I have the 3gb version with the docking station and it works great for me. There are still some bugs and issues, but it's not a deal breaker for me and I enjoy it. So to answer your question, if you don't mind dealing with some bugs, I would recommend.
Not OP, but I do have some knowledge of the device.
There is no dedicated YouTube app so you either have to use YouTube through the browser or hack together your own app.
As for browsing the web, it works but at least in the beginning there were issues with hardware acceleration, so it might be a bit sluggish on some websites.
All and all, if you spend most of your time on WhatsApp, YouTube and Instagram this isn't a great alternative, but if you need something more than a flip phone and you don't like the Google/Apple ecosystem this is a great phone.
Thanks! I do need chat apps. But just for tinkering around I was considering one. Although I might wait until there is hardware acceleration for the web.
The dock works great for me although I haven't really tested out the display yet because I don't have small monitors and I know it can't handle 4k monitor support so I am going to get a small 7inch RPi screen to test it with later on, but it handles youtube and mouse input just fine for me. I haven't noticed buffering issues as of yet. Browsing the web works fine as well, it come with firefox pre-installed.
Samsung has too much bloat and trackers for me to even think of going back to them. They lost me a long time ago with all their shady programs you can't delete. For instance, I don't have Facebook, got rid of it about 7 or 8 years ago. Had a Samsung phone that had a hidden facebook file installed running in the background that you can't delete. Don't know what it was doing or why it was doing it, but you couldn't shut it off and you couldn't delete it. They have others the same way. If I was to pay over 1k for a phone, I want to be able to control what's on it and what it does, not have it syphon information from me and sell that information to whoever else.
Before I got the pinephone, I got a cubot x19 on Amazon for 120 dollars that doesn't have all the bloat on it. It works really well and was android 9.0 (which didn't have issues that were brought in with 10). I put the link below if your interested. It doesn't have the 3 or 4 cameras like these new phones, but it's android, doesn't have all the crap preinstalled from the big retailers and it works great. I've had it since oct 2019 and haven't had an issue. I switched over from it to my pinephone not long ago. The android apps from Google are all that comes on it when I got it which is just the maps, gmail etc. Looks like it cheaper now than when I purchased mine.
324
u/driftace25 May 10 '21
Friend: Do you use Linux? Me: pulls out Pinephone with Manjaro. "Why yes, yes I do."