Even with a goal of keeping the price under $99, I do wonder how much demand there is for this type of device. While I was a hardcore enthusiast of this form factor around 20 years ago, I’d probably have a hard time justifying spending money on a modern device with a sluggish processor, small screen, and physical keyboard when I’ve already got a smartphone in my pocket and the option of throwing a higher-performance laptop in my bag when I need it.

[–] Tyoda@lemm.ee 2 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

I seriously wish I had a phone that was just a linux machine. That can already do all the things I want it to do. Then I'd have a brick phone with eternal battery life for that single functionality.

But as it is that would not have mobile internet, which is pretty much a must. So you'd have to get a sim card for that, and then you might as well have the phone functionality on that device. And you just (re)invented Linux phones.

My point is that I hate what phones are and I wish it was just a small touchscreen PC without all this locked down bullshit.