I think the bigest thing is (as mentioned earlier) determining the audience, and what the PineCom can bring to the table for existing projects. i.e. Meshtastic (Andreas Spiess did an excellent video on this), which combines the ESP32 + Lora + GPS for a long range mesh communicator which also has an app that runs on your phone. The PineCom could do all of this, but in one ready-made all in one device, removing the need for this extra Lora box 'thingy' that you need to carry around and keep charged.
Camera - Lora isn't the fastest network, so I don't see the need for a camera for communications. If faster speed comms is an option, i.e. wifi, then yes, keep it. Also, handy for 'scanning' QR codes, and also taking pictures, if you have local storage. But I would only keep the rear camera, not the front one. As a cost saving measure
GPS will probably be a must keep. Allows the 'locator' part to function, as well as making so the PineCom can be used as a GPS unit.
SPI flash - probably no point - this isn't the pine64/rock64, no need to boot from it. Surely an I/O pin can be 'sacrificed' to flag whether the device is a Pinephone/Pinecom . And forget about eMMC, just use microSD for this one.
Sensors - can't see any reason to keep the magnetometer/compass - plus GPS may be able to replicate some of that functionality of needed. Gyro + Accelerometer gives you ability to alter screen rotation + detect physical orientation of the PineCom, as well as give another 'input' method. Ambient Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor - screen brightness + display off... nice, but not essential? It would be nice to keep the idea of a I2S expansion section on the back also, so other sensors can be added. This is where keeping the backplate the same size would be an advantage, even if the screen is smaller.
How/where does this fit in with the other products - i.e. the Pinephone + a backback, or the Pinetab with lora? Is this trying to squeeze in between the two? Pinephone with a slightly smaller screen, minus cellular, plus LoRa?
Camera - Lora isn't the fastest network, so I don't see the need for a camera for communications. If faster speed comms is an option, i.e. wifi, then yes, keep it. Also, handy for 'scanning' QR codes, and also taking pictures, if you have local storage. But I would only keep the rear camera, not the front one. As a cost saving measure
GPS will probably be a must keep. Allows the 'locator' part to function, as well as making so the PineCom can be used as a GPS unit.
SPI flash - probably no point - this isn't the pine64/rock64, no need to boot from it. Surely an I/O pin can be 'sacrificed' to flag whether the device is a Pinephone/Pinecom . And forget about eMMC, just use microSD for this one.
Sensors - can't see any reason to keep the magnetometer/compass - plus GPS may be able to replicate some of that functionality of needed. Gyro + Accelerometer gives you ability to alter screen rotation + detect physical orientation of the PineCom, as well as give another 'input' method. Ambient Light Sensor and Proximity Sensor - screen brightness + display off... nice, but not essential? It would be nice to keep the idea of a I2S expansion section on the back also, so other sensors can be added. This is where keeping the backplate the same size would be an advantage, even if the screen is smaller.
How/where does this fit in with the other products - i.e. the Pinephone + a backback, or the Pinetab with lora? Is this trying to squeeze in between the two? Pinephone with a slightly smaller screen, minus cellular, plus LoRa?