tried it as a daily driver

[KC9UDX]

I could "type" blind on the Motorola brick phones (Nextel) that I had. It had predictive text and I memorised the predictions. Don't tell anyone but it was great for texting and driving with the phone under the seat. (Hey, CW ops do it!)

[Twig]

Hopefully the keyboard will make it a more usable experience for daily driving. I guess we'll see!

[Zebulon Walton]

Hopefully the keyboard will make it a more usable experience for daily driving. I guess we'll see!

If it has a larger battery that should definitely help but my fear is that it will make the phone even heavier, bulkier, and more awkward to carry around.

[Twig]

Hopefully the keyboard will make it a more usable experience for daily driving. I guess we'll see!

If it has a larger battery that should definitely help but my fear is that it will make the phone even heavier, bulkier, and more awkward to carry around.

My thoughts exactly, as apparently, "the internal battery effectively triples the phone’s battery life.". Not to mention the benefit of having a keyboard handy.

Hopefully not too bulky!

[Zebulon Walton]

My thoughts exactly, as apparently, "the internal battery effectively triples the phone’s battery life.". Not to mention the benefit of having a keyboard handy.

Hopefully not too bulky!

The keyboard is available in the pine64.com shop now along with a video demonstrating it. Definitely too bulky to fit in my belt holster, the only way I could see carrying the phone around like that would be to put it in carry bag or briefcase. Since bluetooth audio is not working yet (at least on Mobian which is what I use) it would be awkward to use as a phone with the keyboard attached. I'll probably order one since I can see where it would be handy in some circumstances but it's not something I foresee being able to carry around with me most of the time.

[ragreenburg]

I tried the PP as a daily driver for a few months so far, and had fair success. Here's what I found:
As a phone, it's mostly OK.
As a camera, it's inadequate.
As a computer, it stinks without a monitor, keyboard and mouse (using Mobian Bookworm).

I use the phone as a phone, for work. Work pays for me to be accessible, and I need to be able to get calls at any time. For years I used a Blackberry Passport. It was a rock-solid phone, and had a good camera that was worth taking into the field where there was no phone service. The HMI was decent, and worked well on the touchscreen. The only app I used was a bible reader. Everything else was either done through the Blackberry Hub or the web browser. When the carrier stopped supporting the BB Passport, it was time to switch, and I tried the Pinephone.

The Pinephone works as a phone, although sometimes the audio is way too quiet. I didn't miss any calls when the phone was working. The browser works moderately well, and I can mostly do on it what I was accustomed to doing on the BB. Browser problems boil down to scaling/HMI/touchscreen issues. The bible readers available are not adequate! They are great on the desktop, but don't work well with the touchscreen interface, and aren't adapted to the small screen. The developers of Bibletime and Xiphos have told me they are not interested in adapting them to phones.

The camera does take pictures, but doesn't focus well, doesn't do closeups well.  With the BB I was accustomed to taking detailed, in-focus macro pictures of equipment nameplates, wire terminations, fine details of broken equipment and so on. This camera isn't adequate for any of that. It's not worth carrying this for the camera. The megapixils software does seem to be doing its job, but the cheap camera can't do what I need.

SMS works well, no issues there. MMS doesn't work yet, but I can live with that.

Unfortunately, this is a computer, not a phone. It's a linux computer that requires quite a bit of typing to administer, and without docking bar, keyboard, mouse and monitor, it's terribly tedious to handle necessary tasks. Because it's a computer not a phone, the touchscreen HMI is not very smooth and easy compared to the BB Passport. Because it's a computer not a phone, none of the bits that work together seamlessly on a phone play well together. For example, I was able to get my contacts imported to the contacts app, and am able to dial a contact from the phone app, but the phone app won't tell me the name of a caller when that number is a contact.

Because it's a computer not a phone, it's running Mobian Testing, software that needs updates, and the updates occasionally break stuff. That's become a huge problem for me. I need the phone to just work ALWAYS, and being down for a few hours while I try to troubleshoot issues is a huge problem.  If I'm going to keep on using this, I'll have to get a second phone so I can have one to use and one to risk an update on.

Because it's a computer not a phone, the thing is just BUSY. With the BB, I never really had to think about administration or updates, everything just worked. Linux isn't like that.

Because it's a computer not a phone, and because the software is still beta, the battery life stinks! For a while I was able to go 6 hours or so without charging, as long as the phone was suspended and in my pocket. Recently it's been emptying the battery in two or three hours in my pocket. It gets quite warm, which is nice on these cold winter days.

The plastic case back is breaking, but is still usable. The phone hardware is working fine so far.The switches to turn off stuff are OK. I don't use bluetooth, so I was able to turn it off and save a little power.

In summary, Linux is great for a computer, but isn't great for a phone. The touchscreen interface is a lousy way to administer a linux computer. The software has a long way to go, but it is already usable as a phone.

I look forward to the day when Mobian Stable is 100% functional and there is no reason to worry about the very rare updates breaking anything. That's probably a couple of years in the future.

Thanks for writing about your experience. I agree with you when you say that the Pinephone is a computer that makes phone calls.

Did you try Ubuntu Touch on your Pinephone? Ubuntu Touch has a lot different philosophy than Phosh or Plasma Mobile. I would recommend the Development or Release Candidate channel. Then only update when you have time.

As far as the camera. Yeah, it doesn't take very clear pictures right now.

I haven't used this app, but here is a bible study app for Ubuntu Touch.

Mark

As nice as the UT environment is, the modem isn't stable enough for OP's needs here. If they are talking about always being reachable then you need a reliable modem and the last time I tried UT (a few weeks ago), the modem would cut out but also not tell you it has cut out (shows full bars) which is a game breaking bug for someone who needs to be reachable. In Phosh and Plasma Mobile when the modem cuts out it shows you have zero bars and no modem which is probably what OP needs because the sad fact is, the modem will cut out sooner or later.

---

A brief update: tried to flash the 12 December build, and everything got all screwed up. I wound up going a flip phone for a while. The flip phone is much better as a phone: easier to use, better ergonomics, better speaker, amazing battery life. It truly stinks for SMS, but it does work.

I was able to get things sort of working again, so I'm back on the Pinephone. Overall, it's a bit better for me than the flip phone.

I actually loved sending mobile emails and short messages (aka, SMS) on flip phones 2 decades ago.
Well, it sucks for western languages, but for Japanese it works really well.

Speaking of which, just tried Plasma Mobile again after months of not using it at all, and it seems like it became even more buggy than it was a few months ago, while I was hoping for the other way around.
They made 10-key layout unusable again; you type the first character, then the second, and the keyboard immediately dies, so only the QWERTY keyboard currently works.

I found the exact opposite with the most recent PlaMo Arch release. I have played around with it for a few hours and have had a few bugs but the reliability of it has drastically increased and it has been a much smoother experience overall.

[nelstomlinson]

As nice as the UT environment is, the modem isn't stable enough for OP's needs here. If they are talking about always being reachable then you need a reliable modem and the last time I tried UT (a few weeks ago), the modem would cut out but also not tell you it has cut out (shows full bars) which is a game breaking bug for someone who needs to be reachable. In Phosh and Plasma Mobile when the modem cuts out it shows you have zero bars and no modem which is probably what OP needs because the sad fact is, the modem will cut out sooner or later.

The modem does flake out occasionally, and I do have to watch for it. Fortunately, even when data is broken phone calls usually go through. As you say, when the phone isn't working on Mobian it does show up in the status area at the top of the screen, and yes, I do see that, sometimes several times in a day.

[ragreenburg]

As nice as the UT environment is, the modem isn't stable enough for OP's needs here. If they are talking about always being reachable then you need a reliable modem and the last time I tried UT (a few weeks ago), the modem would cut out but also not tell you it has cut out (shows full bars) which is a game breaking bug for someone who needs to be reachable. In Phosh and Plasma Mobile when the modem cuts out it shows you have zero bars and no modem which is probably what OP needs because the sad fact is, the modem will cut out sooner or later.

The modem does flake out occasionally, and I do have to watch for it. Fortunately, even when data is broken phone calls usually go through. As you say, when the phone isn't working on Mobian it does show up in the status area at the top of the screen, and yes, I do see that, sometimes several times in a day.

Right, the modem definitely isn't perfect for any of them I just think that the important part is knowing it is gone which UT hasn't been doing. Or else you would think you were available but in reality you actually aren't.

[Zebulon Walton]

The modem does flake out occasionally, and I do have to watch for it. Fortunately, even when data is broken phone calls usually go through. As you say, when the phone isn't working on Mobian it does show up in the status area at the top of the screen, and yes, I do see that, sometimes several times in a day.

Since there is a status indicator that shows when the modem goes offline I wonder how difficult it would be to have some kind of audio alert to warn that has happened? Although I leave the phone off most of the time, on occasion I might leave it on for a while if expecting a call and have experienced the modem dropping off occasionally.