I've seen a lot of people referencing these devices so figured I would ask about firsthand experience.
I have a handful of SD cards with various operating systems on, and Full Disk Encrypted eMMC installs.
The blog on http://pine64.org has lots of information about it.
There are issues. Modem drops out sometimes, there aren't enough programs (not apps, these are full desktop Linux programs compiled for aarch64) that work flawlessly on a small screen, updates break the system sometimes.
Most "reviews" expect a polished OS that "just works" when this device isn't ready for daily use unless you're a tinkerer who can spend time bug reporting, searching for answers, reflashing when (not if) things go wrong.
This device should be the future of mobile phones, but it isn't yet.
Get in now. Buy one, help code, help the Wiki, help with ideas.
I have tried to. All I got was a polite e-mail telling me they're unable to ship to my country (Montenegro).
After I searched a bit, found Volla which I liked a lot, unfortunately they only ship within EU.
Hardware video is the only missing feature I might be interested in. I wonder do they have support for that in the Linux OS kernel, through V4L2? https://github.com/Const-me/Vrmac/tree/master/VrmacVideo
If postmarketOS says it's supported, that usually means upstream support - so other distros theoretically can run on the device, too.
Sadly, on both devices, the battery life is not what it should be. On the PinePhone, active use trashes the battery (no surprise if you have knowledge of ARM SoCs), but it lasts pretty long if you don't use it too much. With the Librem 5, active use is better, but as long as Purism don't implement a standby mode, 8-11 hours is all you get until you need to find an electrical outlet.
P.S.: I also have the Gigaset hardware that the Volla Phone is derived from, and run Ubuntu Touch on it. It's fine, but it does not run a mainline kernel, so it's a different kind of Linux phone and does not really compare 1:1 to Librem 5 and PinePhone.
This hardware runs a MediaTek Helio P23, and I don't know of anyone trying to bring mainline support to this or indeed to most MediaTek SoC's. Even the pmOS folks have very limited information on those.
As I've been switching platforms, there's a lot of scary stuff and lots of unknowns. But once I started digging into what apps I actually use, it's a pretty small list. Some things are easy - like Brave. Other things are tough to replace though (i.e. Messages, Facetime with my family). But getting specific made it less daunting.
Actually, Librem 5 is significantly faster: https://forums.puri.sm/t/comparing-specs-of-upcoming-linux-p... (see "Reasons to buy").
I'm not a heavy user of the phone day to day so battery lasts easily more than one day.
It's not as snappy as an iPhone. But repairablility makes up for it.
I use Aurora Store for those apps that are closed source and I need. (E.g. the swedish app Bank ID which handles auth and sign for logging into banks and authorities).
Hackerwise I would like to try out PinePhone but as I understand it, it is not really for daily use yet. But I like the kill switches and that it doesn't rely at all on android code base
But with PinePhone and running e.g. postmarketos, then it's more pure linux and not have to relate to android and google's whims.
But I must say I AM happy with /e/os as a free degoogled android os. But it will still never be as good (or better) than "the real thing". At least that is my main concern
before i had /e/ on a onenote 5t.
the fairphone is a bit weaker than the onenote, and in particular wechat (which i need to use here) gets hit by the OOM killer frequently. (at least that is what i think is causing it to die)
/e/ is just great however. the most polished experience i ever had with an alternative phone OS. (having used sailfish, firefox OS, tizen, lineage...)
i think the OS is actually the more important selection criteria when it comes to privacy.
the fairphone is a nice device, and for how it is built, i think it is worth the price, but if you can't afford it then any other cheaper device with /e/ on it is a decent alternative that gives you just as much privacy.
On PC's, desktop and laptop, and mobile devices we need to make a push to Linux or other open source systems if we want to preseve and semblence of privacy and commercial freedom.
The phone and parts can likely still be obtained over eBay or similar.
Has anybody here tried to use Fairphone in the US, and if so, what was your experience, and with which carrier?
* the cameras working only in the Megapixels app, * no sound notification about incoming SMS, * poor microphone quality in the calls (to the point that the person on the remote end complains), * the blue LED flashes all the same for all missed notifications, so I don't know if it is an email or a missed call, * there is no way to dismiss the uninteresting notification (e.g. without reading the email).
- Short battery life, was pretty much drained after maybe 4 hours of light use
- The phone would get insanely hot during use, or while plugged into the charger
- Display bugs, every time the phone rotated from portrait to landscape there were black bars or other artifacts
- Poor performance in general, typing too fast caused latency issues and opening apps really made the phone chug
Overall, I think Linux on mobile just needs some more time in the oven along with access to the hardware market that Android/iOS has been able to use for a while. I could probably deal with not having access to the Google/Apple app ecosystem if the phone itself were a smooth user experience, but that's just not the reality of it yet.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=neG2Z21epLI
Anyone tried it?
I did not make the leap to the only other device now supported by Sailfish (which I think is the old Xperia model) because my work had ready provided me with a backup phone, so now I'm back on Android.
I could have made it last a bit longer by replacing the battery, but I was about to start a new job and knew I needed a reliable phone, so I wasn't sure it was worth investing keeping the fairphone going.
The OS is (was?) amazing. Lightweight, no BS tracking things AFAIK. Unfortunately, the Indian device vendor's deal didn't last enough and with the declining battery efficiency, I had to switch to an Asus phone running Android 9.
If I could get my hands on a low-cost Sailfish OS device running Indian bands, I will happily jump on-board again.
But I paid a couple of hundred bucks for something I knew was going to be in a beta state, so I'm not choked up over my purchase
Would be so nice if this kind of design becomes the norm.