Comment by Sodman | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Sodman | Hacker News Reader

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I still consider my old Nokia E70[0] my favorite phone of all time, so I am definitely in the target demographic for this, as I'm 100% sold on the usefulness of a physical keyboard on a phone... However the CPU just doesn't match the "pro" branding, or the price range. I'd personally rather throw an extra $200-300 on top to get a flagship CPU and then it would be close to a perfect phone for me! As it currently is, the Snapdragon 662 shipped in the pro-1x gets blown away by my current Pixel 5's Snapdragon 765G - and Pixel phones recently have been generally characterized as having "above-average hardware specs but not enough to justify flagship prices".

Separately, I am also curious for a phone like this that could run Android, LineageOS, and Ubuntu Touch - are there "dual boot" options in the mobile space? With 256GB storage it seems like it should be possible. I'd like to have old reliable Android as a daily driver, but maybe periodically drop into a less stable but more flexible environment like ubuntu.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70

Seems like we're looking for similar things. I am currently waiting for delivery of my Astro Slide [0]

[0]: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... which has android / linux dual boot. Not sure if performance are what you are looking for.

I had a Cosmo Communicator and sold it in short order when I realized that: - Pinephone has better Linux support and always will. Planet Computers' phones all have mediatek chips, which will be stuck on ancient kernels with dogshit driver support for things like the camera. - It will be impossible to find parts, so I would have to gingerly baby the thing and worry about the hassle productivity loss if my phone broke. - The thing is huge. Just about the size of a pinephone if not larger. The keyboard addon to the pinephone looks like it will turn into something identical, albeit with a slower processor and ancient GPU but at least parts are found plenty if something breaks. It's something to think about.

I love the pinephone (I own one) but the specs are pretty weak. Is the situation with support forthe SOCs used in the Planet devices as dire as you suggest? I was considering them but being stuck on an archaic kennel is a deal breaker.

I'm more than ready to pay for a premium device with the same level of hardware support the Pinephone has but I guess I'll need to keep waiting.

This looks much more like what I'm looking for alright! Doing some background research it looks like they had some issues with their chipset supplier and had to downgrade the chip a little, but performance benchmarks put it ~around the same place as my Pixel 5's current CPU, which I'd say is much more acceptable (if not totally cutting edge flagship-tier) for a phone in 2021!

At $576 (Edit: now $621, looks like the early bird just sold out!) this also seems like a much better deal than the pro-1x at $800! I'm always worried though when the "pledge store" for these things says things like "Ships March 2021!" but their most recent update says they've just finalized their PCB and are just starting testing...

Yeah, there was some weirdness on that - they tried to change it and things went wrong.

If you have a look at the updates, specifically the Week 42 Update, they have a revised timeline:

Final Astro - PCB March 2021

Production Master - March 2021

Final Testing and Debugging - May 2021

Device Certifications - May 2021

Mass Production Start – June 2021

First shipping - June 2021

They're more or less on track, it seems...

Not sure if that's still true, but a few months ago when I ordered mine early bird had always 0~3 in stock and they added some back the day after it sold out, every time. Check again tomorrow if you're interested but only at a discount.

Wow you're entirely correct, I just checked again 3 days later and there's now magically 3 in stock again :) Thanks for the tip!

August is likely target date for astro.

Are you sure that thing is legit? As a designer, I’m looking over the pics and my gut feel is that something is off. Look at the picture of the girl taking the selfie, where’s the hinges like the guy to the left, or the sandwhich line which isn’t visible?

Anyone else have comments on the included photos?

I mean I do hope it is legit.

I do hope too, and it seems so to me. At least the product seems real, they're sending updates on the board etc. they're building. And their previous products are real ones, with users right here on this thread.

Also, the overall design changed a bit since those pictures were made. They had some issue with the processor not being available anymore iirc, and they made some changes. Changes including a significantly smaller battery, and we all complained about it so they went back to the original battery _but_ with a thicker phone.

I still have some doubts. I have a blackberry keyone that I loved but that is half broken since a bike accident so I have to replace it. And a linux phone (with multi boot to android in case linux isn't up to the task for a phone, which I doubt a little) seemed like a good replacement. But portrait keyboard, and blackberry's keyboard quality might be a lot better than this solution.. I wish they didn't stop making blackberry (on android) phones after keytwo =/

I have a Gemini that can triple boot ex. between Android, Debian, and Sailfish, so it's been done, but that was designed in by the manufacturer. There used to be some Android multiboot hack (multirom or something?), but I don't know details or if it's still around.

The Nokia E72 was my favourite phone form-factor. I really wanted to try Android but was so resistive to keyboardless-phones that I bought a HTC ChaCha, regretted it immediately, and finally relented. I still miss a keyboard.

There's "dual boot" in mobile space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY :)

I still think the best keyboard smartphone were my BlackBerries, and I still miss typing on a HW keyboards.

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