PinePhone Pro discontinued

[teekay]

But with a $400 price tag, it was also twice as expensive as the original PinePhone and never generated as much interest from buyers or developers. And now Pine64 says it’s ceased production of the PinePhone Pro and has no plans to resume selling the phone.

https://liliputing.com/pinephone-pro-lin...available/

[KC9UDX]

I think your link is wonky, try this[url=https//liliputing.com/pinephone-pro-linux-smartphone-has-been-discontinued-but-the-original-pinephone-is-still-available/][/url]

[teekay]

Fixed, thanks

[zetabeta]

sort of saying sad moment. most likely, i won't go back to android world. by android, it includes un-googled ones and phones with android bootloader and kernel. although un-googled android is sort of saying second best option, or less worse.

maybe i go technical basic phones with volte, but even those have some issues.

And since its release we’ve seen mobile Linux distros like postmarketOS ported to run well on a number of other phones like the Google pixel 3a, Fairphone 4, OnePlus 6, and Samsung Galaxy S9, reducing the need for a Pine64 phone with better-than-Pinephone specs.

all listed phones have android partitioning and bootloader, thus manufacturer controls boot process, even if oem unlock is activated. bootloader is good in pinephone regular and pro, no manufacturer bootloader control.

android manufactures have signed boot, and it boots next phase from partition. if oem unlock is activated then unsigned boot is allowed, but not in first phases, only in later phases. basically manufacturer has ultimate control. and oem unlock is not total unlock anyway, it has some limitations. (there are sources for this but skipping this time).

[KNERD]

Maybe they should have gotten someone who knew what they were doing to get this going.

Nobody wants to spend that much on a phone with now subpar specs and not even a functioning OS when there other phones out there which greatly outperform this one for the same price.

They should have done more to financially incentivize the development of an OS for both phones.

In addition, why only replacement parts? Why not plugin upgrades also?

This is not the first time they did something not so smart.

They came out with the SOEDGE device. Paid for all the development and manufacture of those devices to only find out afterwards nobody was interested in making a mainline Linux distro for it.

[teekay]

I get your frustration. Personally, I'm just glad this device existed and that I got to buy one. I've just recently started daily driving it and it's pretty much my dream open source device. I am honestly amazed at how well a desktop operating system is running on this mobile device. I just keep in mind that it's a laptop in the form of a phone (rather than an Android/iOS replacement). So sometimes when a dialog box pops up that is too big and can't be interacted with, I totally get it, and make a note so that maybe I can go fix it at some point. I'm just surprised that it hasn't sold well, given that it's totally usable and the dream we've been chasing ever since the Nokia n770. There's even a thriving ecosystem of OS and software options. I'll be enjoying mine for as long as I can keep it running and in one piece.

[zetabeta]

https://pine64.org/2025/08/14/august_2025_short_update/

seems that we got formal announcement.

[KNERD]

I get your frustration. Personally, I'm just glad this device existed and that I got to buy one. I've just recently started daily driving it and it's pretty much my dream open source device. I am honestly amazed at how well a desktop operating system is running on this mobile device. I just keep in mind that it's a laptop in the form of a phone (rather than an Android/iOS replacement). So sometimes when a dialog box pops up that is too big and can't be interacted with, I totally get it, and make a note so that maybe I can go fix it at some point. I'm just surprised that it hasn't sold well, given that it's totally usable and the dream we've been chasing ever since the Nokia n770. There's even a thriving ecosystem of OS and software options. I'll be enjoying mine for as long as I can keep it running and in one piece.

It has not sold well for a few reasons. The technology in the original pine phone is 15 or more years old. In addition to the limited memory capacity, it runs very slow now.

Also there is not a single OS for it which is stable. SailFish OS ma he the exception now since due to the paid for GUI they have financial incentive.

For the Pro version, while it has much newer tech, still limited RAM option, and a bit pricey for the specs now. Also, no stable OS and not as much development going on for it.


Since the original Pinephone was made for repairability, they should have come up with with some possible upgrade options for it.

[Kevin Kofler]

Is it really "made for repairability"? The only component that is easily swappable is the battery, which does not help when the fault lies elsewhere. There are much more modular designs out there. And with the 2 bizarre hardware faults I have run into on 2 different PinePhone units (each already has a forum thread here), nobody even knows for sure where the fault lies, which does not help repairing either.

[teekay]

I mean, you can buy spare parts like motherboard, screen, etc. and replace them yourself with nothing more than a screwdriver, a prying tool (or card), and some tape. See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p2Q_SQKK...Fzc2VtYmx5