Earlier this year a Tunisian group called DawnDrums SARL revealed their initial plans to build a Linux-friendly smartphone called the Divine D. with a 5.5 inch AMOLED display, a Rockchip RK3588S processor, and an open source design.

Now the team says it’s updated the mainboard with a Rev 1.1 design that brings a number of significant changes, including a bunch of features you’re unlikely to find on any other smartphone. While there’s still no word on a price or release date, the team did recently release a video that appears to show a Linux-based operating system booting on a prototype of the new board.

Among other things, the new board adds:

MicroSDXC interface for high-speed removable storageMicro HDMI 2.1 connector with support for 8K/60 Hz video outputLoRa module for low-power, long-range communicationHaptic engine with a motor and driverBattery switch that physically disconnects the batteryLED lights for status indicatorsAn IR LED18 pogo pins for easy access to GPIO, SPI, UART, I2C, and JTAG interfaces.

And instead of a mini PCIe connector, the new board has an M.2 B-Key connector for a M.2 3042 cellular module for GSM and 4G LTE connectivity.

The Divine D. phone is also expected to feature kill switches that let you physically disconnect the mic, camera, and cellular features when they’re not in use.

Other features are expected to include support for up to 32GB of LPDDR4x memory, up to 256GB of eMMC storage, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3, stereo speakers, dual microphones, a headphone jack, and USB-C port.

DawnDrums is hardly the first group to design a Linux-friendly phone. Pine64 and Purism have been pioneers in this space, and a handful of other companies have released their own models in recent years. But the Divine D. is shaping up to be one of the most powerful, versatile models to date thanks to its high-performance processor and extensive set of I/O features.

But it’s also still very much a work in progress. While it’s nice to see software booting on a prototype, there’s a long way to go to turn that prototype into a fully functional mobile device that offers reliable performance, decent battery life, and other functionality.

You can find more information about the Divine D. at the DawnDrums website and GitHub page.

via @dawndrums and Hacker News

Liliputing’s primary sources of revenue are advertising and affiliate links (if you click the “Shop” button at the top of the page and buy something on Amazon, for example, we’ll get a small commission).

But there are several ways you can support the site directly even if you’re using an ad blocker* and hate online shopping.

Contribute to our Patreon campaign

or…

Contribute via PayPal * If you are using an ad blocker like uBlock Origin and seeing a pop-up message at the bottom of the screen, we have a guide that may help you disable it.

Join 9,508 other subscribers