They actually only have a select number of those 3GB ram chips available. They are rare to find, and especially with the component shortages going on it likely wont get any better. So it’s possible that one day they wont even be able to offer the 3GB version anymore. That said i honestly don’t think it’s needed as mobile linux so far is pretty well optimized, with only more optimizations to come over time ideally. And infact the 2GB pinephone has much faster eMMC speeds than the convergence model, not to mention it seems there’s a much better chance of being able to overclock the DRAM of the 2GB model than the 3GB one and maintain stability. As for convergence… that’s kind of a pipe dream with the current hardware… it just isn’t up to par outputting to a 1080P or higher resolution (The A64 has a Mali 400 MP2 which was the first arm mobile GPU to have OpenGL ES 2.0 support back in 2008… And it’s weaker than a first gen iphone’s GPU). Not saying the pinephone is bad, but it’s intended really as a development platform and a toy, not a device for consumers to use yet. Hopefully the next edition comes not too far in the future and really rocks the socks off of everyone.
Thanks for the info, learned a lot in this thread about the differences - I think coming from Android where more RAM generally is desirable is throwing me off with the 2 vs 3GB options.
I would love to be able to get a hint of what the next version might be, but to be honest once the software gets better optimization (especially for those apps/websites I use) then I’ll be quite happy (though I would like to play with a Librem 5 as well to see what it’s like).
Hard to say right now what will be the SoC in a hypothetical PinePhone2.
Pine64 is working now with the Rockchip RK3566 (in their upcoming SBC Quartz64), and that one supports 8GB ram and has a significantly better MALI G-52 GPU. But overall it isn’t much faster than the A64 currently used in the PinePhone and because it is a different chip vendor it will likely require a completed redesign of the PinePhone motherboard.
I think end of 2021 we will see a PineTab based on it (with an e-ink screen option), but for the PinePhone they might be waiting a bit longer until a really much better SoC is feasible (so 2022/2023 earliest).
They actually only have a select number of those 3GB ram chips available. They are rare to find, and especially with the component shortages going on it likely wont get any better. So it’s possible that one day they wont even be able to offer the 3GB version anymore. That said i honestly don’t think it’s needed as mobile linux so far is pretty well optimized, with only more optimizations to come over time ideally. And infact the 2GB pinephone has much faster eMMC speeds than the convergence model, not to mention it seems there’s a much better chance of being able to overclock the DRAM of the 2GB model than the 3GB one and maintain stability. As for convergence… that’s kind of a pipe dream with the current hardware… it just isn’t up to par outputting to a 1080P or higher resolution (The A64 has a Mali 400 MP2 which was the first arm mobile GPU to have OpenGL ES 2.0 support back in 2008… And it’s weaker than a first gen iphone’s GPU). Not saying the pinephone is bad, but it’s intended really as a development platform and a toy, not a device for consumers to use yet. Hopefully the next edition comes not too far in the future and really rocks the socks off of everyone.
Thanks for the info, learned a lot in this thread about the differences - I think coming from Android where more RAM generally is desirable is throwing me off with the 2 vs 3GB options.
I would love to be able to get a hint of what the next version might be, but to be honest once the software gets better optimization (especially for those apps/websites I use) then I’ll be quite happy (though I would like to play with a Librem 5 as well to see what it’s like).
Hard to say right now what will be the SoC in a hypothetical PinePhone2.
Pine64 is working now with the Rockchip RK3566 (in their upcoming SBC Quartz64), and that one supports 8GB ram and has a significantly better MALI G-52 GPU. But overall it isn’t much faster than the A64 currently used in the PinePhone and because it is a different chip vendor it will likely require a completed redesign of the PinePhone motherboard.
I think end of 2021 we will see a PineTab based on it (with an e-ink screen option), but for the PinePhone they might be waiting a bit longer until a really much better SoC is feasible (so 2022/2023 earliest).