The PinePhone Pro is a smartphone developed by Hong Kong–based computer manufacturerPine64. The phone is the successor to the PinePhone released in 2019.[2] The default operating system is Sailfish OS[3] (previously Manjaro ARM, with Plasma Mobile as the user interface).[2] The device is a developer platform with open hardware specifications but with unfinished software. The target group of the device is free and open-source software developers who will develop the software.[4][5] The device was first shipped to developers in December 2021, and in February 2022 devices were made available to consumers.[6]
Hardware
The device is built on the Rockchip RK3399Ssystem on a chip, which is a custom version of the stock RK3399, uniquely designed for the device.[2] The processing power roughly compares to mid-range phones from 2016. The device has 4 GB of LPDDR4 ram, a 6-inch display, 13 MP Sony IMX258 as the main camera, 8 MP Omnivision OV8858 as front camera and has a user-replaceable 3000 mAh Samsung J7-series battery. [7]
The phone has hardware kill switches for shutting down network connections, microphone, speaker, and cameras.[7] The device has pogo pins for attachable backs compatible with the original PinePhone.[7]
Software
The device ships with Sailfish OS (previously Manjaro ARM, with Plasma Mobile as the user interface), though users are free to switch to other operating systems.[2][8]
U-Boot is used as the default boot loader and it supports booting from an SD card. The bootloader can be replaced, as there are alternatives, such as Tow-boot.[9] The main image sensor driver has been added to the mainline kernel by Sony.[10] Modem firmware of the Quectel EG25-G is based on a proprietaryAndroid userspace, though an unofficial open-source version exists (actually mostly open-source: the custom firmware replaces most proprietary components, except for baseband firmware and the TrustZone kernel, which is signed by Qualcomm).[11]
In the middle of 2022, the software stack was under development, resulting in the hardware not supporting the software.[12][13] The first images from the camera were taken in May 2022.[10] Most widely-supported hardware is in a heavily patched downstream kernel called Megi kernel.[14] There is alternative operating systems focusing on mainline Linux kernel support, such as PostmarketOS.[15]