It has come to our attention that Marius' beloved grandfather has passed away. We are tremendously saddened by the news, and wish to extend our sincerest condolences to Marius and his entire family on behalf of our team and community.
May he rest in peace.
Hey all,
Will be getting a Pinephone mockup as well as other stuff announced at FOSDEM soon, and figured I could do a livestream showcasing it all and answering whatever I can live. I am thinking about the 28th at 22:00 GMT - this is a Sunday and will likely work best for most people.
Once the parcel clears customs, and I know for certain that the stuff will be delivered to me on time, I'll let you all know and provide the streaming link. Lets hope customs are kind and it all goes smoothly 
@domubpkm To be honest, we don't have an estimate. Here is what we're thinking: late this year and early next year we will release two batches of Pinephones geared toward enthusiasts happy to accept some potential sw shortcomings. Which OS, if any, these early phones will ship with is anyone's guess at the moment - its still early in the process. Then there will be a pause in production (kind-of-forced and not up to us; CNY - which realistically lasts over a month). This will give us an idea of the interest in the device and, as a bonus, also give some time for the software to mature as phones end-up in the users hands and people report issues (perhaps you guys even help devs out in the polishing process).
Once CNY storm blows over (late Feb/ early March 2020) we may decide to ship the phones cyclically changing the OS per batch (batch 1 UT; batch 2 LuneOs; batch 3 Maemo Leste, etc.,). We are even toying with the idea of having different color back-plates for each of the projects (UT = Orange/ KDE = Green etc.,) - perhaps even with a stamped-in logos, for when a batch ships with a particular OS. The default black back-plate will obviously always be there as an option. And I hope its clear to all that you can run whatever you desire on your PinePhone ... I'm sure someone will end up running XFCE just because its possible So what the Phones ship with doesn't really matter all that much.
Anyways, we'll probably play it by the ear and see how it goes this years and early the next and take it from there. BTW, all I have written may not happen or may change - just letting you know what we're currently planning and thinking 
@domubpkm There will be world-wide shipping. As for RAM - the SOC supports up-to 3GB of LPDDR3 memory. So yes, in theory there could be more, but lets see if the devs are content with the current specs. If we buy more RAM then we will have to spend less on other components, so if the experience is solid with 2GB of RAM then its better to spend the money on better plastic, LCD panels, battery, etc., I hope this makes sense.
@Josele13 as @UniSuperBox said, lets take one step at a time. We think that the best chance to have a significant adoption of the PinePhone (and exposure to Linux on a phone in general) is by making a solid device, that performs well, and is inexpensive. As it currently stands, even the majority of Linux enthusiasts do not consider Linux on a Phone as a replacement for their iOS or Android daily driver - this is the reality of things. There is, however, a good chance that the same people will be willing to pick up the PinePhone... even if its just out of curiosity. This in turn will lead to exposure to the Linux phone OS platform such as Ubuntu Touch and help it grow.
The more people interested, the bigger the market, the more reasonable it is to create a higher-end device One thing at a time.
Here is an update to the general hardware development progress. A revised and final version of the dev kit PCB (v2.0) is now being laid out. It fixes a few issues with the first iteration of the PCB (like e.g. some GPIO mis-allocations) as well as adds community requested features, like the multi-color LED discussed in this thread few weeks back. If all features on this PCB work as intended - and devs are happy with it - then it will become the design to be shrunk down into the PCB that will go into the phone.
We're in talks with multiple factories to deliver the phone. This is good news because, well, they need to compete for our business and this translates to quality (as in any business they need to outdo one-another). I won't say more than this at this point - not because its a secret, but rather because I don't want to raise anyone's hopes for improvements to X or Y which may not happen in the end. Once we've got a deal you'll be the first to know. Regardless, this is good news for everyone.
Lastly, since 'battery' has now become a conversation point I'll learn more about it in coming days and see what is already known - perhaps we can add this information to the known feature-list by the end of next week.
@ernest We're working with many different projects to deliver a number of Linux OS'. The Phone will sell with an OS - we currently aim to ship the PinePhone with Ubuntu Touch. But as with any FOSS hardware, you'll be able to install whatever you want from from the OS' that will be available and more (you can run a standard desktop Linux for instance ... for whatever reason).
Posted this month's news update https://www.pine64.org/2019/06/06/june-2019-news-pinephone-pinebook-pro-and-pinetab/
Just wanted to confirm that we will be going with the Samsung J7 battery - they are reliable, relatively inexpensive and easily attainable in most places we checked ... they will also be around for quite some time.
We trust everyone is happy with this decision.
An updated look at Lune OS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SyqbI24qu0
For those asking about performance, while this is a very early build and the Lima driver is still WIP, I think that we can all agree this looks quite promising
Hey all!
Two pictures of the PinePhone mock-up and a bit of an update on how things are coming along here.
Martjin has now posted a movie showing weston running on kernel 5.0.X
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eP3anEKz5ik
Here we have a few new developments showing the dev kit working
PMOS with accelerated KDE Plasma Mobile: https://twitter.com/kdecommunity/status/1126822683059027969
LuneOS (debugging some acceleration issues): https://photos.app.goo.gl/JB21zVDFBqwYiai56
Since it looks like everyone is doing livestreams .... here is a livestream of the pinephone livestreaming itself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhSIRC02gj8
@mymike Once we have a fully working phone prototype we'll start asking about what peripherals you guys would like to see. I think that its safe to assume that a case or two and a screen protector will be available for the phone.
@mymike Very good question. Sorry for the late response - I am traveling. I'll need to find out exactly what will be available (and edit this post) but I am pretty sure that most spare parts, including the LCD, won't be an issue. Batteries are a whole different can of worms sadly ... they are a real pain to ship.
Good that you brought this up - perhaps we should consider using some sort of easily attainable battery. Will get back to you (TL is traveling too ... so... could be a few days).
@klowe We'll see in the future. Right now we're pretty focused on getting the PinePhone right. What I will say is - it seems to me that a similar docking station is doable. Would be cool if it would be possibl to slide the phone inside the case (perhaps a modified Pinebook case?), effectively turning it into a laptop. Feel free to brainstorm the idea, but perhaps its best to do in a different thread ... or on the PINE64 forum.
@hummlbach Those are all good, difficult and complex questions indeed. These are also questions that are beyond my competence and insight, as I know little about the manufacturing process. I'll do my best to give you a broad overview of how the Pinephone is being born and hope that you will be able to deduce answers from what I write.
Large, complex and custom built components - such as for instance a LCD + TP panel - are very expensive. Custom plastic/metal molds are expensive too, as is extensive retooling of plastic/metal molds. To maintain the Pinephone price-point, some of the components - such as parts of the case and the LCD+TP - have been sourced from reliable vendors with two major factors in mind: quality of the components (+ their long-term supply safety) and the ability of the component in question to work "seamlessly" with mainline Linux. Then there are the many custom components - including the main PCB, the inside layout of the phone, parts of case, etc., - that are assigned to design studios and manufactured by factories the studios work with.
We do not have the means or ability to vet every vendor (the number of reasons why is beyond the scope of this post, but spans from cultural to practial) nor can we influence which factories design studios work with. Now, with that said, all component vendors meet all standard manufacturing practices that apply to 99% of quality electronics on the market. We cut no corners and work with reliable partners only.
@dpilux We've got a plan for how digital video out via USB C will work. I will not discuss it at this point - not because its top secret, but rather because I don't want to disappoint you in case this particular implementation doesn't come to fruition (haven't spoken to the party/ vendor that would make it possible yet).
One way or another, there will be digital video (HDMI) out via USB C.
@doniks We hear you. We are still planning on a keyboard, likely in the form of a phone case (sliding like e.g. the old Nokia N900) but one thing at a time. Lets get the phone right first. As for connections ... we'll see. Perhaps using the USB C port or BT. There won't be custom pogo pins - too much retooling for the case would be needed.
@WLBI Without even knowing the details that @advocatux asked for (I'll hear back from China office on Monday), I can tell you now that in terms of photo quality (hardware) the PinePhone will be no match for your Samsung S8. I expect picture quality to be closer to the iphone 5 -- some of this obviously depends on software, which is something I cannot comment on.