PINEPHONE keyboard addon
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The PinePhone is a completly open source phone, much like the librem 5, except it’s much cheaper and actually better.
Do you know what the pinephone can do, and the librem 5 can’t? It can actually take pictures, they’re not good but hey at least it works.
And now they’re gonna release an addon for it with a physical keyboard. The keyboard is in landscape unlike the blackberry, and idk, i feel like it might too wide to thumbtype, but according to pine64 it’s fine.Personally i’ve been wishing for something exactly like this, I like the idea of having a completely open source phone, not only the software but also the hardware itself. And as a not rich person I love the fact that the phone itself is $150 (or $200 with a dongle). But one of the things keeping me away from buying one is that theres no physical keyboard, a feature that went from something i didnt think i want, to a must have. But now there is a physical keyboard so I’ll probably get it around the time that bb10 shuts down, ill have to see how bad it really is first though.
It’s coming out in late September. We dont have a price for it yet (i think), but my guess is somewhere around $30.
Here’s a quote from pine64 about it
The PinePhone keyboard has entered production and we expect to have it available in the Pine Store in late September. I’ve now had extensive hands-on time with the latest keyboard prototype and I am thrilled to let you know that it feels amazing. You know that I am always cautious and try to avoid ‘hyping’ our devices – but my choice of words here is quite deliberate, the keyboard feels amazing. The keys are sturdy, easy to plunge and have a satisfying amount of key travel. The pressure needed to plunge the keys is also equal across the entire keyboard. The product team and vendor really deserve a pat on the back, they’ve done a great job. I have a few small form-factor devices with keyboards, and I can say with confidence that this is the best I’ve felt; thumb typing on it is pure heaven.
It looks more convenient than other phone keyboards.
Some are huge and hard to use.
Main stream phones are like that painting in the haunted house where the eyes move. We need to get away from Big Brother.
I found a video of the dev unit
Apparently the keyboard has a 5000mAh battery in it, and it’s a lot more bulky than i thought at first, so if I buy it, I don’t think I’d leave it on all the time, but I’m not sure because I used a very big and heavy phone for about a year and I didn’t mind it.
One thing I wish it had is a trackpoint like thinkpads, or a tiny trackpad like the blackberry classic turning it essentially in to a tiny linux laptop.
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