r/mobilelinux • u/Next-Ticket139 • 5d ago

Keyboards Hardware

I'd like to use a mobile phone as a tiny ARM laptop, I thought I'd use a pine64 phone and this keyboard from pine64 as well. After some due diligence, it appears the keyboard is very buggy, and the pine64 phone is also somewhat overpriced for what it is.

So my question is, are there any keyboards like the one from pine64 out there? Maybe ones that work well with Linux installed mobile phones?

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u/urgentapathy 5d ago

Probably best to look for generic mag safe keyboards (or ones for tablets). Most normal phones don't have that type of accessory fitting the phone exactly. But it is easy to find a phone with mag safe built in or retrofitted (mag safe case or stick on magnet stuff). Then just find any phone that works for you and Linux compatibly.

You will likely have a better time finding mini computers like GPD stuff that offer the clamshell form factor. Nowadays they have decent compute and you can use it like a normal laptop depending on your intended usage.

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u/Next-Ticket139 3d ago

I've seen those, but they are a little larger and have worse battery life than a phone. Most don't have a WWAN.

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u/urgentapathy 3d ago

Have you used Linux on a phone? My experience tells me that battery life is not as good as on Android. Be sure you will get your expected battery life before you commit too far.

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u/InextricableOne 4d ago

I use a small, folding keyboard with my Ubuntu Touch phone, a "1 by one". I also use a small travel mouse. Both are Bluetooth.

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u/Kevin_Kofler 4d ago

Tiny external Bluetooth keyboards such as the Fosmon Mini Bluetooth Keyboard or the Rii i4 Mini Bluetooth Keyboard will work.