Pine64 is known for its Linux-based ARM-powered smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, laptops, server clusters, and other products. The company’s first production-ready PinePhones began to ship earlier this year. The firm partners with different OS vendors every few months for its phones. It has now joined hands with KDE to launch PinePhone KDE Community Edition.
The PinePhone by Pine64 uses a
different Linux-based operating system with each batch. The name of the model
is determined by the OS that comes pre-installed, in addition to the logo of
the system software on the device’s rear panel.
Since the new batch of
PinePhone will run KDE Plasma Mobile, the handset is called PinePhone KDE
Community Edition. It will be available in two storage configurations – 2GB +
16GB and 3GB + 32GB (with USB Type-C dock), priced at US$ 149 and US$ 199
respectively. As far as specs are concerned, the smartphone is powered by
Allwinner A64 chipset with a quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU and ARM Mali 400 MP2
GPU paired with 2GB/3GB LPDDR3 RAM and 16GB/32GB eMMC storage. It flaunts a
5.95-inch HD+ (1440 x 720 pixels) display (LCD) with 18:9 aspect ratio.
It includes all the necessary
sensors like accelerometer, gyro, proximity, barometer, ambient, and compass.
Whereas, for connectivity, it features 4G, single-band WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0,
GNSS (GPS, A-GPS, GLONASS). It also has a 5MP rear camera, a 2MP front-facing
camera, a 3.5mm headphone jack, and a USB Type-C port.
Last but not least, the device
measures 160.5 x 76.6 x 9.2mm in dimensions, weigh 180-200g, and is backed by a
3,000mAh battery, which can be replaced with any Samsung Galaxy J7 battery. The
PinePhone KDE Community Edition will be available for pre-order starting
December 1 on Pine64’s official website. The company is also working on a
replacement back for this phone, which will add support for Qi wireless
charging. This additional accessory will be available early next year.