Do you use Purism, PinePhone, or Fairphone?

Yes. I have two PinePhones, a 2GB/16GB, and a 3GB/32GB. I do not regret my purchase at all.

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 two PinePhones and a Librem 5. I mostly use my 3GB/32GB postmarketOS CE PinePhone, running Arch Linux ARM, as I do blog [0] and try to maintain an app list [1] and testing new features or apps on Arch is just way easier, than on Debian (PureOS, Mobian) or on postmarketOS. The PinePhone is slow, but works mostly fine, so does the Librem 5, which is a tad faster spec wise, but generally feels more smooth.

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.

[0] https://linmob.net [1] https://linmobapps.frama.io

I'm pretty happy with my Fairphone. I was unfortunate in dropping it once which made the screen unusable, but since you can change the screen yourself it was pretty easy to do. And Fairphone was gracious enough to send me a new screen since it was within one year of me buying the phone.

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 run /e/os (linageos fork kind of) on my Fairphone 3. It works pretty good. At least I got rid of the feeling that google os watching me. I have no google software on it. I try to use as much FOSS software from F-Droid.

https://e.foundation/

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

No, but I want really want to get a Pine phone ,by all accounts it a bit janky to use but I can live with that if it helps push forward an independant mobile phone sector. I have not real faith in Google or the Chinese manufactured mobile phone manufacturers, I did hope Apple would be better after all they declared but clearly not now.

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.

According to https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/202005103 FairPhone does not ship to United States, and according to https://support.fairphone.com/hc/en-us/articles/360047326452 "When it comes to the United States and Canada, 4G(LTE) will not always work..."

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?

I have a PinePhone, but don't really use it. Too many usability bugs, like these:

* 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).

None of the above, although I'll dig through the other comments here for inspiration or advice. As a former Nokia N900 devotee I would dearly love to have a well-functioning Linux phone once again. At present, I root my Android phones for use with custom roms or LineageOS thanks to XDA, TWRP, Magisk, Busybox, Termux, etc.

I bought a PinePhone when they were on sale a few months ago for $150. I tinkered around with it for a few days, but it's just been collecting dust ever since. I kind of expected not to use it as a daily driver since I rely on App/Play Store apps, but it was unusable for a bunch of other reasons like:

- 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.

I have also been researching alternatives to apple. Ran across this review of Volla phone:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=neG2Z21epLI

Anyone tried it?

Using a PinePhone or a Librem 5 phone means using open hardware in addition to an open source operating system. That's not the only option: since Android is also open source, based on a modified Linux kernel, there are Android derivatives, CalyxOS[1] and GrapheneOS[2], that allow (at least partial) access to the Android app ecosystem, but remove Android's nosy bits, i.e. Google Play Services (location services, authentication, sync through Google’s cloud infrastructure, etc.) Both systems require proprietary, closed Google Pixel hardware, but it's unlikely that Google Pixel hardware alone implements mass-surveillance measures such as the Apple/NCMEC initiative. CalyxOS (includes open source MicroG vs. vanilla Google Play Services) seems somewhat more app compatibility -oriented, while GrapheneOS (includes Sandboxed Google Play Services vs. vanilla Google Play Services) seems more security-oriented. There might also be phone performance differences between the two, so it's worth researching further.

[1] https://calyxos.org [2] https://grapheneos.org

I used to have the Jolla phone, running Sailfish OS, which also supports most Android apps via their emulator. I was extremely happy, until the device itself suffered a hardware fault.

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.

Ordered a PinePhone after Apple announced they would be scanning my meme collection for counter-narrative content. Eagerly waiting.

I had a fairphone 2 for just under 5 years. It was good. A couple of quirks but overall very happy with it. Replaced the modular usb port component myself a couple of years in when the connection got a bit dodgy. Bluetooth was quite a bit worse compared to my new smartphone (Google pixel)

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.

I live in India and I've only used a device running Sailfish OS 3-5 years back.

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.

I've got a pinephone. It's still more of an interesting novelty to me rather than my main phone, because it's just Linux apps running on a small device. Battery life is an issue, I have an issue where if the phone puts itself into suspend it won't take calls and such.

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

I've been looking into both Sailfish and Graphene OS, trying to decide what to go for and selling my 12 Pro Max.

Pretty happy with my Pinephone. It's not 100% reliable, but I still use it as a daily driver and enjoy the freedom it gives. Waiting for the ordered Librem 5, which will be even faster.

Been running Fairphone 3 for a while now. It's a really decent phone with easy battery access and that's exactly why I bought it.

Would be so nice if this kind of design becomes the norm.

GrapheneOS.org for full feature parity today.

What app do you use on PinePhone for encrypted video calls with people who use iOS? Does PinePhone run Signal?

If anyone here has a used PinePhone gathering dust, I'm interested! hnaccount@altmails.com