PinePhone to run UBPorts, sell for just $149, possibly available this year
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Interesting new entrant in the alternative phone market. Pine64, makers of the ARM-based $99 Pinebook "open source hardware" laptops (https://www.pine64.org/?page_id=3707) is discussing making a $149 phone available by the end of this year:
https://forums.ubports.com/topic/2403/pinephone
Some intriguing aspects of what they are planning:
- Would run UBPorts - the community driven version of the old Canonical Ubuntu Touch operating system
- 6" phone, removable battery, nothing glued down, held together by screws
- spare MicroSD slot will be bootable - can test drive other OS's without erasing eMMC
- GPS, bluetooth and wifi
- It will have hardware privacy switches inside the back panel (nice!)
- External headphone jack, camera
- LTE modem with worldwide bands, 2GB memory, 16GB eMMC
Doesn't say anything about the CPU - probably ARM, and not high powered for this price.
At $149, this could be a very intriguing phone!!
Picture here: https://trisquel.info/files/EXRurgy.png
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> Doesn't say anything about the CPU
It would be nice if you added a note with where on that site you linked to the information is to be found :)
> It would be nice if you added a note with where on that site you linked to the information is to be found :)
Second section, about a fifth of the way down the page. Title of the section is "The PinePhone Development Kits"
> where on that site you linked to the information is to be found
ctrl + f enter pinephone.
From the picture on that page, looks like they are going with an AllWinner A64 SOC for their prototype models. I know next to nothing about these types of chips, but here is a good informative page on the A64: http://linux-sunxi.org/A64
Here is a Pine64 data sheet on the A64: http://files.pine64.org/doc/datasheet/pine64/A64_Datasheet_V1.1.pdf
Pine64 user manual on the A64: http://files.pine64.org/doc/datasheet/pine64/Allwinner_A64_User_Manual_V1.0.pdf
Here's a 2015 review of the A64 calling it the most cost efficient 64-bit tablet chip ever: http://handytechplus.com/allwinner-a64-specs-tablet-review-price-just-5/
Some benchmarks - looks like it runs a lot of different devices: https://openbenchmarking.org/result/1608316-KH-1603255GA96
Also looks like they are using a Quectel EC25-A cellular modem chip in the prototype, which is an LTE 4 chip: https://www.quectel.com/product/ec25.htm
Interesting interview with Lukasz Erecinski from Pine64 about the PinePhone (first 4 minutes): https://invidio.us/watch?v=i9NPTE2xEL8
He talks about including the ability to freely put a variety of versions of GNU\Linux on the phone. Right now, people from Plasma are working with it, people from the Ubuntu Touch community (UBPorts), from Openmoko, PostmarketOS, and others.
Dev kits have already been distributed and teams are working with it. They could really be distributing a phone this year.
Here's a hands-on video from FOSSDEM with video of handling a PinePhone dev kit (about 4 minutes long total): https://invidio.us/watch?v=80TYh_OPWvU
Here's a hands-on video from some Ubuntu Touch devs with UBPorts running on a dev kit (from the 36 minute mark to the 39 minute mark): https://invidio.us/watch?time_continue=2169&v=md5tcnhqckI
UBPorts devs have a new video up with a section where they discuss their progress with the PinePhone, starting aboit the 11 minute 45 second mark: https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=LspynsDRcYE
Interesting takeaway from this video - the phone will have HDMI output over a USB-c connection, and should be able to run the phone screen and external monitor at the same time.
A few comments on this.
1) I think it's a really positive thing that Pine64 are releasing their devices with a GNU/Linux OS, rather than a proprietary one attached to a corporation.
2) I think it's a really positive thing that prices for mobile devices are finally starting to drop to something almost anyone can afford, just as the prices of desktops and laptops dropped in the late 90s/ early 2000s, as PCs became more mainstream.
3) It will be interesting to see whether the PinePhone can run without any proprietary software / firmware, and still drive all the hardware to its full potential. Keep in mind the comments made on this forum about the proprietary software required by the PineBook:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/trisquel-arm-pinebook-pro-running-trisquel-trisquel-touch
4) If more companies start selling low-cost mobiles (and laptops and other devices), running non-corporate OS that doing their best to avoid proprietary compromises, this could massively increase the user base of non-corporate OS. If so, this could help us prove there is a demand for freedom-respecting computing beyond the geek fringe, hopefully leading to a virtuous cycle where we can start putting pressure on upstream hardware manufacturers to respect our freedom with fully free drivers, firmware etc.
> 3) It will be interesting to see whether the PinePhone can run without any proprietary software / firmware, and still drive all the hardware to its full potential. Keep in mind the comments made on this forum about the proprietary software required by the PineBook:
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/trisquel-arm-pinebook-pro-running-trisquel-trisquel-touch
Yes, like every other phone at this time, this one is not going to be able to be run without some proprietary firmware. Not just the wifi and graphics, but also the cellular chip since I'm pretty sure that no cell chips are currently running without proprietary firmware. But, having the option of a $149 phone with a GNU/Linux OS options and physical kill switches and removable battery will be some progress.
If this becomes popular, possibly the momentum will build to finish the Lima and Panfrost libre graphics projects for the Mali GPU quickly. The Cedrus project is doing well and has recently been mainlined into the kernel project, giving us videos like this: https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=X18JN1pq2H4. So there is some hope.
Regarding the Realtek wifi driver, I am hopeful that could become reverse engineered, as a number of other Realtek wifi chips have been. However, I have no reason to hope that cell chips will be driven by libre firmware anytime in the near future.
andyprough:
> having the option of a $149 phone with a GNU/Linux OS options and physical kill switches and removable battery will be some progress.
It will certainly be progress on giving Purism around $700 for pretty much the same thing ;) Pine64 are really helping to change people's understanding of what hardware really costs and how much markup intermediaries are adding between the factory and the customer. It's about time someone did that. But I suspect that the price level that will allow social enterprises selling freedom-respecting hardware to stay in business long term is somewhere between what Purism charges and what Pine64 charges.
I'd love to see an analysis that takes all the models available from all the companies on lists list this:
http://linuxpreloaded.com/
... and allows us to do apples-with-apples comparisons on software freedom vs. price vs. specs.
> > having the option of a $149 phone with a GNU/Linux OS options and physical kill switches and removable battery will be some progress.
> It will certainly be progress on giving Purism around $700 for pretty much the same thing ;)
Isn't the Purism phone supposed to have WiFi that works with free software? If so, this isn't quite the same deal freedom-wise, but I agree with your overall point.
"Wifi/bluetooth chip is still being evaluated, it will perhaps not use any firmware at all." (Purism):
https://trisquel.info/en/forum/librem5-and-why-i-am-no-longer-interested
> If so, this isn't quite the same deal freedom-wise, but I agree with your overall point.
Remember that Purism's phone is more secure because the CPU it uses is not vulnerable to Spectre/Meltdown. PinePhone will use ARM Cortex A53 which is vulnerable:
https://developer.arm.com/support/arm-security-updates/speculative-processor-vulnerability
Very good news, thanks
New video out of PinePhone with display working. It is running postmarketOS, a full GNU/Linux OS for phones that seeks to become the first fully free software stack for cell phones even down to the cell modem: https://www.invidio.us/watch?v=eP3anEKz5ik
I love the fact that they are adding a hackable phone back cover, with pin connections on the board. People will be able to produce keyboard covers and other covers to make the PinePhone modular.
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