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Another opportunity to purchase a Pine Phone
If you missed out on the last pre-order for the Pine Phone Braveheart, that shipped last January, you have another opportunity to buy now.
The phone is a special edition with UBports branding on the back, but it is the same hardware as the Braveheart and the same price $149.99 + shipping. Pine will donate $10 to the UBPorts Foundation for every phone purchased.
https://store.pine64.org/?product=pinephone-community-edition-ubports-limited-edition-linux-smartphone [pine64.org]
It comes pre-installed with UBPorts, but there is nothing keeping you from re-flashing to whichever OS you want. Currently there are several ports in progress like, Debian, PostmarketOS, SailfishOS, Maemo Leste, etc. Some of these can even make phone calls and sms texts already :)
https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone_Software_Release#User_Experience_Notes [pine64.org]
The hardware is probably the 1.2 Braveheart revision, with several known hardware bugs that existed in the v1.0 developer, and v1.1 Braveheart revisions fixed.
https://wiki.pine64.org/index.php/PinePhone_v1.1_-_Braveheart [pine64.org]
There is only one binary blob required to boot the phone-- for the dram controller. And, there are hardware switches to turn off wifi & Bluetooth (Realtek; requires binary blob firmware), microphone, cameras (only for autofocus, requires binary blob firmware) and modem (proprietary OS).
https://www.pine64.org/2020/01/24/setting-the-record-straight-pinephone-misconceptions/ [pine64.org]
If you want a mass market consumer phone, then you will be very disappointed. If you want a phone that does a better job of respecting your freedom, and want to be able to hack it (with a community of like minded folks), then this is your lowest price of entry currently available, and is further along than the other main option, the librem 5 (no shade being cast; I'm hoping the librem does well too). It would also make a nice little portable computer combined with a compact external keyboard.
