Chris Titus Tech, former Linux Pinephone enthusiast gave up the Pinephone:
Just like me. The Pinephone was just an illusion. Almost nothing runs on this phone. And if someone is looking for a privacy phone, hardly anyone talks of the Pinephone anymore. A terrible battery life is basically the end of this privacy phone.
iodéOS for instance on a Google Pixel 7 is the much better solution for a Privacy Phone:
And I did not find a Linux Laptop which could could convince me either:
Although I was looking for such a device for a long time. The biggest problem is battery life. And a reason for this might be that Linux was not developed for mobile applications.
Android is much better as far as battery life is concerned.
So why not to choose an Android device which has the Android Desktop Mode starting from Android version16 on?
Android Desktop Mode was at the beginning with Android 16, but was developed further in Android 17, and is now ready for laptop duty:
Android 17 was already released on June 16, 2026.
I was interested in LibreOffice on the Pinephone. And I invested a lot if time in installing it on the Pinephone:
https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=16614&page=6
But LibreOffice does not run well on the Pinephone. It is neither touchable nor is it adapted to the Pinephone screen:
With SoftMaker Office for Android we do not have these limitations:
- It is a Linux desktop app which was adapted for Android
- It is touchable
- The menus are perfect
- It has keyboard shortcuts
- and it has many more advantages
Softmaker for Android is basically a desktop application which runs on Android.
And with for instance an Anker 8 in 1 usb-c hub:
We have:
- an external SD card reader for reading an writing on it with an Android phone
- wired keyboard and mouse
- And HDMI out to connect a monitor
- cable Ethernet
- charger to charge the phone.
This is a similar solution to what we had with the Pinephone and it s docking station.
But if the Anker adapter shown in the first video above is compatible with Android phones first need to be confirmed and tested.
Anker says this adapter is not compatible with Linux. I tested a similar low-cost adapter I bought on Aliexpress for 20 USD with a Google Pixel 6 Pro which runs Android x. With this adapter from Aliexpress:
- keyboard
- mouse
- reading and writing to an external microSD card
- cable ethernet
- charging of the Android phone
worked very well without any issues.
- The HDMI output did not work with this 20 USD adapter from Aliexpress. The Google Pixel 6 Pro does not support USB-c to HDMI output. These old Pixel devices require a special display-link adapter for this purpose.
- But starting from the Google Pixel 8 and newer devices, USB-c to HDMI adapter should work, since it is implemented in these devices.
- And with this solution, I found also a better solution than my SCRCPY over cable ETHERNET projects, which never really worked satisfyingly:
https://petergamma.org/category/scrcpy-android-screen-mirroring-tool