I'm thinking of buying a Pinephone. Trying to get an idea off what I'm getting into...

10 months ago by Glifted to c/pine64

As the title says I'm thinking of getting a PinePhone. I intend to make it my daily-driver. I've read it isn't ready for daily-driver use but I really only need it to do 3 things...

Calls
Texts
Run a Signal/Molly client

I have an iphone for work and de-Googled Androids that I can turn on if I ever need but I want to avoid it as much as possible

I was happily living with a Punkt MP02 when it worked but it's Signal client is a constant shit-show

So what is it like? Are calls and texts reliable? Has anyone used Signal on it? I'm probably going to do the PostMarketOs/Plasma combo

any experience you can share is helpful

Warl0k3 5 points 10 months ago

It can technically run signal although it's laggy, but you really need to look into carriers to ensure one that won't blacklist you is in your area - this is a notorious problem with pinephones and the biggest issue to them being a daily driver even just for texting. After that, just keep in mind that having multiple apps open (even basic messaging apps) can be too much for them, web browsing is painful, audio quality is hilariously bad, battery life is atrocious and app compatiblity will limit you entirely to the handful of compatible FOSS apps, most of which are... barely functional due to constant orphaning.

Pinephone really isn't anything more than a toy yet, and unless you're specifically looking to develop for it I'd look into alternatives (Librem 5 is getting good reviews from friends that have it)

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banazir 2 points 10 months ago

Unfortunately, I agree. I had to drop my PinePhone because my carrier has a different APN for internet and MMS, which made MMS unusable. If you intend to use the PP, those issues are to be expected. Workarounds exist, but they are not reliable.

Other than that, the phone is really slow and has low battery life. If you're really determined, you can daily drive it, but it's nowhere near the experience you will have on an Android phone. Forget Youtube, only light web browsing is doable. And the web isn't very light these days.

I love what the PinePhone is trying to be, but it's not there yet, not by a long shot. It pains me to say, but don't get one unless you're ready to work for your phone. With low enough demands, it can be done, but no guarantees.

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vas 2 points 10 months ago

Calls - sure.
Texts - sure.
Signal was laggy and inconvenient to install. Other, native, messengers are better, but if you require Signal, you may need to accept lags during startup. BTW, audio (in other messages) with wired headphones was perfect.
Also, battery's gonna be somewhat of a pain most likely. At least without battery optimization, which IDK if it exists; I never did.

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