Linux-powered PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition available for pre-order starting today

Pine64 sells many different ARM-powered Linux devices and accessories, including the PinePhone, a hackable smartphone with dozens of supported Linux distributions. The PinePhone’s performance is roughly comparable to that of a low-end Android smartphone, which is why Pine64 announced the PinePhone Pro last year, which has upgraded internal hardware. Fast forward to today, and Pine64 is ready to start taking pre-orders.

Pine64 said in a blog post today, “PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition pre-orders open today, January 11th (7:00PM UTC / 11AM PST) and there will be a 6 day order window for January/ early February deliveries. Pre-orders placed on or after January 18th will first ship out once the team returns from their holidays. […] The Explorer Edition is a large production run and we don’t expect it to sell out quickly.”

Specification	PinePhone	PinePhone Pro (Explorer Edition)
Build	Plastic with removable back casing	Plastic with removable back casing
Dimensions & Weight	160.5 x 76.6 x 9.2mm 180-200g	160.8 x 76.6 x 11.1mm 220g
Display	5.95-inch 1440×720 18:9 IPS	6-inch 1440 x 720 18:9 IPS Gorilla Glass 4
SoC	Allwinner A64	Rockchip RK3399S 2x A72 cores 4x A53 CPU cores @ 1.5GHz
RAM & Storage	2 or 3GB RAM 16 or 32GB eMMC storage microSD up to 2TB	4GB RAM 128GB eMMC storage microSD up to 2TB
Battery & Charging	2,800mAh removable battery 16W USB-PD wired charging	2,800mAh removable battery 15W USB-PD wired charging
Security
Rear Camera	5MP, LED flash	13MP Sony IMX258, LED flash
Front Camera	2MP	8MP OmniVision OV8858
Ports	USB Type-C 3.5mm audio jack	USB Type-C 3.5mm audio jack
Audio	Loudspeaker	Loudspeaker
Connectivity	LTE (using Quectel EG25-G modem) Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 4.0	LTE (using OmniVision OV8858 modem) Wi-Fi AC Bluetooth 4.1
Software	Depends on PinePhone edition	Manjaro Linux with KDE Plasma Mobile pre-installed
Other Features	Hardware privacy switches for Modem, WiFi & Bluetooth, Microphone, Cameras DisplayPort output over Type-C microSD card boot support	Hardware privacy switches for Modem, WiFi & Bluetooth, Microphone, Cameras DisplayPort output over Type-C microSD card boot support

The PinePhone Pro has the same physical design as the original PinePhone, so it’s still compatible with all existing accessories (like the keyboard case), but the internal hardware has been improved with a faster SoC, more RAM, and other changes. Just like the original model, there are hardware switches for Wi-Fi, camera access, LTE, and other functions. You can also still install any (supported) operating system you want — no bootloader unlocking required. The list of currently-available operating systems includes Arch Linux, Manjaro, Mobian (based on Debian), and postmarketOS.

Pine64 already sold prototype models to people working on Linux distributions and applications for the PinePhone Pro, but this ‘Explorer Edition’ is deemed ready for the masses. The phone should be available for pre-order starting later today (11 AM Pacific Time) at the link below.

Pre-order PinePhone Pro

The post Linux-powered PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition available for pre-order starting today appeared first on xda-developers.

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