Pine64, the team behind the Pinebook announced that it will start work on a cheap Linux-based smartphone.
Nicknamed the PinePhone, the phone will be built around one of his Pine64 creations, they will take the base of the Pine A64 single board computer to start the process of designing, manufacturing and building the PinePhone.
Surely some of you remember Pine64, because this is the manufacturer and retailer behind Pinebook , a low-cost Linux-based laptop.
The company plans to expand its markets into the world of low-cost Linux mobile devices, working on a smartphone, dubbed the PinePhone.
Like the cheap laptops Pine sells, the PinePhone is probably not a spec monster.
According to Pine's team, they plan to base the PinePhone around their Pine A64 computer model.
Designs have not been finalized, But Pine64 has planned to release some dev kits They will launch on November 1 with a projected launch date of the device of mid-2019.
The Linux smartphone market has started
After the abandonment of Ubuntu Phone, Purism Librem 5 looks like it will be the next Linux smartphone candidate for now.
Purism has already partnered with big names like GNOME and KDE, and we can expect the device to start shipping in April 2019.
But as mentioned at the beginning of the article it has appeared that another hardware vendor is looking to develop its own Linux smartphone and enter this markup.
KDE Neon creator Jonathan Riddell revealed this at Open Source Summit, Europe Edition.
Upon contacting Pine64 founder TL Lim, it was found that the devices are called PinePhone and PineTab.
Starting November 1, Pine64 will begin shipping the first PinePhone Dev Kits to select developers for free.
What does the Kit consist of?
The first PinePhone se will be delivered to selected developers for free on November 1.
This It is a combination kit of PINE A64 socket + SOPine module + 7 ″ touch screen + Camera + Wifi / BT + Playbox box + Lithium ion battery case + LTE cat 4 USB dongle.
These combo kits will allow developers to jump in and start PinePhone development.
The PINE A64 platform already has a major version of the Linux operating system thanks to the PINE64 Community and KDE neon support.
PinePhone Developer Board All-in-One with 1440 ″ Panel 720 × 5,45 will be released before FOSDEM and objectives for the demo at FOSDEM.
Obviously, it's going to be a bit more difficult to handle than a smartphone, but it should allow developers to start manipulating the platform to prepare applications for the PinePhone, as long as it ships.
This would hardly be the first attempt at building a Linux phone.
In fact, Android currently uses the Linux kernel, so there are billions of phones running Linux right now.
But phones that use the same kinds of technologies as desktop Linux are much rarer.
When will PinePhone be available?
The actual design of the phone has already started, but it will not be finalized until Q2019 XNUMX after receiving input from the developer board and will also keep an eye on the progress of open software.
Lim said they are using this three-step approach to avoid other Linux phone crash crashes. The PinePhone separates the SoC and LTE module due to main binary lines and GPL concern.
The price target should be in the $ 100 + range for the 2GB RAM and 16GB storage configuration.
According to the current schedule, the actual PinePhone design with Plasma Mobile technology will not be finalized until 2019 Q2.
As Pine64 is known for its inexpensive laptops, PinePhone won't break your backbone when it comes to pricing.
Thanks for the article
I would add that it seems strange to me that this is the final development board when for very little more, for phone prices, they have the board based on RK 3399 equivalent to a Snapdragon 650 MSM8956 that already falls short by the time it comes out and is more than double faster than the.
ROCKPro64 2GB Single Board Computer Price: $ 59.99 vs
ROCKPro64 4GB Single Board Computer Price: $ 79.99 vs
PINE A64 + 2GB BOARD Price: $ 29.00 and
7 ″ LCD TOUCH SCREEN PANEL Price: $ 35.99
And it also allows the use of M2 with a wall lamp
ROCKPro64 PCI-e X4 to M.2 / NGFF NVMe SSD Interface Card Price: $ 5.99
That if it was adapted to a phone - even if it was a bit fat - to put 2 M2s, it would make them almost eternal through screen updates, plate and M2ses
Although they may first want to work with the cheapest one.
Dead phones before leaving, because like the librem I imagine that it will not carry WhatsApp whether we like it or not, without WhatsApp it is money and time wasted. A Linux mobile that could use WhatsApp would be a real pass
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