back when/if it suits me - works for me
Receiving SMS / text messages: Works.
Sending SMS / text messages: Works.
Caveat: I manually set mobile to '2G only' beforehand. This may be an issue when 2G gets obsolete.
Battery duration: Should be ok - for me.
It lasts for at least 2 hours of normal use. I will better bring my charger/ power bank/ replacement battery for longer trips..
Camera: Not useful for taking pictures of important memories.
The image quality is just a joke to me. I disabled the front camera via the kill switch. I keep the rear camera for documentation purposes.
Workaround: I will carry my real camera more often now - works for me.
Apps
I regularly use these apps, sorted from hard-to-setup to alread-installed:
Spot (for Spotify)
- see https://flathub.org/apps/details/dev.alextren.Spot
Signal Desktop client
- see https://privacyshark.zero-credibility.net/#packages
- I gave up on Axolotl for now
Lollypop (mp3 player)
- came pre-installed; the work here was to copy music files onto the PinePhone. I did that by connecting my usb disk to the PP via the usb-c dock that came with it. The copying I did using the good old Midnight commander:
sudo pacman -S mc
PureMaps + OSM Scout Server (GPS Navigation)
- Performance + UX is 10 times as good as with the pre-installed 'Maps'
- Offline map data for my region only ate up about 2 GB of disk space
- In-car test: A complete failure. Short version: GPS on the PinePhone is not yet working in real life.
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=puremaps
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php...coutserver
Shortwave (Internet radio)
- see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=shortwave
- best internet radio app on any platform (fast + no ads ...)
- Caveat: when adding a station be careful not to freeze all of phosh (requires a phone restart for me - but the station gets added)
Weather
- Came pre-installed (I think); otherwise see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=weather
KTrip (Public transport)
- Came pre-installed; otherwise see https://wiki.mobian-project.org/doku.php?id=ktrip
- Does the job, also tested it on-the-go, shows slightly less information than similar iOS/Android apps
Calendar.
- Instead of using 'evolution' (I prefer a calender-only app) I installed 'Calendar for GNOME': https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.gnome.Calendar
- I only had to do this:
Code:
scale-tofit gnome-calendar on- I use the pre-installed Geary
- as a bonus, this app asks me to unlock my keyring which I need to do anyway for Spotify: this results in me checking my emails everytime before starting spotify, nice
Video Player with hardware acceleration
I use Clapper to play up-to-1080p videos from a 200 GB microSD card perfectly. This guide helped me to have the sd card auto-mounted always: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/fstab#External_devices
Apps I will never get (I think):
Slack
- Flathub failed me here so far.
Spotify client that can remote-control my stereo. The official iOS Spotify app can do that.
Threema. (rather unimportant)
WhatsApp. (good riddance - finally!)
A Browser that supports e.g. the spotify web player (seems to require proprietary codecs / DRM) -- any chance here sooner or later?
Thanks for reading!