You suggest using that monstrosity as a phone?

Yes, of course. I don't remember the last time I made a voice call, so I don't care at all about that functionality.

Really, all I care about is receiving SMS.

This looks like a rehashed Casiopeia. (Actually the Casiopeia looks considerably sleeker in comparison.) This is the clunkiest-looking device I've seen in a long time. At some point can we acknowledge that shrinking a laptop to be palm-sized doesn't make for a good form factor? A tiny keyboard and a resistive 720p 5" touchscreen sounds like a terrible experience. The picture shows it literally rendering a standard desktop UI as if that's appropriate for a pocket device.

Also, does this thing even receive SMS? The page makes no mention of phone support.

http://www.pdastock.com/Casio-Cassiopeia-A-21-651.html

A full Linux desktop screen wouldn't be used for long periods of time. The ideal situation is that we, as hackers, can build our own mobile UI free from the clutches of Apple and Google, and that you can just plug it into HDMI anywhere you are and get a full computer, which is something you can't do with any phone currently.

To your question regarding SMS, there are already people working on it. A Vim plugin sounds especially delicious.

https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/threads/how-to-send-receive...

By full computer, you mean something of 'low-end chromebook' spec. Usable mobile power management and thermal design isn't really going to achieve what you get with a good laptop or desktop.

Very true! This hardly holds up to, say, a CAD$600 laptop. But, it'll be very handy to take traveling around the world or to visit my parents/nephew to play some Minecraft.

You want a free-as-in-freedom portable device so you can play a closed source Microsoft product?

Nobody's perfect :)

I'm preparing him for Minetest, though, if that makes you feel better!

I suppose the concern is more regarding the clunkiness of the design, as in, "it doesn't fit in my jeans pocket", not so much the functionality. Like you say, "phone" today is really just a moniker for "tech device I always carry on me".

Yes, this is a concern for most people, but the GameBoy used to fit perfectly into my pockets, so I really don't care.

It looks ..worse than the phone I used 8 years ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_enV2_(VX9100).

Extremely interesting.

Please tell us more about the LTE capabilities. Is it provided by a removable board? Which bands are supported??

Based on https://www.dragonbox.de/en/45-pyra it only supports B17 and AWS, which makes it mostly a AT&T compatible device

I wish it would support other bands, B25 for sprint (which has cheaper LTE plans)

Also, the wifi chipset is known. Can you run a hostapd?

You probably know more than me.

Here's what I could find on the wiki.

https://www.pyra-handheld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Modem

and

https://www.pyra-handheld.com/wiki/index.php?title=WiFi

Interesting. The photo looks kinda bulky, but it's pretty zoomed in. I guess it's more DS sized?

That's like the phone equivalent of the F-35

That page implies good battery life:

"A 6000mAh battery means you have a companion that will be there for you, through use and at times other devices have given up long ago."

But if you look deeper you find on their wiki:

https://pyra-handheld.com/wiki/index.php?title=Battery

"Everyday work load: 8 hours (without any power management features, tested on prototype April 2016)"

8 hours? This is a toy. Why is their headline figure "6000mAh" instead of "8 hours"? Because they know it's shit.

I guess you have little experience with embedded bring-up, "without any power management features" is a fairly whopping qualifier, and quoting battery capacity is a far more useful indicator for a prerelease device.

I've been on projects where the dev builds would last 30 minutes on battery right up to days before initial factory run

It's in your own quote - it was on a prototype, without any power management features. Once power management features are enabled, it will last longer.