Couldn´t the calling problem on Psion style keyboard be solved simply by having a hole for the speaker on the keyboard part? This way the lid could be closed after answering or making a call and just hold the bottom of the keyboard on your ear. I think I have actually seen this kind of design on some old communicator phone. Pinephones microphone is already on the bottom so I think it would just work.
I have been thinking about a crazy idea of actually ripping the screen panel of Pinephone out and sticking some 3D printed sliding keyboard mechanism under it so the mainboard and battery would be on the bottom and only the screen would slide up. I really don´t know enough about all the electronics inside to actually make this myself but I think it wouldn't be impossible. One tricky part would probably be extending the cables to allow the sliding mechanism. I have inspected that there are quite many components attaching to the screen that are connected with their own cables straight to the mainboard. Maybe the upper piece could have some custom slim pcb with connectors for those cables and they could be routed as one wider cable trough the sliding mechanism and then separate to their places on mainboard. The keyboard could trough some cable to the i2c pins. This design would solve many problems but would be quite tricky to make and normal users probably couldn't install it by themself. I'm just asking if anyone with enough knowledge would be interested in at least thinking if this would be somehow possible to make.
I have been thinking about a crazy idea of actually ripping the screen panel of Pinephone out and sticking some 3D printed sliding keyboard mechanism under it so the mainboard and battery would be on the bottom and only the screen would slide up. I really don´t know enough about all the electronics inside to actually make this myself but I think it wouldn't be impossible. One tricky part would probably be extending the cables to allow the sliding mechanism. I have inspected that there are quite many components attaching to the screen that are connected with their own cables straight to the mainboard. Maybe the upper piece could have some custom slim pcb with connectors for those cables and they could be routed as one wider cable trough the sliding mechanism and then separate to their places on mainboard. The keyboard could trough some cable to the i2c pins. This design would solve many problems but would be quite tricky to make and normal users probably couldn't install it by themself. I'm just asking if anyone with enough knowledge would be interested in at least thinking if this would be somehow possible to make.
