The developer units of the PineNote E Ink tablet and PinePhone Pro smartphone have started shipping. What that means is the initial batch of the tablet and smartphone will be sent to developers who are going to develop suitable apps and other related software. It is only after the apps have been tested and validated that the company will open up the devices for mass-market consumption.
In this respect, the PineNote comes across as an e-note device with a 10.3-inch 1404 x 1872 pixel E Ink display and Wacom digitizer that makes it receptible to pen inputs. This makes the PineNote not only a great e-book reading device but can also be used to take notes, thus making it a great choice for academic reading as well.
Other specs of the PineNote include a quad-core Rockchip RK3566 SoC coupled to 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 128 GB of eMMC storage. Then there also is a 4000 mAh battery that should allow for a really long runtime though the company isn’t specifying how long that is going to be. The tablet, meanwhile, also supports Wi-Fi 5 and Bluetooth 5 connectivity, all of which make it among the more capable e-note devices to go on sale.
#PinePhonePro and #PineNote Developer Editions have been dispatched! ?
See ‘stock, availability and shipping’ for more info: https://t.co/D8SUx1yoPa
(pictured: PinePhone Pro Dev units) pic.twitter.com/Si0AJOl2DE
— PINE64 (@thepine64) December 3, 2021
The PineNote however will be running the company’s own free open source OS based on Linux. Most other e-note devices that have gone on sale in recent times run Android, making it instantly recognizable to the users. Let’s hope PineNote offers a user-friendly software experience that holds as much appeal as its intended pricing. Its makers had earlier announced the PineNote will go on sale for $399, making it among the more affordable e-note devices out there.
As for the PinePhone Pro, it comes with upgraded hardware compared to its predecessor, the PinePhone. Interestingly, the PinePhone Pro too is priced at $399 and is built around a Rockchip RK3399S processor and features a 5.95 inch 1440 x 720 pixel IPS LCD display, and a single 13 MP camera on the rear. Those might be modest at best though the other positive aspect of the PinePhone Pro is its user swappable battery and a DIP switch, with the latter enabling users to switch off the camera and mic at the hardware level.
No word yet as to when the PineNote e ink tablet and PinePhone Pro will go on sale for general users.
With a keen interest in tech, I make it a point to keep myself updated on the latest developments in technology and gadgets. That includes smartphones or tablet devices but stretches to even AI and self-driven automobiles, the latter being my latest fad. Besides writing, I like watching videos, reading, listening to music, or experimenting with different recipes. The motion picture is another aspect that interests me a lot, and I'll likely make a film sometime in the future.