Welcome to 2020: Pine64 has announced that it is finally shipping its first opensource smartphone. The PinePhone is a modern device designed to run the main Linux distributions.
The PinePhone doesn’t come with the OS pre-installed but with a factory test image for hardware test and verification. Like the amazing Linux tradition, users are expected to flash the operating system to the device and the choice is interesting.
As things stand, we’re now ready and I am happy to confirm that PinePhones will begin shipping in two days time – on January 17th 2020. The dispatch process will take a couple of days, however, so your unit may ship anytime between the 17th and 25th. At any rate, you’ll have your PinePhone soon.
PinePhones start shipping | Pine64.org
The PinePhone is powered by an Allwinner A64 SoC, which features four Cortex A53 CPUs at 1.2GHz, this is the same chip used on the PINE A64 single-board computer, a Raspberry Pi competitor. The device has 2GB of RAM, a Mali-400 GPU, 16GB of storage, and a 2750mAh battery. The rear camera is 5MP, the front camera is 2MP, the display is a 1440×720 IPS LCD, and the battery is removable.
The device features a headphone jack, a USB-C port, and a MicroSD slot, which you can use to boot the operating system from. Inside the box, you’ll find the PinePhone, a high-quality USB-C charging cable and an introductory leaflet in letter form.
PinePhones is scheduled for March 2020, and this is still what we’re aiming for. If production commences in March then I’d expect the next production-run on PinePhones to reach their new owners in late April. But if no Linux phone OS reaches sufficient maturity by that point in time we may decide to hold back a month or two before starting the manufacturing process. After all, we want it to be the best Linux on mobile experience possible, so as not to discourage people from the idea of Linux as a viable alternative to Android and iOS.
PinePhones start shipping | Pine64.org
The purpose of the PinePhone isn’t only to deliver a functioning Linux phone to end-users, but also to actively create a market for such a device, as well as to support existing and well established Linux on smartphone projects. The idea is great and the production is on a good way, we think that the PinePhone will have a bright future and we are excited to test it by real.
And you? What are you waiting for?
References:
- PinePhone | An Open Source SmartPhone Supported by All Major Linux Phone Projects – https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/
- PinePhones Start Shipping – All You Need To Know – https://www.pine64.org/2020/01/15/pinephones-start-shipping-all-you-want-to-know/
- PINEPHONE – “BraveHeart” Limited Edition Linux SmartPhone for early adopters | $149 – https://store.pine64.org/?product=pinephone-braveheart-limited-edition-linux-smartphone-for-early-adaptor