[jacquesm]

They're not. Anybody that has a soldering iron warm and that doesn't shy away from hacking on a board populated with SMD components and that makes it past the 'do this only if you feel confident with the procedure' warning is well above beginner level.

PinePhone's likely are mostly in the hands of people who have significant overlap with those in that group mentioned above rather than your average grandmother, unless she takes after Grace Hopper.

Finally, this is hacker news, which once upon a time meant that people who frequent this site knew how to make things, and there are still a few of us left. So bring on the soldering required articles.

[ximeng]

See also the recent thread on headphones where people are complaining about non-replaceable batteries and longevity, but a minority are digging out soldering irons and replacing batteries and fixes broken devices.