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PinePhone Quick Specs : This is a Linux smartphone released in July 2020. It features a 5.99-inch display, Allwinner A64 chipset, 2 MP selfie camera, 5 MP dual rear camera, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal memory, and a 3000 mAh battery.

Phone Status : The PinePhone is a Linux smartphone that is capable of booting up into any one of four available Linux mobile operating systems. For user privacy and security, it also has six (6) hardware kill switches to disable/enable the following features at will: modem, Wi-Fi/Bluetooth, microphone, headphone, front camera, and rear camera. Here are the detailed PinePhone specifications, release date and price.

Specs

Mobile Wireless Network and Software

  • 2G mobile network bands : GSM, GPRS, EDGE 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz.
  • 3G mobile network bands : UMTS, WCDMA, HSDPA 800 / 850 / 900 / 1700(AWS) / 1900 / 2100 MHz
  • 4G mobile network bands : LTE B1(2100) / B2(1900) / B3(1800) / B4(1700/2100) / B5(850) / B7(2600) / B8(900) / B12(700) / B13(700) / B18(800) / B19 / B20(800) / B25(1900) / B26(850) / B28(700) / B38(2600) / B39(1900) / B40(2300) / B41(2500)
  • 5G mobile network bands : No.
  • SIM Type : Micro SIM
  • Software / Operating System : Mainline Linux Mobile. PinePhone will automatically boot to any ARM distro from microSD if a bootable card is inserted. Some Linux kernels are available for phones, including: postmarketOS, Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish OS, Maemo Leste, and LuneOS.

Design, Form Factor, Appearance

  • Dimensions : 160.5 x 76.6 x 9.2 mm
  • Weight : 180-200g
  • Display : 5.99 inches, 1440 x 720 pixels, 18:9 aspect ratio, IPS LCD screen, hardened glass
  • Colours : Black.
  • Physical Build : Plastic, matte black finished plastic case.
PonePhone specifications concept drawing - 1

PinePhone specifications and features

Internal Hardware Specs

  • Processor Type : 64-bit, 1.15 GHz Quad-core, Cortex-A53
  • Processor Name : Allwinner A64
  • Graphics Processor : ARM Mali 400 MP2‎
  • RAM : 2 GB
  • Internal Storage : 16 GB
  • External Storage : microSD, up to 2TB (dedicated slot)

Photography, Video Recording

  • Rear Camera : 5 MP camera, f2.2 Aperture, LED flash, 720p@30fps video recording
  • Front-facing Camera : 2 MP, f2.0 Aperture, Face Recognition, 720p@30fps video capture.
PinePhone rear camera - 2

Audio, Video Playback

  • Music Support : PCM, AAC / AAC + / eAAC + / MP3 / AMR – NB / WB / APE
  • Audio : 3.5 mm audio jack
  • Loudspeaker : Mono speaker
  • Video Support : H.264/MP4/MPEG4 player
  • FM Radio :

Phone Sensors

  • Digital Compass : Yes
  • Accelerometer : Yes.
  • Proximity Sensor : Yes.
  • Ambient Light Sensor : Yes.
  • Barometer : No.
  • Pedometer : No.
  • Heart Rate Monitor : No.
  • Gyroscope (G-Sensor) : Yes.
  • Fingerprint Scanner : No.
  • Face Unlock : No.
  • Iris Scanner : No.
  • Motion Sensing / Gesture Control : No.
  • Voice Control : No.
  • Intelligent Digital Assistant : No.
  • Infra-red Sensor : No.

Connectivity Options

  • Bluetooth : v4.0, A2DP
  • WiFi : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, hotspot
  • GPS : Yes, A-GPS, GLONASS, BDS, BeiDou, Galileo, QZSS
  • USB : microUSB v2.0; USB-OTG
  • NFC : No.

Miscellaneous Specs

  • Battery Type and Capacity : Lithium-Ion 3000 mAh
  • Battery Charging : 15W Fast Charging + USB Power Delivery
  • Wireless Charging : No.
  • Reverse Charging : No.
  • Model Number : N/A

PinePhone Price and Release Date

  • Announced : February 2019
  • Release Date : July 2020
  • Country Availability : Global Online.
  • Price : $149.99 for the 2GB RAM / 16GB ROM variant, and $199.99 for the 3GB RAM / 32GB ROM variant. Prices include shipping.

This Linux smartphone is available in the US and works on all major telecom wireless carriers/networks in the country.

PinePhone all sides - 3

Buyer’s Guide Verdict

Not available.

Our Buyer’s Guide Verdict is recommendation that we make based on our evaluation of the specifications of the device. It is a general guide designed to help you understand how much value a smartphone offers for its price. It is not a stamp of quality assessment or an endorsement of the device or of the manufacturers. Be sure to ask questions and use your judgement when buying any device, as MobilityArena may not be held responsible for your buying decisions .

PinePhone Review Rating

We are yet to review the PinePhone and so do not have a review rating for it yet. This section will be updated with our review rating and a link to the review page, as soon as we have a review ready.

Author:InfoDesk

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For all of the technological advancements of smartphones, we are still yet to see a consumer phone that gives users the ability to boot into the operating system of their choice – similar to how PCs work. The PinePhone is the latest in a short line of efforts to deliver such a phone to us.

The PinePhone , which is still development, is capable of running mainline Linux and booting up into any one of the available multiple Linux mobile operating systems.

PonePhone concept drawing - 4

Prevous efforts to produce consumer smartphones running Linux has failed. Phones running Ubuntu OS Mobile were available in the market for a few years and then died off, though Ubuntu Touch lives on as its successor. Sailfish OS phones are still available in select regions of the world – especially Russia, where it has been adopted as the official opearting system.

There are a few others in the works, including Librem 5 , and Eelo (or /e/) , both of which have phones shipping already.

Usually, Linux OS phones are manufactured with one key selling point – liberty from spying and snooping by big corporation and by government. A second, less mainstream proposition is the ability to run your preferred Linux OS.

Linux never gained mainstream acceptance on PC and continues that struggle on mobile. PinePhone is hoping to change that.

PinePhone all sides - 5

PinePhone Hardware Killswitches

The phone has 6 hardware killswitches, so the user can completely disable any of the following features:

  1. Modem: On enables 2G/3G/4G communication and GNSS hardware, off disables.
  2. WiFi/BT: On enables Wi-Fi and Bluetooth communication hardware, off disables.
  3. Microphone: On enables audio input from on-board microphones (not 3.5mm jack), off disables.
  4. Rear camera: On enables the rear camera, off disables.
  5. Front camera: On enables the front camera, off disables.
  6. Headphone: On enables audio input and output via the 3.5mm audio jack, off switches the jack to hardware UART mode.

PinePhone Quick Specs

  • Display: 5.95″ 18:9 apect ratio, IPS LCD display.
  • Processor: Allwinner A64
  • GPU: ARM Mali 400 MP2
  • RAM: 2GB
  • Internal Storage: 16GB
  • Expandable Storage: micro-SD card up to 1TB
  • Battery: 3000mAh battery with 15W quick charging
PinePhone rear camera - 6

Here is a demontration video showing four different Linux OSes – Ubuntu Touch, PostMarketOS, KDE Neon, and LuneOS – running on the PinePhone:

PinePhone Release Date

This Linux phone is expected in the market by March 2020. However, a “braveheart” edition for geeks and techies who want to tweak and tinker with hardware, is currently available for purchase from the PINE64 store. There is no OS preinstalled on this edition though. If you are looking for a usable smartphone. do not touch the “braveheart” edition. Wait till March.

For more details, check out the full PinePhone specifications .

References

  • Source 1
  • Source 2
Author:Mister Mobility

Digital Skills and Communication Coach | Mobile Phone Connoisseur since 2001 | Tech Blogging since 2004