Last Updated on January 6, 2025 by pg@petergamma.org
According to the little experience of Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org
the Pinephone is dead:
https://petergamma.org/category/pinephone
But isn t it frustrating to go back to Android phones, with custom roms, such as GrapheneOS or iodéOS? The Pinephone development seems to have stopped.
According to some advertisements, the Pinephone can do anything:
But Chris Titus Tech said about the Pinephone, he can t showcase anything with it:
And Peter Gamma from www.petergamma.org thinks, if the development for the Pinephone would continue for the next 10 years, it could compete with the Raspberry Pi, and compete as a smartphone, and not a SBC. But where is the community who wants do continue to develop the Pinephone further?
Peter Gamma from www.petegamma.org suggests to choose alternatively a device based on an Raspberry Pi. Currently his preferred choice is the Raspberry Pi zero 2 w. It runs Raspberry Pi OS, which has been developed over the last 10 years, and offers many options and many software which runs on it. Raspberry Pi OS runs on the zero 2 w, but DietPy is the better choice for this device, since it has only 512 MB RAM. And we hope there will be a new version of the zero 2 w with more RAM.
We currently have no major mobile device from Raspberry Pi. But the zero 2 w runs quiet long with a battery which is not too big. We suggest to use an Android phone as a Raspberry Pi screen for this setup, since the battery management of Android phones is very good, but not the one of Pi screens. And with Raspberry Pi connect without Internet we have a great software to remotely control a Raspberry Pi from an Android phone:
There is a solution to use an Android phone with a HDMI to usb-c adapter. But this solution is bulky. Raspberry Pi s offer many options. The zero 2 w can be used with Raspberry Pi hats, which for instance have SIM card modules on it. So to build Pinephone alternative based on this setup should not be too difficult. It has not the form factor of a smartphone, but it has the advantage that it is flexible and easy to develop further.