I am alaraajavamma and let’s start with this. I do not work for or receive any compensation from Furilabs. I am just a satisfied customer and Linux phone enthusiast who desperately wants to see linux mobile succeed. This is the fifth chapter in my Linux mobile journey.

After the philosophical victory, but technical struggles, of the Librem 5, the landscape of Linux mobile was primed for a new approach. What the movement needed next wasn’t just ideology; it needed accessibility and community synergy.

Enter the Pinephone.

Pine64’s concept was almost deceptively simple: deliver affordable hardware that the community could quickly get their hands on. Their commitment to the FOSS world was profound – they not only provided the hardware at a low cost but also actively donated substantial funds to the Linux mobile projects that were ported to the device.

The feeling was electric. Unlike the protracted wait for the Librem 5, you could buy a Pinephone and receive it almost immediately. This was the floodgate moment that truly catalyzed the Community Effort.

From Rubbish to Reliable: Two Years of Glory

When I first booted the Pinephone, the experience was, frankly, quite rubbish. After the rapid development I had witnessed on the Librem 5’s software side, this didn’t worry me much. It was clearly a work in progress.

But the sheer speed of collaborative development that followed was breathtaking. It took about two years from getting my first Pinephone until I could confidently call it a true daily driver phone.

The Pinephone became the ultimate open-source sandbox. Its low barrier to entry attracted thousands of developers, tinkerers, and enthusiasts, all working in parallel across dozens of distributions (Arch, Manjaro, Mobian, postmarketOS, etc.).

A Massive Thank You to the Architects

The Pinephone’s success is a testament to the power of distributed open-source development. It genuinely felt like I was part of a nice, dedicated community. It is impossible to name everyone, but some crucial figures deserve immense praise (these are the persons I remember from top of my head so if you are not on the list you can blame my excellent but short memory 🙂 ):

• Martjin: Thank you for the essential work on the camera stack and Jumpdrive and all other stuff, making photography usable.
• Megi: Thank you for the colossal, indispensable work on the kernel, modem, and low-level hardware stabilization – work that amazed and grounded the entire project.
• Biktorgj: Thank you for taking on the monumental task of creating an actual reliable modem firmware, fixing problems, and adding crucial features.
• Guido: for me Guido is the number one reason why we are so close to achieve something big in linux mobile. Guide is the mastermind behind Phosh – or as he might say as humble person “one dev of the Phosh team”
• Distro Maintainers: Thank you to the dedicated individuals like Arnav, Danct12, Phill, Strit, a-wai, and many others for preparing and polishing the operating systems we used daily.
• Community Members: Thanks to the helpful community members like zetabeta, luigi311, Mike, Peter, and countless others who provided support and testing.

This collaborative spirit is the true legacy of the Pinephone.

The Daily Driver Compromises

Even after achieving a stable daily driver state (which required making a full image backup before every update, as one update could easily break crucial functionality), the Pinephone presented several persistent, frustrating issues:

1. The Hardware Lottery: This was a significant hurdle. I have owned over fifteen Pinephones, and only about five of them were what I considered “great.” The others were incredibly finicky, requiring specific software versions to function correctly. This inconsistency made recommending the device difficult.
2. Lack of Power: The Pinephone is simply slow. The Allwinner A64 processor was underpowered even at launch, and this fundamental limitation is not easily fixable.
3. Compromised Convergence: Due to the slowness, the convergence experience was often unpleasant. Everything felt sluggish and prone to jamming.

The Bizarre Flicker Issue

The most specific and bizarre flaw involved convergence stability. When the device was connected to an external display, and the modem was active and connected to certain frequency bands, the display output would flicker like a maniac. This issue was almost certainly hardware-related (reminiscent of how old speakers could pick up cell signals). The flicker would only stop if the modem was shut down or manually restricted to 2G, highlighting a deep, unresolvable hardware conflict.

Despite its flaws, the Pinephone was the vessel that delivered Linux mobile to the masses. It was the crucial bridge that took the high-level ideas from Purism and put them into the hands of thousands, forging the powerful, collaborative community we celebrate today.

I can easily recommend Pinephone for everyone who wants to tinker with Linux mobile. It is not the device what will replace out of the box your android or ios since the step downwards is way too big but it is something what you can use for developing or testing purpose.

And then Pine64 announced the new King of the linux phones and I had to move on…

Last words… remember to support your favorite Linux mobile project using whatever method suits you best! Since I am quite bad at coding, I try to put my money where my mouth is, so I have personally supported every project I write about financially.
I can also proudly encourage you to buy my current daily driver FLX1s – please feel free to ask me questions about it if you are curious. 2026 will be the year of Linux mobile, so jump in and enjoy the ride!