PinePhone: trying out a Linux-based smartphone

But people were disputing them. I still state that by everything that can be measured, Librem5 is superior to Nokia's closed trash.

I hadn't seen Halla's review at the URL you linked. I wasn't commenting her review you linked, I was just responding to this thread. The review doesn't say significantly more than is in this thread though.

> You could simply state your own perception of using the librem5

The reality, is I don't use *any* cell phones, despite owning many. I live in Roosevelt National Forest in Northern Colorado. Believe it or not, there is lots of parts of the world that still don't have cell coverage, including me where I sit all day. (This dispite being able to *see* the tower that has the antenna for 25 years--it just doesn't point at me.) My work on it is to establish free/secure communications between people in general, not my own use. That said, I dig in pretty deep as you--you can see examples of that in Maemo wiki link, for example.

> How would you compare the software wrt other free software mobile efforts?

Well considering the desktop they developed (Phosh and other bits) is the most popular even on *other* platforms, it looks like they did a better job that the previous lame proprietary attempts.

> How is the battery life?

You can look at *any* phone on the Internet and find people complaining about battery life.

> Does it run really hot when in use or charging?

I just charged it now to confirm and the answer is NO.

> Can you smoothly scroll text or webpages?

I don't really care.

> What are the pros and cons of the librem5 compared to other past or present open hardware mobile devices?

There's almost too many to list. Look at the earlier list above. The HUGE pros are that it has a great community with a company committed to supporting that community. That's pretty much the exact opposite of Maemo(etc)/Nokia. The fact that the entire design orientation of the phone from the get-go is to protect the user, is a huge plus, because without that, we're just getting spy phones. So they pioneered hardware kill switches. It is the first phone where I can remove a modem and other bits. It is the first phone where you get exensive hardware documentation, including schematics (in KiCAD no less). I even saw on earlier generations they supplied full gerbers!

Cost to me is irrelevant for things like this. But again, I know people that just got out of prison as POWs, have been carbombed, tortured, etc...

(I could be wrong about some "firsts" if they were perhaps in OpenMoko, which I also worked on, but it is soooo long ago.)

To re-iterate on this, which I think is basically the fundamental difference. One side wants smooth scrolling, the other side is concern about people being killed/tortured. One side works with the folks doing the killing/torturing (e.g. Nokia's support of repressive regimes), the other side is trying to fight to get out from under that boot.

Keep in mind, for some folks, this is a lot more ideological and therefore they are going to take offense at or attempt to dismiss any review that doesn't praise the PinePhone because in their mind, there aren't a lot of a viable alternatives. The flaws, perceived or otherwise, doesn't really matter to them. They would view any criticism of the phone as shills engaging in a proxy attack on Free software or privacy as opposed to just a criticism of this particular implementation. You are going to end up talking past each other if you don't recognize this.

I prefer phosh to other environments (but I may be biased as I take part in developing it :))

> How is the battery life?

Enough for me, about half a day. Improvements like an option to use suspend-to-RAM are still coming.

> Does it run really hot when in use or charging?

No, unless something constantly chugs the CPU at 100%, but all phones will get warm then. However, placing it near a small fan is enough to even compile large things on it without thermal throttling. It can also get quite warm when docked to an external screen and used like a computer, but that's probably not a surprise.

> Can you smoothly scroll text or webpages?

Yes.

> What are the pros and cons of the librem5 compared to other past or present open hardware mobile devices?

Cons: lacks hardware keyboard, it's big (took some time to get used to it switching from N900), early units had issues with GPS sensitivity, has no easily accessible UART access
Pros: several components are of visibly higher quality than PinePhone's, it's reasonably performant, has exceptionally easy recovery from bricking so you don't have to be afraid when hacking, it's actually usable when docked to an external screen

(not mentioning software stuff where things getting improved is just a matter of time, so such comments easily get out-of-date)

> How does it compare in cost?

Poorly, but a big chunk of that cost is directed towards software development (which then spreads to other devices as well), which is quite different from similar past or present efforts.