I would recommend Mobian. Mobian is Debian for mainline-linux smartphones like the pinephone. It is more stable than manjaro and uses phosh as DE. Phosh doesn't look as pretty but it's much more stable compared to plasma-mobile. Plasma Mobile currently seems to have a shortage of developers while Phosh has a number of developers from the community plus Purism behind it.
I drove one on Mobian Phosh for almost a year ending last fall. When the keyboard case died, charging was an issue. It was perfectly passable except that call quality was very poor and it would occasionally not wake up to receive calls while at the same time not sending the caller to voicemail. I needed higher reliability in the strictly phone functions of the phone so I had to switch for now, but I am keeping up and hoping that software development catches up.
Linux phones are the future for sure.. for those of us who know the egregious behavior of Android iOS colluding with other big tech to disallow users to have simple and basic control over app behavior on our phones.
Also not having control of what version of OS you want. If a company release bad update,i should have the right to simply downgrade with no risks, errors/external devices like pc. Oems like Xiaomi brick device if they detect someone is downgrading but some users had luck downgrading somehow. Look up xiaomi anti rollback.
Having control over what os u choose is great too and would be a nightmare for big phone companies. It isnt security issue. It is as simple as if you do not know what you are doing,either do not do it or let someone else do it for you. I have seen someone booting different linux phone os with just an sdcard,i really hope this is the future of phones.
I'm about to buy a new phone and I really want to have a bit more control of my privacy than the average android phone offers. I'm probably going to purchase a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS. Sadly I don't have enough funds to play with a Pinephone, but the idea of a Linux phone really amazes me. I hope they keep developing and perfecting their phone, I really hope my next phone after that will be a Linux phone.
I have been testing for a while a Pixel in which I have installed Graphene OS and it seems to me that it can really be used as the only everyday phone ... @SwitchedtoLinux
Here for the engagement upcummies. Try postmarketOS with SXMO wayland (based on sway). Alpine is really lightweight and sway runs swiftly on my pi 4 (which used to be my main desktop for about 3 years or so). I'm planning to buy either the pinephone beta or the pro (development) one. If pmos runs fine, I'm getting the beta with all the accessories (keyboard cover, dock etc.). Otherwise, I'll have to pony up 400 for the pro one. I'd hope they have similar on-battery uptime expectancy. Planning to use the pinephone as my main PC (yay convergence). I just hope 1080p video playback will be decent.
AFAIK you can get relatively decent battery life on the OG PinePhone if your distro ships all the necessary optimizations and when you're using the custom modem firmware as well as Tow-Boot. The Pro is more battery hungry, especially when you're actually using the CPU. Neither the A64 nor RK3399 was really designed for mobile phones, but the later is significantly more powerful and consumers more energy. Overall the maximum idle time should be similar on both OG and Pro, but I'm not sure if that's already the case - it depends on software support. Speaking of which, the Pro is actually in a somewhat better shape than the OG one. It relies on significantly less out-of-tree patches and can be easily maintained going forward. On the other hand, last year Mobian was actually considering dropping support for the OG one due to this.
The take-home message I got from this is that *true* Linux-based OSes for phones need quite a bit more development to really be fit for purpose (i.e. a viable alternative to Android/iOS). Would that be a reasonable conclusion to draw?
I would recommend trying out Arch Arm and even Mobian in the future. I had a far better experience with Arch Linux Arm (Phosh) and Mobian (Phosh) than I ever did with Manjaro (Plasma).
Audio sounds fine on my phone. You can guarantee some people own more powerful versions of the phone with security ;) versionsof linux installed. Probably not available to the genral public though
I tried this phone about 3 years ago and ended up returning it. Yeah, it was slow but fun to play around with. However, the one thing I could not get away from was the really poor audio quality, it was never loud enough for me.
Audio sounds good. As for the phone/project, I am hopeful. As long as they prioritize software over trying to keep up with hardware, I'll be happy. I do not need a hot rod -- just something basic & stable, with a half-way decent camera, and a strong web browser. I also hope they're vetting the hardware security properly. I assume a lot of it is coming from China and I do not trust the CCP.
Please tell me I am wrong but I recently got the pinephone pro and was really disappointed that basic functionality as a phone isn't there: 1. suspend mode doesn't allow calls or text to come in. 2. battery life is REALLY REALLY bad. Basically battery management is setup for laptops/desktops there is no phone based battery management. 3. Software updates don't work through the app stores 4. Most builds dont even have data working. 4. Audio quality for phone calls was extremely poor, my first call the phone started dialing numbers non stop I just had to end the call. I am most excited about debian phosh. You can see the potential in the device and in the OS but it seems like at best it won't be ready to use until 2027 in my view. Too many issues left to solve and a very small community of developers that are working on them mostly on there free time. I thought it was farther along than it is. Most builds the camera's don't even work. I personally don't care about the cameras but I wish I was a linux dev or firmware dev and could help move the project forward more. I worry its just a bit too out of my abilities at the moment. :(
I've got a Pinephone Pro with PostmarketOS Phosh. It works suprisingly well. To be quite honest, my only issue with the Pinephone is the battery life. If its battery could "survive" a workday of regular use, I'd promote it to a daily driver status. For now, my Pinephone Pro is simply my lazyman "Cyberdeck" that I take to meetings to take notes with Logseq. Easier than carrying around a big laptop when you can carry a phone and a keyboard instead. For daily use, my old Fairphone 3+ with Ubuntu Touch does the trick and it only does so because of battery life. I just hope that Mobile Linux development doesn't start dying. From what I've noticed, most of the initial hype and excitement for Pine64's product seem to have died down a bit. Other devices seem to be getting more action in the Mobile Linux community. I hope I'm wrong, of course. Anyway, just my two cents. Great vid, btw! :) It's always great seeing more content on the Pinephone.
for diy, the best i can come up with for such a thing is a portable small display with bluetooth touch/mic/speaker, wireless to dsi or an sbc with remote desktop, contact based charging and a decent pocket pc with the actual phone radio. sure, not a lot of people would want to carry around two computers as their phone, but it'd allow a second graphical connection to a desktop, wirelessly or not. it might be possible to use a CHEAP simless android phone for this purpose.
Some tutorials on how to install an os on a Pine Phone would be incredibly useful. I have a pine phone and am incredibly confused about the os install process. I really want to replace manjaro with some thing more stable.
Absolutely swap that Manjaro for Mobian or pmOS. Ubuntu Touch is its own thing and afaik it's actually engineered around Android instead of mainline Linux. As for transferring files, it is I believe an architectural problem with USB itself. You can only have one host - everything else has to be a device. Besides hardware support for switching roles, the operating system also needs to figure out that when it's connected to a computer it needs to act as an MTP or mass storage device. But when it's docked or whatever it would need to become the host again. edit: if you want better specs, look into the ex-Android devices in the "Community" category of pmOS
@@knerduno5942 It is Halium-based (like Droidian) right? Relying on Android interfaces for interacting with hardware, instead of "just" using mainline device drivers I guess I wasn't really clear, but this is what I meant.
It's still a smart phone and a touch device made in the PRC, so even without Manjaro I will always hold multiple grudges. But good on Pine64 for making it at all, and not cheaping out like the Raspberry Pi Foundation did.
I've had a pinephone for about two years. I daily drove it for maybe six months before I had return to android. My #1 advice: get the keyboard. The keyboard has a battery which trickle charges the phone, and it's the only way you'll have quality of life. I've also heard that using Tow-Boot will extend the battery life, but I haven't tried it yet.
This might, however, be a good device to screen calls with, so that I only answer calls from people saved in my contacts on my main phone... due all the spam calls I get!
A Like and comment because I feel dirty only watching on NewPipe. I know you support it but it doesn't benefit you so much. On the other hand, I'd feel a lot more dirty only watching on YT. Gave you a Like on Odysee as well. I usually listen via NewPipe at bedtime but it bothers me you don't get the Like or occasional comment. Keep up the GREAT work, Tom, know that we're out there and we're listening!
These look like my $30 phone. The lowest. It's not worth it at the price to have to get the developer version to do basic things connected to a computer. The Pro Version is very expensive. A few feature and spec updates for the cheap version sure, but half the price for both. Ideally, you want a mid range phone for $200 or less. After all, the standard versions are like blank normal phones. A full face display, 13mp high latitude camera, maybe OLED, or LCD as good, would make the basic phone a lot better, as well as wireless charging (the USB ports break really easy if it's the same, and twin USBC with full HD HDMI or 4kp60 support over one. Something that reminds me of $30 models, is not worth it, at greater than $50. External switches. It's hard to get the cover off of my $30. With sliding disconnect covers on video and microphones. Don't buy the watch until they make it reprogrammable. Plenty of non reprogrammable, attractive, colour smart watches cheap from China. :(
I'm glad to see you are also on Odysee. I will be unsubscribing from this channel on yt, and I'll be supporting your content exclusively on OD from now on.
I really hope i can daily drive a linux smart phone one day.
You already do, if you run android
@@meskes4059 android is closed source, so no.
@@IncognitoActivado I’ll make sure to inform the Android Open Source Project of this.
@@meskes4059 More like Google, but whatever you say. XD
@@IncognitoActivado check it out Graphene OS 😉
Audio is excellent for me. Better than some content creators with studio setups.
I would recommend Mobian. Mobian is Debian for mainline-linux smartphones like the pinephone. It is more stable than manjaro and uses phosh as DE. Phosh doesn't look as pretty but it's much more stable compared to plasma-mobile.
Plasma Mobile currently seems to have a shortage of developers while Phosh has a number of developers from the community plus Purism behind it.
I think Phosh is much prettier than KDE Plasma Mobile tho
I drove one on Mobian Phosh for almost a year ending last fall. When the keyboard case died, charging was an issue. It was perfectly passable except that call quality was very poor and it would occasionally not wake up to receive calls while at the same time not sending the caller to voicemail. I needed higher reliability in the strictly phone functions of the phone so I had to switch for now, but I am keeping up and hoping that software development catches up.
Linux phones are the future for sure.. for those of us who know the egregious behavior of Android iOS colluding with other big tech to disallow users to have simple and basic control over app behavior on our phones.
Also not having control of what version of OS you want.
If a company release bad update,i should have the right to simply downgrade with no risks, errors/external devices like pc.
Oems like Xiaomi brick device if they detect someone is downgrading but some users had luck downgrading somehow.
Look up xiaomi anti rollback.
Having control over what os u choose is great too and would be a nightmare for big phone companies.
It isnt security issue.
It is as simple as if you do not know what you are doing,either do not do it or let someone else do it for you.
I have seen someone booting different linux phone os with just an sdcard,i really hope this is the future of phones.
I'm about to buy a new phone and I really want to have a bit more control of my privacy than the average android phone offers. I'm probably going to purchase a Google Pixel with GrapheneOS.
Sadly I don't have enough funds to play with a Pinephone, but the idea of a Linux phone really amazes me. I hope they keep developing and perfecting their phone, I really hope my next phone after that will be a Linux phone.
I just picked up a used Pixel 5A for $140. I will put GrapheneOS on it soon.
I have been testing for a while a Pixel in which I have installed Graphene OS and it seems to me that it can really be used as the only everyday phone ... @SwitchedtoLinux
Yep I’ve used my pixel 5 with calyx os as my daily driver for a couple of years now, works great!
Here for the engagement upcummies. Try postmarketOS with SXMO wayland (based on sway). Alpine is really lightweight and sway runs swiftly on my pi 4 (which used to be my main desktop for about 3 years or so). I'm planning to buy either the pinephone beta or the pro (development) one. If pmos runs fine, I'm getting the beta with all the accessories (keyboard cover, dock etc.). Otherwise, I'll have to pony up 400 for the pro one. I'd hope they have similar on-battery uptime expectancy. Planning to use the pinephone as my main PC (yay convergence). I just hope 1080p video playback will be decent.
Postmarket is on my list for sure. Alpine also looks good.
AFAIK you can get relatively decent battery life on the OG PinePhone if your distro ships all the necessary optimizations and when you're using the custom modem firmware as well as Tow-Boot.
The Pro is more battery hungry, especially when you're actually using the CPU. Neither the A64 nor RK3399 was really designed for mobile phones, but the later is significantly more powerful and consumers more energy.
Overall the maximum idle time should be similar on both OG and Pro, but I'm not sure if that's already the case - it depends on software support. Speaking of which, the Pro is actually in a somewhat better shape than the OG one. It relies on significantly less out-of-tree patches and can be easily maintained going forward. On the other hand, last year Mobian was actually considering dropping support for the OG one due to this.
Hi Tom, your audio sounds pretty good on my end. Thank you.
You could try arbian which is a fork Debian specifically aimed at Arm based plat forms such as the Pine Phone.
@Tom, your mic sounds awesome! Had you not said it was a phone, I would have thought you were using a pretty expensive camera and mic.
The take-home message I got from this is that *true* Linux-based OSes for phones need quite a bit more development to really be fit for purpose (i.e. a viable alternative to Android/iOS).
Would that be a reasonable conclusion to draw?
I would recommend trying out Arch Arm and even Mobian in the future. I had a far better experience with Arch Linux Arm (Phosh) and Mobian (Phosh) than I ever did with Manjaro (Plasma).
Also I recommend putting towboot on your PinePhone.
Audio sounds fine on my phone. You can guarantee some people own more powerful versions of the phone with security ;) versionsof linux installed. Probably not available to the genral public though
The new mic sounds good! Very interesting phone!
I tried this phone about 3 years ago and ended up returning it. Yeah, it was slow but fun to play around with. However, the one thing I could not get away from was the really poor audio quality, it was never loud enough for me.
Curious because mine is pretty loud and really good quality speakers, at least on Manjaro.
Audio sounds good. As for the phone/project, I am hopeful. As long as they prioritize software over trying to keep up with hardware, I'll be happy. I do not need a hot rod -- just something basic & stable, with a half-way decent camera, and a strong web browser.
I also hope they're vetting the hardware security properly. I assume a lot of it is coming from China and I do not trust the CCP.
Please tell me I am wrong but I recently got the pinephone pro and was really disappointed that basic functionality as a phone isn't there: 1. suspend mode doesn't allow calls or text to come in. 2. battery life is REALLY REALLY bad. Basically battery management is setup for laptops/desktops there is no phone based battery management. 3. Software updates don't work through the app stores 4. Most builds dont even have data working. 4. Audio quality for phone calls was extremely poor, my first call the phone started dialing numbers non stop I just had to end the call.
I am most excited about debian phosh. You can see the potential in the device and in the OS but it seems like at best it won't be ready to use until 2027 in my view. Too many issues left to solve and a very small community of developers that are working on them mostly on there free time. I thought it was farther along than it is. Most builds the camera's don't even work. I personally don't care about the cameras but I wish I was a linux dev or firmware dev and could help move the project forward more. I worry its just a bit too out of my abilities at the moment. :(
hi,sir,did you have pinephone pcb files
I've got a Pinephone Pro with PostmarketOS Phosh. It works suprisingly well. To be quite honest, my only issue with the Pinephone is the battery life. If its battery could "survive" a workday of regular use, I'd promote it to a daily driver status. For now, my Pinephone Pro is simply my lazyman "Cyberdeck" that I take to meetings to take notes with Logseq. Easier than carrying around a big laptop when you can carry a phone and a keyboard instead.
For daily use, my old Fairphone 3+ with Ubuntu Touch does the trick and it only does so because of battery life.
I just hope that Mobile Linux development doesn't start dying. From what I've noticed, most of the initial hype and excitement for Pine64's product seem to have died down a bit. Other devices seem to be getting more action in the Mobile Linux community. I hope I'm wrong, of course.
Anyway, just my two cents. Great vid, btw! :) It's always great seeing more content on the Pinephone.
Great review. How abou trying Fedora Phosh? Would be interesting to see
for diy, the best i can come up with for such a thing is a portable small display with bluetooth touch/mic/speaker, wireless to dsi or an sbc with remote desktop, contact based charging and a decent pocket pc with the actual phone radio. sure, not a lot of people would want to carry around two computers as their phone, but it'd allow a second graphical connection to a desktop, wirelessly or not.
it might be possible to use a CHEAP simless android phone for this purpose.
Some tutorials on how to install an os on a Pine Phone would be incredibly useful. I have a pine phone and am incredibly confused about the os install process. I really want to replace manjaro with some thing more stable.
Pine. That is great. The first email program.
I wish they can have it as 5G or better, and good design of the phone.
I really think they need switches on the outside of the phone. I'm sure it could be done in a good and rugged way.
good video, audio sounds good.
Absolutely swap that Manjaro for Mobian or pmOS. Ubuntu Touch is its own thing and afaik it's actually engineered around Android instead of mainline Linux.
As for transferring files, it is I believe an architectural problem with USB itself. You can only have one host - everything else has to be a device. Besides hardware support for switching roles, the operating system also needs to figure out that when it's connected to a computer it needs to act as an MTP or mass storage device. But when it's docked or whatever it would need to become the host again.
edit: if you want better specs, look into the ex-Android devices in the "Community" category of pmOS
That is not True. UT was a creation of Canaonical based off Ubuntu. It uses some Android parts so it can be easier to use the OS on different phones
@@knerduno5942 It is Halium-based (like Droidian) right? Relying on Android interfaces for interacting with hardware, instead of "just" using mainline device drivers
I guess I wasn't really clear, but this is what I meant.
I would love to have a daily Linux phone that respects private data and life.
It's still a smart phone and a touch device made in the PRC, so even without Manjaro I will always hold multiple grudges. But good on Pine64 for making it at all, and not cheaping out like the Raspberry Pi Foundation did.
What’s wrong with China?
I've had a pinephone for about two years. I daily drove it for maybe six months before I had return to android. My #1 advice: get the keyboard. The keyboard has a battery which trickle charges the phone, and it's the only way you'll have quality of life. I've also heard that using Tow-Boot will extend the battery life, but I haven't tried it yet.
Tow-boot is for booting the OS and has nothing to do with battery life
@@knerduno5942 Nevermind 😆
He only said it helped with suspend. I must have extrapolated.
Do check out the Pro version.
This vid made me undust my pinephone64, time to update.
First thing i noticed is that it only charges at 0.4A 5V....
I will check that in a few weeks. I have a USB voltameter in storage I am going to grab.
just a small fyi on the mic: it does not seem to have the "depth" in the voice, felt like I was listening through a phone mic lol
I noticed that. I think my main mic does better in that area, but this is not too bad.
on this device for me work best Mobian distro
Just run meshtastic on a t-dexk and set up nodes and repeaters get off big brothers infrastructure and own your own infrastructure.
Your sound is good
I hope one day we will have a gnu/ linux phone.this is not that
This might, however, be a good device to screen calls with, so that I only answer calls from people saved in my contacts on my main phone... due all the spam calls I get!
If the apps are optimized it doesnt need more CPU/RAM
Possible banking phone???
Yes it has a web browser
You mean the Pinephone Pro? It's quite good, except some lacking stuff ans less compatibility overall.
It seems like Pine Phone has been in beta a long time now.
I have wanted one for years but I hat Manjaro with a passion...And all the other stuff mentioned is a nope from my end.
THE GUY you got them from had them laying around for a reason
He still has one in production, bought a few to test different distros for himself, gave me the unused ones to get some videos out.
Manjaro..? Why? Thats the one distro notorious for being a total mess..
A Like and comment because I feel dirty only watching on NewPipe. I know you support it but it doesn't benefit you so much. On the other hand, I'd feel a lot more dirty only watching on YT. Gave you a Like on Odysee as well. I usually listen via NewPipe at bedtime but it bothers me you don't get the Like or occasional comment. Keep up the GREAT work, Tom, know that we're out there and we're listening!
They really need to port DSL onto it. Minimal Linux would make the thing fly.
NICE SHAVE
#Make2024TheYearofTheLinuxDesktop
These look like my $30 phone. The lowest. It's not worth it at the price to have to get the developer version to do basic things connected to a computer. The Pro Version is very expensive. A few feature and spec updates for the cheap version sure, but half the price for both. Ideally, you want a mid range phone for $200 or less. After all, the standard versions are like blank normal phones. A full face display, 13mp high latitude camera, maybe OLED, or LCD as good, would make the basic phone a lot better, as well as wireless charging (the USB ports break really easy if it's the same, and twin USBC with full HD HDMI or 4kp60 support over one. Something that reminds me of $30 models, is not worth it, at greater than $50.
External switches. It's hard to get the cover off of my $30. With sliding disconnect covers on video and microphones. Don't buy the watch until they make it reprogrammable. Plenty of non reprogrammable, attractive, colour smart watches cheap from China. :(
Fairphone 4
Try NixOS
this phone is 10 years behind the others, and while it tries to catch up the others will move still further ahead.
Nah, phones are going backwards for the last 6-7 years.
Try sxmo
This one month old video is kinda useless since you're reviewing like a alpha version of a phone that has a newer version out.
These reviews are done with the latest distros.
I'm glad to see you are also on Odysee. I will be unsubscribing from this channel on yt, and I'll be supporting your content exclusively on OD from now on.
Thanks! We are also on Rumble
the sound is no good to what your other videos are. go back to old mic