PinePhone Pro's production halted to focus on RISC-V endeavors
In a significant move, Pine64 has announced the discontinuation of its high-end ARM-based smartphone, the PinePhone Pro, due to poor sales. However, the lower-end PinePhone will continue to be sold for approximately two more years with spare parts supported [2][5].
This decision marks a strategic pivot by Pine64 towards RISC-V based projects and products, as reflected in their recent launches. The company has introduced several new RISC-V devices, including the StarPro64, Star64, and Alpha One [5].
The StarPro64 and Star64 are high-end and budget-friendly RISC-V single-board computers, respectively. These boards demonstrate Pine64's commitment to developing RISC-V platforms and are actively supported, with some community-driven software projects targeting these platforms [1][5].
The Alpha One is another advanced RISC-V board that is part of Pine64’s product line. It represents the company's strategic shift towards RISC-V hardware development [5].
While Pine64's earlier RISC-V smartphone, the FuriPhone FLX1, is not mentioned in the latest updates, it remains part of their open hardware RISC-V smartphone lineage. Its development and community support align with Pine64’s RISC-V efforts, but there have been no recent significant changes or discontinuation announcements [2][5][1].
The status of the HMD Fusion project is less clear, as there are no specific or recent updates in the latest Pine64 community posts or news from August 2025 [2][5].
In addition to these developments, the PineNote, an e-ink-based tablet from Pine64, has received several Linux updates. The older, color LCD tablet from Pine64, the PineTab2, has also received OS updates, with improvements to its Bluetooth support [2][5].
However, the PinePhone Pro has not had its specifications upgraded since it started shipping, and there is a very preliminary port of FreeBSD to the just-discontinued PinePhone Pro [2][5].
Looking back, the PinePhone Pro started shipping nearly four years ago, while the PineNote can now run Arch Linux, postmarketOS, and NixOS. The nostalgia for the Acorn kit of old is still present in the tech community [2][5].
RISC-V, while growing, still cannot compete with Arm in performance. Nevertheless, Pine64's commitment to RISC-V suggests a belief in the potential of this open-source instruction set architecture for future developments [2][5].
The Oz64, a low-end RISC-V single-board computer, is also part of Pine64's RISC-V portfolio. It costs $12.99 and comes with one Arm A53 core, two 1 GHz C906 RISC-V cores, and 512 MB of RAM [2][5]. Meanwhile, the Star64, a higher-end RISC-V single-board computer with four 1.5 GHz cores, 8 GB of RAM, and a GPU, costs $89.99 [2][5].
As Pine64 moves forward with its RISC-V focus, the tech community eagerly awaits the next steps in this open-source journey.
