Low Power Consumption Phone

[SteveSquatch]

Background:

I have seen it mentioned some times that an e-reader would be a nice addition to the Pine production line. Luke has gently shot down all of these suggestions because it would be too hard to compete against Kindle and friends. I think that this is true, but I also think that there is a genuine untapped market right next to this field.

Deeper Background:

I have been using a feature phone as my main phone for ever. It has a battery life of three weeks. Now, the phone obviously doesn't do much. It can call and text. But it is extremely small (the size of two zippo lighters) and durable. The thing is, the phone is so trustworthy compared to my work phone (iPhone) or the Pinephone that I still have not taken my sim out and basically can't think of the Pinephone as a daily driver. Of course this trustworthines is based on me forgetting to keep the other two phones loaded, but this exactly is the point: I want a device that I can forget for a week and it will still do what I need it to do.

My proposition:

I think Pine should seriously consider competing in Low Power Consumption Phones. Put an e-ink display on the phone, not because you compete against Kindle, but because you compete in the empty space between a traditional smartphone and a traditional feature phone. Sell a solar panel for the backside of the phone and you can say you have a phone that can keep on going without touching an outlet.

Besides being a person who dislikes when my devices make daily requests on me, I also happen to work in an area where I sometimes end up in places where you really might go a week without electricity. In these harsher conditions I have basically come to see a standard smartphone as dead weight. I can imagine an array of special professions that could benefit from having a customizable low power consumption smartphone with them.

I absolutely agree with this suggestion. I've been thinking lately one of the issues with the PinePhone concept is that people are working very hard to just replicate what you already can get through Android or IOS. In a way it's almost just a novelty.

Running Linux on desktop is becoming much more practical every day, and I'm thrilled with the performance and mobility of my Pinebook Pro. Maybe our phones don't need to be a mini computer?

I know my wife would greatly appreciate me not checking my phone all the time when we're relaxing at home, so now I'm starting to think about checking out simple feature phones.

I've been looking at the Punkt MP02 lately. I like that it's USB-C (so I don't have to carry an extra charger in my backpack), and that it's capable being a 4G hotspot so that I can just pull out my PBP whenever I need access to email/internet/etc.

I was thinking something like that on a Pine platform would be pretty cool. Maybe in addition to what the Punkt phone can do, add terminal for anybody that needs to SSH into a server? (I know that sort of defeats the purpose of being a minimalist phone that's supposed to keep you focused on what's around you instead of work)

Anyway, some sort of feature phone with great battery life that can be a hotspot, I'd be very interested in having.