Average Joe review of Pinephone Pro (March 2023)

[tckosvic]

Hello Pine64 community!

Many people hoped for Pinephone Pro reviews in its current state so I decided that I can try to write one.

Short background so you can understands the starting points
I prefer myself as a skilled end user of mobile linux - so I am not developer (what ever that means in 2023) but I understand little bit about something.
I have been daily driving* mobile linux for many years. First with Ubuntu Touch and old android phones, then maybe over year with OG PP and now with PPP. I have been also using linux as desktop machines as long as I remember.
*Really daily driving so if you have never used mobile linux before please note that your experience might be very much different than mine

How did I get my PPP to state where I can daily drive it?
I actually use my phone as a phone so for me mandatory thing number 1. is that calls work.
First I did lot of distro hopping to find out stable platform and it took days and it already started to screw up because there was all ways something what was not working (mic was too low, audio was cut, there was no ringtone etc.). I am not sure are these coincidences but after I did install latest tow-boot and turned all kill-switches on I did get working calls (=callaudio) with postmarketOS.
But it was really relief that after this everything became quite easy, because postmarketos has done a fantastic groundwork and practically everything else worked out-of-the-box
I am also using Biktorgjs fantastic modem firmware and all recommended settings - I really love it but because carriers work so differently it is hard to recommend it without any conditions. For me PP or PPP would not be a reliable phone without Biktorgjs awesome work.

My regular day with Pinephone Pro
I charge my PPP as full as it gets in the evening. Then it rests next to me until morning (on suspend without charger) and wakes me up - I do have backup alarm clock because Pinephone did freeze few times but I have not seen it with PPP. And yes with pmos alarm clock works out of the box.
After 8-10 hours of suspend my PPP has something like 80-90% battery.
I go to work and I use PPP as my work phone - I answer calls and send messages trough it.
After week of intense daily driving I have 0 failed calls and 0 failed sms/mms (I monitor them trough my carrier platform).
I have also dock and display so I can plug PPP to dock and use it as a computer - and it just works!
For me biggest difference to PP is that "convergence connection to external display" is stable as f*ck - PP was more proof of concept and really terrible to use (at least it feels like this after I have used PPP).
When my PPP is in dock it will at the same time be in charger - don't use dock with external display without charger because your battery will die like in 15-30 minutes.
I am usually at work for like 10 hours and when I get home in the evening I still have 30-50% battery.
If I have been using dock it will have charged the phone - yes. But if I have not used the dock my phone have been suspended most of the time and the battery is about in the same level.

What I am really happy about?
Finally I have true convergence linux phone which I can reliable use as a phone also.
Pinephone Pro is as fast as phone needs to be -> yes I would love to have even faster phone but this is enough so I can show it to my friend and say test it and he/she might even like it
After I found working callaudio everything was really familiar and easy and I could "import" so many things from OG PP.

What are the cons?
Pinephone Pro is not device where you watch Youtube videos or play mobile games - it will drain your battery.
You can't do any intensive stuff when docked because phone gets really hot - but hey it's phone not super pc.
There is something odd about the audio and mic but because I eventually got it working I hope it is software related (this mainly affects to calls only)

What does not work (or works only as proof of concept)
Mostly familiar things from OG PP:
camera (but I think in a "near future" libcamera will bring lot lot of evolve to this)
speaker on calls
internet notifications when suspended

For who I recommend PPP?
You can live without constant phone browsing when you are on the road
In your regular day you have opportunity to charge phone in cycles of 10 hours
You don't need internet (email etc.) notifications asap
You have linux end user knowledge or the desire to learn for yourself
You don't except that everything works out of the box (because it does not you have to settle for compromises in many things)

What else?
Ask me anything you want I can try to answer

What has been your success level with SMS messaging and MMS (message with attachments) messaging?  I am not familiar with Biktorgis. Do you have a reference for Biktorgjs?  Is this modem software or does it have another use?

I'm debating buying a new ppp motherboard just to get a new sim/sd cardholder and trying again.

thanks,    tom kosvic