However, I read someone today rightly pointing out that:
- the screen (and the notification led) would be hidden when the keyboard is closed, which won't help noticing new notifications.
- it might not be always convenient to use the phone on the go, holding the phone with one hand
- it would render making calls quite awkward
So now, I'm not sure anymore. It's probably fine to use as a PDA, not quite as a phone, and that's what I use the Pinephone for.
I think what I really need is a better battery and a case. A physical keyboard would be really good too, but not if it makes using the Pinephone as a phone harder than it is already. I gess I should buy a spare battery (since the Pinephone has a removable battery!) or a power tank, and a case.
Do you know if phones in general, and the Pinephone in particular, recognize that they are on battery and enable their energy-saving features while connected to a power tank? I would not expect them too, and this is a main reason I avoid them. That, and the fact that it seems incredibly inefficient that they charge their own batteries from the power tank, when we know that a battery gives back at best 50% of the power used to charge them.
At least I guess I could ask the Pinephone not to charge itself and to enable its power saving features by running a script, which would probably be good enough. I'd expect that to be hard to do on Android by the way.