UT Dream hardware
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@makeixo thank you very much for your answer
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@stan
I'm not a developer, but I guess they would want a device as open as possible, and with good support/documentation. I get the impression that the team at the centre of UT development really value that from Pine. -
@3arn0wl would you mind please help me understand more what does it mean open as possible ? like what hardware when used makes it open
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@stan
Dalton explains things far better than I could in this recent podcast:
https://destinationlinux.org/episode-161/
(well worth a listen to).
Basically: not all of Android is Open, and Devs spend quite a lot of time working in the dark. With a "Linux phone" like the pinephone, things are apparently much easier. -
@3arn0wl i was hopping for a combination of hardware specs that when but together it equal a great phone that is easy to use for UT
processor x
ram 8
ufs
camera front and 2 back -
the reason i'm asking is pine phone apparently is the best option
but when i see the specs compared to other devices
using old memory technology
i keep asking my self how it would look on a state of art device -
@stan
Well! The dream UT device for me would be something capable (ram), that could handle convergence well (Not only in terms of being transformative from phone to desktop, but also capable of running X11 apps theron.It would be nice if it also had a decent amount of storage space too - plus an SD card slot.
And good battery life.
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@3arn0wl
So :
octo core 3GHz
SD card reader
16GB of RAM
128GB of eMMC
Battery that last a week
6" amoled screen @ 4K
Front camera 8Mpx
Back camera : dual 20Mpx
Fingerprint reader
Dual USB-C OTG
Mini jack audio port
Light sensor, accelerometer, magnetometer, GPS/Glonass/Galileo, Wifi all bands, up to 5G, Physical keyboardThat would be great, but the PinePhone is enough as is.
I guess some insta-lovers would love a 20Mpx front camera and who has enough RAM ???But I agree it would be nice to have some competition to the PinePhone so we can choose the specs like we build a desktop computer, balancing price and higher specs...
For me a better camera sensor and slightly more space would be great, but the PinePhone is enough as is -
Agree with AppLee, one thing I really miss on the Pinephone is wireless charging. I liked it very much on the Nexus 5.
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@AppLee
It used to be said that the iMX chips were the most open/well-documented... Do they have anything this capable? Or is there a better alternative? -
@3arn0wl iMX make some good products but there are a lot of problems too.
I'm working with iMX right now and we have many issues with PCIe server as well as real time issues...
But sure you can find many hardware to fit our geek needs, but to create a phone is more than just specs and software.
The work done by Pine64 is great and integrating all those parts is not an easy task cf. the problems encountered by Librem.While picking a component off the shelf seems a good way to go it can be problematic while integrating the hardware and sometimes a total waste when trying to port the software.
[Edit] About NXP iMX6 we also had trouble with the different RAMs used and eMMCs, the components are seen as 100% compatible but really are not there are slight differences which made on batch OK while a newer purchase didn't work with our product...
I'm not an expert, but it appears that I'm working with NXP's product for few months now and I see the limitations
I also see the pros of using an integrated board so I appreciate even more the work done for the Librem5 and the PinePhone. -
Thanks for that, @AppLee -
@AppLee hello
i'm asking to learn ,
isn't the eMMC much slower than UFS ? and using faster storage result in better performance ? -
Hi @stan
You're probably right, but in my project the OS is fully loaded in RAM so no performance issue.I don't know about UT but I guess it's something similar you load the system in RAM and try to limit disk access.
UFS was designed for cameras so it need to write a 40Mpx picture fast enough and it should also be able to write video stream...Another aspect is the price tag. Which I don't know about...
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So maybe let's flip the question around. How much would we be willing to pay for a dream UT device?
Taking into consideration that high-end specs will bring with them high-end prices, but will not automagically mean that the software running on it will run smoothly, cf all the work needed to get the software optimized for PinePhone and Librem 5.
Also, a higher price point would mean a much bigger investment upfront for the company producing the hardware, if they were to partner with the community to produce the software like Pine64 did. Multiple devkits and prototypes were sent to developers.
If the company decided not to be so generous, then they would be forced to hire devs to work on the software for them, because the price point would be a barrier for many in the community to get involved early on.
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@arubislander
Well... What I'm really desperate to do is retire my 2007 laptop before it gives up the ghost entirely!
So yes... A truly converging phone would be my laptop replacement, and yes, I would be prepared to pay good laptop prices for the use of that. -
@arubislander I agree with you on that. My Xx shows how smooth an OS can run on nearly 4yrs old hardware. Therefore, pine64 may be is not that for away from a consumer model with fits the need bigger user group.
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The Reason i asked my question was to learn more about what makes the hardware more compatible, and what we need from the manufactures.
like a clear specs if handed to manufacturer can build and hand it to us. so we can can easily use UT on it -
@stan The answer to that can be pretty simple, we need FOSS drivers for their parts.
When you plug a new piece of hardware to your computer you need drivers to access it (Printer, mouse, keyboard, scanner, etc.).
FOSS drivers allow us to talk to the hardware while closed source drivers makes it really difficult. -
@AppLee so we need high spec hardware with foss drivers.
it's not easy i guess other wise it would have been done many times
