Following the demise of Ubuntu Phone, Purism’s Librem 5 seems like the next big thing in the budding world of Linux smartphones. Purism has already partnered with big names like GNOME and KDE, and we can expect the device to start shipping in April 2019.
It seems like another hardware vendor is looking to develop its own Linux smartphone. As reported by It’s FOSS, Pine64 is working to create inexpensive Linux-based smartphones and tablets.
KDE Neon creator Jonathan Riddell revealed this at Open Source Summit, Europe Edition. Upon contacting Pine64 founder TL Lim, It’s FOSS found that the devices are called PinePhone and PineTab — so, no surprises there.
Starting November 1, Pine64 will start shipping the first PinePhone developer kits to the selected devs for free. The kit will include baseboard, SOPine module, 7″ Touch Screen Display, Camera, Wifi/BT, Playbox enclosure, Lithium-Ion battery case, and LTE cat 4 USB dongle.
As per the current schedule, Plasma Mobile-running PinePhone’s actual design won’t be finalized until 2019 Q2.
As Pine64 is known for its low-cost laptops, PinePhone won’t break your backbone when it comes to pricing. You can expect this open source Linux smartphone to cost $100+ for 2GB RAM and 16GB storage variant.
Source: https://fossbytes.com/pinephone-pine64-affordable-linux-smartphone-kde-plasma/
Submitted by: Arnfried Walbrecht
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