03-11-2021, 02:19 AM
Well, I got my Librem5 yesterday and I have a Pinephone from the UBPorts batch.
My first impressions are very conflicted. On one hand, the Librem is much more polished out of the box. Everything works smoothly and there are no issues with screen size, etc. It is significantly faster than the Pinephone. I have tried Mobian, PostmarketOS and Sxmo on the latter. And with exception of Sxmo, the Pinephone was almost unusable as a daily phone because of input lag when typing and screen size issues, etc. If I ware a regular person, there would be no doubt which one of the two I would want, even considering the price difference.
But, the Librem has a very "Apple" feel to it in that it directs you to use the apps they supply and what they supply is very, very limited. There is not even a Matrix client in the app store. So in practice, this one is also unusable for me too, unless I decide to put workarounds on it myself.
Both phones will continue to improve, I am sure of that. But at the moment, a combination would be best for me: hardware of Librem, freedom of Pinephone.
(I know that I could put whatever on the Librem too, that's the point of these phone after all. But I don't have time enough to start hacking on them yet, so I am judging the out-of-the-box experience now.)
My first impressions are very conflicted. On one hand, the Librem is much more polished out of the box. Everything works smoothly and there are no issues with screen size, etc. It is significantly faster than the Pinephone. I have tried Mobian, PostmarketOS and Sxmo on the latter. And with exception of Sxmo, the Pinephone was almost unusable as a daily phone because of input lag when typing and screen size issues, etc. If I ware a regular person, there would be no doubt which one of the two I would want, even considering the price difference.
But, the Librem has a very "Apple" feel to it in that it directs you to use the apps they supply and what they supply is very, very limited. There is not even a Matrix client in the app store. So in practice, this one is also unusable for me too, unless I decide to put workarounds on it myself.
Both phones will continue to improve, I am sure of that. But at the moment, a combination would be best for me: hardware of Librem, freedom of Pinephone.
(I know that I could put whatever on the Librem too, that's the point of these phone after all. But I don't have time enough to start hacking on them yet, so I am judging the out-of-the-box experience now.)
