Since power using iPhone 12-16hrs per day with task such as editing Mindmaps, browsing internet, Apple pay, listening to music, and basics like mail, calendar etc. heavily drains the battery and there is no other solution to it as to always carry some of those bulky powerbanks around, I want to switch phones.
I stumbled upon Pinephone which I find in its Pro version quite appealing. Not a dev here, but pretty adaptable and a quick learner, as long as the project is motivating. And this one could definitely be.
The question is though how far away you guys are with the Pinephone Pro? What does the cautious description as „pre-beta“ mean; is it really still so far in its alpha phase or was Pine64 just too cautious in its description?
Any opinions or more info is very appreciated.
(01-09-2023, 12:30 PM)Usedname Wrote: Since power using iPhone 12-16hrs per day with task such as editing Mindmaps, browsing internet, Apple pay, listening to music, and basics like mail, calendar etc. heavily drains the battery and there is no other solution to it as to always carry some of those bulky powerbanks around, I want to switch phones.
I stumbled upon Pinephone which I find in its Pro version quite appealing. Not a dev here, but pretty adaptable and a quick learner, as long as the project is motivating. And this one could definitely be.
The question is though how far away you guys are with the Pinephone Pro? What does the cautious description as „pre-beta“ mean; is it really still so far in its alpha phase or was Pine64 just too cautious in its description?
Any opinions or more info is very appreciated.
first, be warned that this community has lot of android and ios haters ... me included. i like to bash both at the same time.
i have pinephone regulars and no pp pro. i'm going to buy pp pro somewhat soon.
pinephone's battery life is very bad, and if no suspend is used, my guess about 3 hours. keyboard case helps though, but maybe 8 hours. with suspend you get almost a day, but that's not active usage. pp pro might be worse, what i have heard. development is still at early stages and even suspend may not work as intended.
apple is sort of good on battery life. mainly because of aggressive app policies, ios devices won't allow running apps on a background, at least not easily. something similar could be said for android, although android has more settings for apps.
i would put pinephone regular as beta level, still having bugs but usable. pp pro, i think is pre-beta, bugs hinder even basics.
if you go with pinephone or pp pro, be prepared for using or learning gnu/linux. i have feeling that some guys bought pinephone as quick getaway for privacy phone, but ended up with complicated gnu/linux and went back to whatever.
i still have mi max 3, which has 5500mAh battery, and i have installed those modified android images. with low usage battery can last a week.
On pine64.com/product/pinephone-pro-explorer-edition it is clearly stated "The PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition is aimed at Linux developers with an extensive knowledge of embedded systems and/or experience with mobile Linux" and this should be taken serious for the foreseeable future.
Have a look at wiki.pine64.org/wiki/PinePhone_Pro to get an idea what to expect from the technical side.
This is by far not something that would appeal to a normal smartphone user and will not be ready for consumer market for a few years more to come.
Devices: Pinebook Pro & Pinephone (Braveheart)
(01-09-2023, 05:12 PM)zetabeta Wrote: (01-09-2023, 12:30 PM)Usedname Wrote: Since power using iPhone 12-16hrs per day with task such as editing Mindmaps, browsing internet, Apple pay, listening to music, and basics like mail, calendar etc. heavily drains the battery and there is no other solution to it as to always carry some of those bulky powerbanks around, I want to switch phones.
I stumbled upon Pinephone which I find in its Pro version quite appealing. Not a dev here, but pretty adaptable and a quick learner, as long as the project is motivating. And this one could definitely be.
The question is though how far away you guys are with the Pinephone Pro? What does the cautious description as „pre-beta“ mean; is it really still so far in its alpha phase or was Pine64 just too cautious in its description?
Any opinions or more info is very appreciated.
first, be warned that this community has lot of android and ios haters ... me included. i like to bash both at the same time.
i have pinephone regulars and no pp pro. i'm going to buy pp pro somewhat soon.
pinephone's battery life is very bad, and if no suspend is used, my guess about 3 hours. keyboard case helps though, but maybe 8 hours. with suspend you get almost a day, but that's not active usage. pp pro might be worse, what i have heard. development is still at early stages and even suspend may not work as intended.
apple is sort of good on battery life. mainly because of aggressive app policies, ios devices won't allow running apps on a background, at least not easily. something similar could be said for android, although android has more settings for apps.
i would put pinephone regular as beta level, still having bugs but usable. pp pro, i think is pre-beta, bugs hinder even basics.
if you go with pinephone or pp pro, be prepared for using or learning gnu/linux. i have feeling that some guys bought pinephone as quick getaway for privacy phone, but ended up with complicated gnu/linux and went back to whatever.
i still have mi max 3, which has 5500mAh battery, and i have installed those modified android images. with low usage battery can last a week.
Thanks, this helps a lot. I’ve been following the development of tailored open-source solutions for quite a while now, especially the stuff from Purism. But there seem to be quite a lot of people being disappointed because they don’t even seem to get their phone at all, unless it is made in the US. I’m always keep on stumbling upon this entire topic, and right now I think that I actually want to try it out, even if the battery only lasts for 3hrs. Due to the modular construction it should be switchable with ease, no?
The specs of pp seem rather poor though. Generally, I’m fine with spending time on troubleshooting as it is somewhat engaging, but I simply can’t bear idling due to hardware performance but otherwise flawless functionality. So in these contexts, is it advisable to get the pp or is it better to wait for pp pro to become more adapted to casual use?
Learning Linux shouldn’t be a problem; I enjoyed messing around with Terminal when Unix flavours were still accessible on Mac, also used Fedora for a while on an old machine. It was all long ago though, 10 years or so… though…
The non-pro Pinephone is definitely usable, but the specs are not robust.
Have you considered getting a Pro at some future point, and in the meantime get your feet wet on a converted android phone running mainline linux (Postmarket - OnePlus 6/T), Droidian or Manjaro Halium ( Pixel 3a/XL), or Ubuntu Touch (OnePlus 5/T, OnePlus 6/T, Pixel 3a/XL)? Sailfish and the Volla is also an option.
01-10-2023, 01:36 AM
(This post was last modified: 01-10-2023, 01:53 AM by Uturn.)
(01-09-2023, 12:30 PM)Usedname Wrote: editing Mindmaps, browsing internet, Apple pay, listening to music, and basics like mail, calendar
can all be done. Battery life is not super but addt the keyboard and you have a long life nano laptop. ApplePay may not exist. Pinephones are slower than contemporary mobile phones. They are a platform for using mainline linux. You ccan install Nextcloud if you don't like some native apps. ( as good as walled garden offerings).
I use manjaro lasma mobile which is quite much a work in progress: There is a Nextcloud connectivity, but not for the calendar. Kalendar however will sync fine, but it's not the best in terms of useability.
Oh and I you want to use any banking software, that may be a problem too even though you could install Android an a sandbox: #waydroid
(01-09-2023, 07:59 PM)rocket2nfinity Wrote: The non-pro Pinephone is definitely usable, but the specs are not robust.
Have you considered getting a Pro at some future point, and in the meantime get your feet wet on a converted android phone running mainline linux (Postmarket - OnePlus 6/T), Droidian or Manjaro Halium ( Pixel 3a/XL), or Ubuntu Touch (OnePlus 5/T, OnePlus 6/T, Pixel 3a/XL)? Sailfish and the Volla is also an option.
OnePlus 6/T seems to be quite decent, and there is also a lot of positive feedback about postmarketOS in comparison to Ubuntu Touch. So although I wasn’t thinking about it at first as I also noticed all the other gadgets from Pine64 that might become interesting for me too (I like getting everything from one place  ), I might start with it to learn the basics in a stable environment. I guess this would be wiser than having to do so while also busy troubleshooting?
(01-10-2023, 01:36 AM)Uturn Wrote: (01-09-2023, 12:30 PM)Usedname Wrote: editing Mindmaps, browsing internet, Apple pay, listening to music, and basics like mail, calendar
can all be done. Battery life is not super but addt the keyboard and you have a long life nano laptop. ApplePay may not exist. Pinephones are slower than contemporary mobile phones. They are a platform for using mainline linux. You ccan install Nextcloud if you don't like some native apps. ( as good as walled garden offerings).
I use manjaro lasma mobile which is quite much a work in progress: There is a Nextcloud connectivity, but not for the calendar. Kalendar however will sync fine, but it's not the best in terms of useability. Since the on-screen keyboard seems to be a powerdrain, and I often use dictation anyway, will speech recognition work on it? Mycroft seems to be in these contexts the counterpart to Siri, no?
I'm not an expert on Mycroft, but I do not believe the Pinephone has the ability to run the Speech To Text (STT) engine used by Mycroft. That engine technically runs on the Pi 4, which is the core of the Mycroft Mark II, but even then it is nowhere near as responsive or accurate enough for dictation, in my opinion. There might be other STT/TTS engines that are lighter weight or that actually do the processing off the device that might work on the Pinephone.
(01-09-2023, 05:50 PM)Usedname Wrote: Thanks, this helps a lot. I’ve been following the development of tailored open-source solutions for quite a while now, especially the stuff from Purism. But there seem to be quite a lot of people being disappointed because they don’t even seem to get their phone at all, unless it is made in the US. I’m always keep on stumbling upon this entire topic, and right now I think that I actually want to try it out, even if the battery only lasts for 3hrs. Due to the modular construction it should be switchable with ease, no? librem 5 has a lead time 52 weeks and price tag 1300$. librem5 design is different than pinephone, some are better like bigger battery and some are not. generally speaking i would go for pinephone models, and they are even cheaper. librem5's modem is detachable, which might be an advantage in some cases.
pinephone's battery is not easily switchable, i mean without reboot and removing back cover.
(01-09-2023, 05:50 PM)Usedname Wrote: The specs of pp seem rather poor though. Generally, I’m fine with spending time on troubleshooting as it is somewhat engaging, but I simply can’t bear idling due to hardware performance but otherwise flawless functionality. So in these contexts, is it advisable to get the pp or is it better to wait for pp pro to become more adapted to casual use? depends on your budget. some can go with both models. but i would still suggest cheaper model, because possible disappointment would be lower, and you get the idea of pinephone from cheaper model anyway.
"I might start with it to learn the basics in a stable environment. I guess this would be wiser than having to do so while also busy troubleshooting?"
I don't know, there's also value in diving in with both feet. Kiddie pool or deep end, you still get your feet wet, and that is what matters.
|
