2 mo. ago • 93%

PinePhone vs PinePhone Pro: Which should I buy?

I'm wondering which is more free (as in freedom) so I can make the right choice. I've also heard people say the regular PinePhone is better than the Pro version. I am planning on using it as a daily driver. I understand it's not perfect yet, but I'm dedicated to make it work, I don't do much with my phone. I also just want to help support Linux-based phones and would like to see it become more popular in the future! I'm planning on dropping my Google Pixel w/ GrapheneOS for this.

18 comments

I have a regular PinePhone.. ask me how much I use it? Zilch. I wish I had time to tinker with it but even to the point of using it on wifi with any of the available OS' .. it wasn't a positive experience. Your Pixel with Graphene OS may work way better than this. Some people may downvote me on this one but the PinePhone is still not functional for daily use.

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- 💯
  
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- Same.
  
  I used the pine book pro for a bit, it was completely viable as a wifi terminal.
  
  But the pinephone is still just more of a cute toy
  
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Linux phones aren't ready yet as a daily driver and have a poor security. I think a Pixel phone with GrapheneOS is a better choice.

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- I honestly just love the killswitches. As for poor security, what do you mean by that? Would it not be safe for just texting / calling? I'm planning on using this phone for work.
  
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  Killswitches give a false sense of security because it is still possible to extract some form of audio through other sensors. Another problem is that the firmware of the Wi-Fi/4G modem does not receive periodic update to prevent attacks. Pinephone won't be of any use, I've been in the same situation as you and preferred to opt for the Pixel with GrapheneOS.
  
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I loved all by pinephones... the og is much more reliable but the pro is significantly faster and more 'usable' in terms of 'let me open something and i expect it to open like fairly soon.' I owned and daily'd both at some point so ama?

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- I work in IT and need to be reliable via phone calls / texting, what's your experience? I use JMP.chat, so I would need to use some XMPP app that supports that. Texting / calling is all I do on my phone, I do everything else on my laptop. Also, how is the camera quality on the Pro? Is it good enough to send to a clear picture to my boss of something he wants to see? I ordered the PineTime watch too to go along with everything.
  
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  texts are reliable. calls can be wonky but i always used gvoice (i know satan) to manage my calls reliably. camera... i'm going to be biased ... i love the aesthetic but i would be remiss to ignore they arent the standard experience. for work no... for art yes! i love my pinetime and it worked great with my pinephone and android phone.
  
  edit - there are xmmp and voip clients. i prefer maftrix which works great
  
  fuck double edit- i need to mention i was on community modem firmware and changed my aspd. which was some work to get to work but had volte working reliably
  
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As an owner of both a pinephone and a pinebook pro I would say don't with the phone unless you're really prepared to completely upturn everything you do with a phone. It's really not at a place where it's a simple consumer-grade device to be used in place of your current smartphone. My pine now gets used as a part of my home automation setup and it works well for that. The pinebook, however, is absolutely magnificent and I take it with me anytime I need a device I'm not so worried about losing and that crucially CAN CHARGE OFF A PORTABLE BATTERY OMG!

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honestly unless you are planning to develop for them and can improve the jankiness, neither. base pinephone is too weak for literally anything, even running that super minimal os. pro I only had for a few days before selling due to having no time for it but it was only powerful enough for me to think specs wise that's what the original should have been for the year it came out. I kept the basic one because I already did the open source modem firmware or whatever it was but its probably way out of date now.

If this is way out of date and things have improved much, someone tell me please.

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