gemini://kwiecien.us/gemlog/202204170145.gmi

After waiting for months I finally got my hands on the Pine Phone Pro. Was it worth the money? Obviously, it depends on what you expect out of this device. Instead of thinking of it like a phone, it's better to think of it like a Linux computer that just happens to be in a mobile form factor. In other words, it fits in your pocket and has touchscreen input. It also just so happens to do phone calls, SMS, and connect to mobile data.

The phone is big and possibly overpowered. The battery doesn't last too long. The Pro is also not really fit for use out of the box. It ships with some OS pre-installed, but by the time you get it it's already outdated. And really, it doesn't work.

I went into this device with the patience of someone who understands that this is a hobby project. Even being mentally prepared for it, it's frustrating to have a device that doesn't work out of the box. It sat unused on my desk for a week before I started learning what I'm supposed to do with it.

Today was my first time using the phone for real outside the home. I drove to another city to meet an old friend of mine, and had to rely on it for texting. I'm pleased to say that it passed the test, and that I'm very satisfied with it now.

First install tow-boot on it. This is accomplished by loading tow-boot onto a micro SD card and booting the Pine Phone Pro while holding down the internal RE button (behind the backplate) so the internal flash is skipped for booting and the SD card is selected. You just then hit an install button, and install it to the phone's SPI. tow-boot makes the phone 1000x more functional and usable.

Next boot the phone into umass mode by connecting it to your computer and holding the volume up button as it powers on. The LED will eventually turn blue to signal that the device is now a USB drive. On Linux it will register as something like /dev/sdx (sdf on my system) and that is the internal emmc.

Finally, image the phone with Mobian using bmaptool. The files required end in .gz and .bmap, and you do something like `sudo bmaptool copy image.img.gz /dev/sdx`

On my phone the recent weekly builds of Mobian failed to boot. I don't know why, but the last image from May booted. You should connect it to Wi-Fi after booting and update the system in the Software app.

Now you have the Pine Phone Pro in its best, most usable state. (As far as I know.) I installed PostmarketOS on it before getting Mobian working, and as of today Mobian is better by a long shot.

At present it seems like you can't do much with the phone, but it's running Linux, so you can probably find lots of things to do with it. If you need a phone, it succeeds in calling and texting. I even tested it with my wired analog headset and it worked great, as it normally does on Linux. (Plug and play.)

The phone's battery requires some care to prolong its life. The way it goes with the Pine Phone Pro running Mobian is that the system goes into suspend mode after the screen is off for 5 minutes. Suspend suspends everything (of course) and so your battery is safe. The modem stands by on the mobile network (no data) and will wake the phone for an incoming call or text message.

The end result is that yes, you can keep it in your pocket and go out, and do some necessary calls and texts and the battery won't die on you if you leave it alone most of the time.

Is it worth $400? If you just want a phone, no. If you want a Linux computer in your pocket, it's a good device and it's only going to get better as the software improves. The system is just in its very early stage in life, so the software is absolutely beta quality. The fact that it works, however, is impressive.

I also got the Pine Phone keyboard accessory. I don't recommend it unless you really have some specific reason for needing to have it, or if you just want to play around with it like I did. It's too small and a bit insensitive to type on (keys must be firmly pressed), and it makes the phone enormous like a small notebook computer except it's too small. It has a battery in it that will extend your battery life (probably significantly), so that's one utility, but it also causes the phone to power on right after you shut it down because it automatically turns on when connected to a power source. It seems like this can be prevented by holding down the keyboard's power button while turning off the phone, but I'm only assuming that's how it works since I did it once and it appeared to do the trick.

Am I happy with it? So far, yes. I will love it more when I learn how to get all the software running on it that I want but haven't yet figured out how to. That includes Gemini software, but one step at a time! As I stated before, this device is a good candidate to run Lagrange. I have heard that with Waydroid, it can also run Android apps, as I badly need a good XMPP client. Chatty, the default messaging app, supports XMPP but so poorly I consider it unusable for that. Conversations would be better, or a native Linux client such as Dino or even Profanity would suffice.

One thing I still use my Android phone for is offline maps and navigation. Mobian ships with a map application. It's too slow on the Pine Phone Pro to be usable, but on the other hand if you were lost somewhere and that's all you had, at least having access to any map of your area is vital. So, technically, that ticks another box on the list of things you need your phone to do. I'm also old enough to know that you can do these things without the aid of smartphones, but whatever... it's 2022. :)

Mobian's power monitor and task manager impressed me, but there's little else to praise at the moment. The weather app works well too, I suppose. I have not tried the e-mail client, but it seems good, and it's got two web browsers (Firefox and what looks like Gnome Web / Epiphany).

As it stands, I would not do much with this phone until I find more applications, but I'm happy to spend less time on my phone and more time living my life. The basic functions (calls, texts, e-mails) enable you to survive, and perhaps you don't really need more than that.

Shockingly, it doesn't appear to have a camera app. (!!!) I guess that will become available in future updates, or I just don't know what I'm doing. Oh, but the flashlight works. B)