Why do you want Pi5 if you can get a smartphone with a screen?

Because a smartphone is locked down by default. I'm sure there's lots you can't just easily do with it.

The development experience of something like Android itself seems super unfriendly for beginners (as someone who is admittedly a beginner to it)

	▲	lilbigdoot 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		It's not as locked down as you might think. I was surprised how easy it was to root a couple of devices, one an old pixel and one a pretty new one It's definitely a bit odd, the Android environment, but I didn't feel blocked on it. Also ended up unrooting one because termux and the built in debian VM on Android now give everything I need Termux + X11+ XFCE is surprisingly nice on a vanilla phone
	▲	tete 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
		The Raspberry Pi is also somewhat locked down compared to most competing devices. But yeah phones are even more. :)
	▲	varispeed 3 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		There is a lot of AI-aided effort going on "hacking" the bootloaders. Hopefully someone will figure out how to unlock them.

4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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imdsm 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Do you think perhaps there are reasons other than using ... a smartphone?