06-30-2023, 06:55 AM
I agree with tophneal and feel that the “average consumer” expects these devices to be Linux versions with the same functionality as the 2 main brands, which they are not & for me, this is clearly evident by the purchase price, website &/ wiki disclaimers & information.
I would expect most of those complaints are from people who did not read the forums/wiki/or even bother to check to see which functionality worked before clicking the “add to cart” button; thus they get disappointed and leave negative reviews.
I spent quite some time lurking on the forum, researching Pine64 and the PinePhone, before finally purchasing one & I gave it a 50/50 chance of working in my area. Being a long time Linux user, 50% was good enough odds for me to give it a shot, as I had wanted out of the fruit ecosystem for years.
Out of the box the phone powered up, but wouldn’t connect to the cellular network (this is where some people stop & make a negative review). I had to actually get the correct settings from my mobile provider, manually put that data in and then I had a working unit (a lot of work /s; less than 5 minutes).
I believe this is too much for some people, who are used to being spoon-fed everything; walking into a shop and walking out with a working device, without having to do a thing & nowadays this is a way too common occurrence with most things.
As stated previously, Pine64 provides only the hardware and the community provides the software, thus sometimes an update might cause a loss of functionality/break an application/feature & then some consumers are too lazy to attempt to figure out what the problem is themselves or even wait for a solution from the community; they have that “it doesn’t work, I want to take it back now for a refund” mentality.
As for me, I’m just another happy customer, that is not employed by/for Pine64; my opinions are my own.
I would expect most of those complaints are from people who did not read the forums/wiki/or even bother to check to see which functionality worked before clicking the “add to cart” button; thus they get disappointed and leave negative reviews.
I spent quite some time lurking on the forum, researching Pine64 and the PinePhone, before finally purchasing one & I gave it a 50/50 chance of working in my area. Being a long time Linux user, 50% was good enough odds for me to give it a shot, as I had wanted out of the fruit ecosystem for years.
Out of the box the phone powered up, but wouldn’t connect to the cellular network (this is where some people stop & make a negative review). I had to actually get the correct settings from my mobile provider, manually put that data in and then I had a working unit (a lot of work /s; less than 5 minutes).
I believe this is too much for some people, who are used to being spoon-fed everything; walking into a shop and walking out with a working device, without having to do a thing & nowadays this is a way too common occurrence with most things.
As stated previously, Pine64 provides only the hardware and the community provides the software, thus sometimes an update might cause a loss of functionality/break an application/feature & then some consumers are too lazy to attempt to figure out what the problem is themselves or even wait for a solution from the community; they have that “it doesn’t work, I want to take it back now for a refund” mentality.
As for me, I’m just another happy customer, that is not employed by/for Pine64; my opinions are my own.
Satisfied PinePhone, Pinebook Pro & PineTab2 owner; Thank you Pine64Team for your work! 