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I did write a blog post or two on it on the train using termux and nano. That was cool. And the occasional SSH session.

But as a phone running Android it's not quite there. Features like the LED controller app are half-baked vanity apps, and I'd rather they'd spent the time getting the lower level stuff right. Low quality phone call audio, random glitches, and software updates were mostly forgotten about. If I did want it as my primary phone I would also want a camera. The only camera was front-facing and low quality, which ruled it out. So it became a novel supplementary device rather than a daily driver.

To whit, the hinge mechanism isn't well designed. In theory the spine rotates back to form a stand, but it's incredibly wobbly. So it's not much use for typing on a table. And it can't be held in the hand, as there's no stiffness.

Why do I think PinePhone will be any different? The prototypes I've seen look like the hinge is stiffer. I'm not a kernel-compiling Linux enthusiast, so I don't expect to use a PinePhone as a real phone. But I do hope an SSH terminal to be simple enough to just work. So that puts it into the realm of mostly offline with sync. And org-mode is both simple and exciting, in a weird kind of a way.

And that appeals to nostaliga for Psions, Palm PDAs and Newtons.