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    All You Must Understand about Linux PinePhone ‘Community Edition’ Featuring PostmarketOS


    As the dispatch of PinePhone ‘Community Edition’ equipped with Ubuntu Touch commenced a few weeks back, PINE64 is now preparing to initiate the pre-order phase for their upcoming Community Edition. In their recent June update blog, PINE64 revealed that the subsequent Community Edition (CE) of PinePhone will showcase a comprehensive postmarketOS integration.

    The pre-order opportunity for the postmarketOS Community Edition will begin in early July and extend for at least six weeks. If you prefer having postmarketOS on your PinePhone instead of Ubuntu Touch, this edition will enable you to forgo the hassles of installing postmarketOS. So, prior to the arrival of the postmarketOS CE, let’s delve into the essential details.

    A Comprehensive Look at PinePhone postmarketOS Community Edition

    Similarly to UBports CE, the postmarketOS community edition represents a significantly enhanced experimental version before its stable rollout. It is the direct successor to the PinePhone ‘Braveheart’ edition with enhanced design aspects, motherboard enhancements, and rectification of various bugs.

    PostmarketOS
    PostmarketOS

    Technical Specifications of PinePhone Community Edition

    Whilst PINE64 has yet to unveil the complete hardware specifications of the postmarketOS Community Edition, we can anticipate its specs to be quite akin to the Ubuntu Touch CE model.

    Nevertheless, PINE64 has mentioned that they are striving to dispatch the PCB (Printed Circuit Board) version 1.2 featuring further enhancements in its layout. They have also altered the OS branding from UBports to postmarketOS on the back of the PinePhone.

    Here are the projected hardware specifications of the postmarketOS CE resembling those of UBports:

    • SoC Allwinner A64 Quad Core
    • 2GB LPDDR3 SDRAM
    • 5.95-inch HD Display with a resolution of 720×1440
    • Internal storage of 16 GB eMMC
    • USB Type C port (power, data, and HD digital video output)
    • Wireless connectivity options encompass Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, LTE, Bluetooth 4.0
    • GNSS features like GPS, GPS-A, and GLONASS
    • Includes a 5MP rear camera with LED flash and a 2MP front camera
    • Array of sensors — Accelerator, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, ambient light sensor

    PinePhone Pre-installed with postmarketOS

    postmarketOS serves as a security-focused and lightweight mobile operating system based on Alpine Linux. Presently, it extends support to over 200 mobile devices, including the PinePhone. Additionally, you can even run postmarketOS on devices like the iPhone 7.

    Similar to Ubuntu Touch, postmarketOS is currently in a beta phase, yet it offers essential smartphone functionalities such as calling, messaging, data connectivity, Wi-Fi, and a user-friendly interface.

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    postmarketOS dialpad

    postmarketOS dialpad

    The forthcoming PinePhone CE equipped with postmarketOS will boast of the Phosh user interface. Phosh represents a phone shell devised by Purism for its own Linux smartphone, Librem 5. It operates atop various GNOME elements to deliver a contemporary GNOME desktop-like user experience. Notwithstanding, you are also able to install alternative user interfaces on your postmarketOS devices, such as Plasma Mobile, Lune UI, and Xfce.

    postmarkeOS phosh menupostmarkeOS phosh menu
    postmarkeOS phosh menu

    The postmarketOS CE will also provide full disk encryption alongside a completely new on-device installation tool. In this installation method, you will be prompted for a password during the initial boot to configure an encrypted installation.

    Beyond the mobile Linux postmarketOS, you can explore additional Linux-based mobile OS options on the PinePhone like Manjaro Linux and GNOME. Even if you wish to dual-boot postmarketOS alongside Ubuntu Touch, refer to our article here on the in-progress multi-bootloader, PineLoader.

    Acquiring postmarketOS Community Edition: A Step-by-Step Guide

    Given that the pre-order phase has not yet commenced, you can either bookmark this constantly updated article page or the official store page here to stay informed about the initial availability of postmarketOS CE.

    Following the pattern set by UBports CE, the postmarketOS Community Edition variant of PinePhone will also be priced at $150 (excluding delivery charges and any applicable import tariffs).

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