PinePhone Pro Software State
Presently the PinePhone Pro Explorer Edition is aimed at Linux developers with an extensive knowledge of embedded systems and/or experience with mobile Linux. It will take time for all the PinePhone Pro’s functionality to reach software parity with the original PinePhone and for mobile operating systems, in more general, to reach a higher degree of maturity.
Bear in mind that the software for these smartphones is still in a very early stage, with most of the software being in alpha or beta state. That's especially also the case for scalability of applications, their availability and practicability, any hardware function implementations and the firmware. The software is provided as is. There is no warranty for the software, not even for merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
The following table lists the feature functionality status of the unaltered pre-installed factory image of the current shipping batch and as comparison an up-to-date reference image (no responsibility is accepted for the accuracy of this information, the list is provided and updated by the community). If you have any questions regarding the current state of the software or of specific features working, please don't hesitate to ask in the community chat before buying the device:
- Discord: #pinephone under https://discord.gg/pine64
- IRC: #pinephone on irc.pine64.org. Note: please consider Matrix, Discord or Telegram due to the volatile nature of IRC
- Matrix: https://app.element.io/#/room/#pinephone:matrix.org
- Telegram: https://t.me/pinephone
| Functionality | Component | Status (factory)¹ | Status (updated)² | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bootloader | U-Boot
|
Critical bugs | Some critical software bugs currently not fixed yet: A drained battery causes U-Boot to bootloop (cause is known and currently being worked on);Workaround Occasionally the eMMC fails to initializeReport | |
SPI
|
Unfinished | SPI memory is currently empty in the Explorer Edition batch, a corrupted installation on the eMMC has a higher boot priority than a fresh microSD card installation, leading to a involved recovery procedurePlanned | ||
Boot GUI
|
Not implemented | Currently there is no graphical boot selection implementedPossibly planned | ||
| Operating System | Stability
|
Critical bugs | WIP | The pre-flashed and outdated operating system on the eMMC often gets corrupted after updatingExample |
Suspend
|
Not working | Experimental | Without suspend the phone will drain very fast! Suspend only available in specific more recent imagesNews Audio is often higher pitched after waking up from suspend due to a bugReport | |
Updates
|
Critical bugs | WIP | The pre-flashed and outdated operating system on the eMMC often gets corrupted after updatingExample; Pacman database lock preventing updatesSolution; Keyring bug[Solution is to run "pinephonepro-post-install" script as root] | |
| Modem | General
|
Critical bugs | The modem connection crashes frequentlyReportAlternative firmware; Slow wakeupReport; Some carriers blocking specific TANs in their networkPinePhone Carrier Support; Note: Proprietary firmware | |
Phone
|
WIP | The modem connection crashes frequently, which can lead to missed callsReportAlternative firmware; Slow wakeupReport; bad call audio qualityReport; | ||
SMS
|
Working | SMS functionality is expected to work. In certain cases the functionality might be blocked by a clogged modemReport; Some bugs | ||
MMS
|
WIP | MMS functionality is integrated into the application "Spacebar", some bugs remaining and expected | ||
Push notifications
|
Not implemented | Receiving push notifications while the phone is suspended is not implemented | ||
| Components | LCD
|
Working | Under certain circumstances it is difficult to wake up the screen[Citation] | |
Touch
|
Working | |||
Rear camera
|
Not working | WIP | Camera works with DTS fix; userspace still needs to do some catching up (see debugging article) | |
Front camera
|
Not working | WIP | Camera works with DTS fix; userspace still needs to do some catching up (see debugging article) | |
Camera flash
|
Working | Note: /sys/class/leds/white:flash
|
||
WiFi
|
Working | WiFi is expected to work. Some remaining tasks, such as "monitor mode". Note: Proprietary firmware | ||
Bluetooth
|
WIP | Bluetooth not necessarily working for calls yet due to missing audio routing[Citation]; Bluetooth in general dodgy under Pulseaudio.Info Note: Proprietary firmware | ||
GNSS/GPS
|
WIP | aGPS to be implemented[Citation]; long loading times to get a GPS fix[Citation]; No preinstalled application[Citation] | ||
Sensors
|
WIP | "3 Axis Magnetometer" (lis3mdl): Not present in hardware (it's an alternative chip to af8133j due to component shortages)"Geo Magnetic Sensor" ( | ||
Vibration motor
|
Working | |||
Notification LED
|
Working | |||
Buttons
|
Working | Power buttons and volume buttons are working. | ||
| Accessory compatibility, spare parts | Keyboard Add-on
|
WIP and critical hardware issue | The keyboard add-on compatibility is work-in-progress. Hardware issue: USB-C port of the phone must not be used while the current keyboard revision is connectedWarning; Top row symbols not implemented as designed[Citation]; Keyboard hot-plugging not supported[Citation]; Battery state not exposed in the pre-flashed operating system state[Citation]; general driver bugs[Citation] | |
LoRa Add-on
|
Not implemented | No software support implemented | ||
Qi Wireless Charging Add-on
|
WIP | Wireless charging with the add-on case is expected to work to some degree. Certain software functionality and a driver is currently missing[Citation] | ||
Fingerprint Reader Add-on
|
Not implemented | No software support implemented | ||
Spare parts
|
Not available yet | Spare parts currently not available yet in the store.Store | ||
| Software notes | Waydroid
|
Software rendering only | Waydroid is an Android container used to run Android applications. Currently can only be started using software rendering due to a bugReportReport | |
¹ Status of the features at the time of the last factory installation without updates
² Status of the features with an up-to-date reference image