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mrbuttons454 | 6 months ago

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.

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RansomStark|6 months ago

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|6 months ago

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

aeblyve|6 months ago

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|6 months ago

> 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.

MrGilbert|6 months ago

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|6 months ago

Aliexpress still has those.

MomsAVoxell|6 months ago

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|6 months ago

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

detaro|6 months ago

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