In recent years there has been a major effort to bring mainline Linux to mobile phones, so that users can enjoy the same level of control, freedom and privacy that they have when using Linux on laptops, desktops and servers.
PinePhone is currently the best Linux phone available because of its features and price. It is capable of running mainline Linux, it has hardware privacy switches that can be used to disable the cameras, microphone, headphone, WiFi, Bluetooth and the LTE modem. It can be connected to an external monitor, it has interesting accessories, like a keyboard, and it can be used with Mobian, Manjaro and other Linux distributions. Its price, $199.99, also makes it attractive. Although it doesn’t have the computing power of high-end Android or iOS devices, it provides all the main functionalities of a mobile phone and it can be used in real life as a freedom and privacy respecting alternative to mainstream mobile phones, whose software is riddled with privacy invading features. It should be noted, however, that the LTE modem and the chip for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth require proprietary firmware to function. Therefore, PinePhone does a lot in protecting its users’ freedom and privacy by running Linux and all the freedom respecting apps that come with it and by eliminating proprietary firmware where possible, but the firmware for the modem and Wi-Fi/Bluetooth is still proprietary and as a result, its software is not 100% free and open source software at this time.
There’s also PinePhone Pro, with better specifications than PinePhone. However, its price, which is double that of a PinePhone, the low battery life and some stability issues, suggest it can be considered inferior to PinePhone.
We could also mention Librem 5. Yet, its price, 4 times the price of a PinePhone, and some issues noticed by early adopters, make it inferior to PinePhone.
Double Bastion has no affiliation with Pine Store Limited (Pine64), the company that produces PinePhone, or with Purism, SPC, the company behind Librem 5.
