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PinePhone Pro [GNU/Linux smartphone] has been discontinued

(social.treehouse.systems)
172 points fsflover | 13 comments | 28 Aug 25 16:05 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source | bottom
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mrbuttons454 ◴[28 Aug 25 17:16 UTC] No.45054632[source]▶
I bought one as soon as they were released, as well as the keyboard case. It never really worked correctly, but I loved the concept and wish they would have succeeded.

I know it's a niche product, but I'd love a pocket sized Debian device with cellular, decent standby time, and a physical keyboard. Anything out there I should look in to? I've tried to make various GPD devices work, but they are too big, and the standby time isn't great.

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1. sugarpimpdorsey ◴[28 Aug 25 17:50 UTC] No.45054972[source]▶
> I know it's a niche product, but I'd love a pocket sized Debian device with cellular, decent standby time, and a physical keyboard

yes they're called netbooks and x86 tablets but you may need a time machine back to 2015 to get one.

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2. MrGilbert ◴[28 Aug 25 18:02 UTC] No.45055097[source]▶
GPD makes decent small devices, that can be equipped with cellular, and work fine with Debian. So no need for a time-travel here. :)
3. tempest_ ◴[28 Aug 25 18:02 UTC] No.45055102[source]▶
You don't have to go to 2015

GPD has a bunch, they are not exactly cheap though https://gpd.hk/product

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4. hnlmorg ◴[28 Aug 25 19:06 UTC] No.45055800[source]▶
Those aren’t netbooks. They’re another class of device which I’ve forgotten the name of. Something like umpc or something.

But the idea was netbooks were the bottom end of the market and this other class were the same form factor but at the top end of the market.

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5. mananaysiempre ◴[28 Aug 25 19:25 UTC] No.45056021{3}[source]▶
GPDs used to be much cheaper[1], and IMO made much more sense that way. Unfortunately, GPD indeed seems to have caught the expensive bug.

[1] https://blog.danieljanus.pl/2022/08/18/i-love-my-gpd-micro-p...

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6. goosedragons ◴[28 Aug 25 19:31 UTC] No.45056089{3}[source]▶
Some of them are UMPCs, some are sub-notebooks and some arguably are maybe netbooks. The GPD Micro PC 2 is not that fast and only has a 7" screen like the original Asus EEE PC. It's got less bezel, so perhaps it bleeds the line between netbook and UMPC but inflation adjusted it's pretty comparable in price.
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7. goosedragons ◴[28 Aug 25 19:32 UTC] No.45056108{4}[source]▶
The GPD Micro PC 2 is still pretty cheap. The other models are way way faster so it's not surprising they cost more.
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8. anthk ◴[28 Aug 25 20:05 UTC] No.45056462[source]▶
Aliexpress still has those.
9. mananaysiempre ◴[28 Aug 25 20:12 UTC] No.45056525{5}[source]▶
Pretty cheap by some definitions, yes, but as best as I can tell (historical prices aren’t exactly readily available), the Micro PC 2 ($700 list price before tax) is still between 1.5× and 2× the price of the original (€300—presumably including about 20% tax—per the linked article, between $200 and $500 per the Wayback Machine, in nominal dollars before 10% inflation).
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10. goosedragons ◴[28 Aug 25 20:34 UTC] No.45056745{6}[source]▶
You can get it for $513.

https://gpdstore.net/laptops/gpd-micropc-2/

11. hnlmorg ◴[28 Aug 25 21:53 UTC] No.45057478{4}[source]▶
ahhh fair enough then. I did admittedly only have a quick look at their site.

The NetBook market was such a good one. It really is a pity the Microsoft killed off the spirit of it, and then Apple convinced everyone that pretty and expensive things without keyboards are nicer than cheap and practical things.

I do miss EeePCs. The death of the netbook was probably the biggest blow for desktop Linux becoming mainstream.

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12. codedokode ◴[29 Aug 25 00:45 UTC] No.45058699{5}[source]▶
Were they? I think that for work or hobbies laptop is better, has better screen and keyboard and they are not that expensive now. And for watching short videos you can just use a phone.
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13. hnlmorg ◴[30 Aug 25 08:11 UTC] No.45072862{6}[source]▶
When Netbooks were popular, laptops were expensive and heavy, and smartphones weren’t anything like what they are today.

Netbooks were the ultimate portable productivity tool. Journalists would write about how they could take them on site and write about things while it happened. Students could type notes in class. I even saw a face painter at a kids party using an EeePC as part of their workflow.

Cheap laptops these days do now exist, but they suffer from drawbacks like weight, terrible battery life and poor performance. All problems that the EeePC didn’t have. And smartphones are fine for videos, but the lack of physical keyboard makes them impractical for typical productivity suits. The nearest modern competition to EeePCs are devices like MacBook Air and similar Windows devices. But they’re not cheap.