[mrbuttons454]

I bought one as soon as they were released, as well as the keyboard case. It never really worked correctly, but I loved the concept and wish they would have succeeded.

I know it's a niche product, but I'd love a pocket sized Debian device with cellular, decent standby time, and a physical keyboard. Anything out there I should look in to? I've tried to make various GPD devices work, but they are too big, and the standby time isn't great.

[RansomStark]

Way back when I had a Nokia N900 [0].

I still miss it. Wonderful little phone, physical keyboard, Linux, perfect (almost).

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N900

[garrickvanburen]

One of my favorite phones. Despite a bizarre hiccup preventing sd cards from being recognized if the camera lens sensor broke.

[aeblyve]

I think that finding an aftermarket keyboard solution for a smartphone using the android virtualization framework to run a debian VM (i.e. the "Linux Terminal" on Android 16) is your best bet by far.

The economies of scale (and compactness!) in mainstream smartphones are very hard to match, and they tend to have superior power management.

Do heavy lifting by logging into a remote server for best battery life and compute power.

[sugarpimpdorsey]

> I know it's a niche product, but I'd love a pocket sized Debian device with cellular, decent standby time, and a physical keyboard

yes they're called netbooks and x86 tablets but you may need a time machine back to 2015 to get one.

[tempest_]

You don't have to go to 2015

GPD has a bunch, they are not exactly cheap though https://gpd.hk/product

[hnlmorg]

Those aren’t netbooks. They’re another class of device which I’ve forgotten the name of. Something like umpc or something.

But the idea was netbooks were the bottom end of the market and this other class were the same form factor but at the top end of the market.

[goosedragons]

Some of them are UMPCs, some are sub-notebooks and some arguably are maybe netbooks. The GPD Micro PC 2 is not that fast and only has a 7" screen like the original Asus EEE PC. It's got less bezel, so perhaps it bleeds the line between netbook and UMPC but inflation adjusted it's pretty comparable in price.

[hnlmorg]

ahhh fair enough then. I did admittedly only have a quick look at their site.

The NetBook market was such a good one. It really is a pity the Microsoft killed off the spirit of it, and then Apple convinced everyone that pretty and expensive things without keyboards are nicer than cheap and practical things.

I do miss EeePCs. The death of the netbook was probably the biggest blow for desktop Linux becoming mainstream.

[codedokode]

Were they? I think that for work or hobbies laptop is better, has better screen and keyboard and they are not that expensive now. And for watching short videos you can just use a phone.

[mananaysiempre]

GPDs used to be much cheaper[1], and IMO made much more sense that way. Unfortunately, GPD indeed seems to have caught the expensive bug.

[1] https://blog.danieljanus.pl/2022/08/18/i-love-my-gpd-micro-p...

[goosedragons]

The GPD Micro PC 2 is still pretty cheap. The other models are way way faster so it's not surprising they cost more.

[mananaysiempre]

Pretty cheap by some definitions, yes, but as best as I can tell (historical prices aren’t exactly readily available), the Micro PC 2 ($700 list price before tax) is still between 1.5× and 2× the price of the original (€300—presumably including about 20% tax—per the linked article, between $200 and $500 per the Wayback Machine, in nominal dollars before 10% inflation).

[MrGilbert]

GPD makes decent small devices, that can be equipped with cellular, and work fine with Debian. So no need for a time-travel here. :)

[anthk]

Aliexpress still has those.

[int_19h]

There's https://furilabs.com/shop/flx1/, but there don't seem to be many people playing with these. Perhaps someone on HN would be willing to share their experience.

[mixmastamyk]

The FuriPhone looks pretty good: https://furilabs.com/ though I haven't seen many reviews yet. But am keeping my eyes peeled.

[MomsAVoxell]

I have a drawer full of dead Pinephone Pro’s.

As a mostly-Linux based coder, my current rig consists of an iPad with keyboard, iPhone for connectivity, and a small Debian box based on the pwnagotchi hardware (it sometimes runs pwnagotchi, but is mostly my development machine). This is plenty of power for my needs, and turns the iPad into a monitor, mostly.

I’d replace all of this in an instant if someone made a LinuxPad with keyboard.

[black_puppydog]

I'm fighting myself on the Jolla C2 at the moment. I'm kinda in the same category as you I guess :D

[detaro]

not sure about standby time, but MNT Pocket Reform is a neat and unusual device in that category.