The stuff Hacker News actually recommends.

Boards and maker kit

ClockworkPi DevTerm

9owners with an opinion
50%of verdicts positive
0/1positive/negative since 2024
0happy after 3+ years

Praised for design and performance; criticized for comfort and ergonomics.

What people wrote

Doesn’t like it
I ordered the CM4 Lite uConsole kit almost immediately after opening that first link. That's a great price for a 4GB RAM CM4 given what they currently sell for on Amazon/eBay. I currently own an A06 DevTerm but have been unsatisfied with it. Clockwork OS feels lacking, I wish there was a stand for it, and the keyboard isn't great. The uConsole CM4 can theoretically run Raspbian, has a built-in stand, and features a more compact keyboard. Better overall IMO. If I end up liking it then I will go for the RISC-V option. Of the available RISC-V options I know of, it appears to be one of the best.
Likes it
I have! But it's too small for what I'm chasing :) Very cool gadget in it's own right however -- but I want to do a bigger keyboard for comfortable typing on it for writing prose
Doesn’t like it
Absolutely. I have a clockwork pi devterm, which is arguably on the more usable end of the spectrum. In practice, the keyboard (and trackball) are much too small and cumbersome to use with joy. Another thing is that despite the very capable hardware (it has a rockchip along with plenty of RAM, I think 4 or 8GB), modern software just has so much latency. Perhaps we've been spoiled by today's ssds, but even cli software just feels much slower than what we're used to.
Likes it
There are several blackberry keyboard projects out there. I've been on a similar journey to OP for a while. Currently I've got a phone I'm fiddling with putting a jetson xavier inside a rotary phone and another based off the featherwing with a blackberry keyboard and touch display and a feather compatible linux SOC (GiantBoard). I recently got a ClockworkPi DevTerm and have been so pleased with it that I'm seriously considering their GameShell as a phone platform. It's modularity is great. I'm so excited that other people are working on DIY "phones". I personally think we are going to see this scene keep growing and phones will finally be more like the custom computer market very soon. The fact that people are finally putting linux on apple devices is also very very encouraging. There are so many bricked iphones and ipads floating around with great displays and sensors that are totally useless because we can't run a reasonable OS. https://www.adafruit.com/product/4818 https://www.crowdsupply.com/groboards/giant-board https://www.clockworkpi.com/product-page/devterm-kit-a06-ser...
Neutral
I have a DevTerm from clockwork pi [1] which is a very capable device modeled after a TRS 80. It made me realize that the most important feature (to me) is the keyboard. Anything that you can't type on fluently is not really very useful. The DevTerm has an almost large enough keyboard, but the keys are squishy and tilt slightly when typing, which kills touch typing. I really wish someone made a newer version of the Sony Vaio P - ultra slim, widescreen and perhaps a 60% sized keyboard. [1] https://www.clockworkpi.com/devterm
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
I'd like to give a shot to: https://www.clockworkpi.com/home-devterm as it seems the perfect hack-on-the-go device to throw not hardware hungry code. The main issue for me preventing trying one of these is the keyboard and the trackball. From what I could see from some videos is one of its weakest points. The input device (in my opinion) in this case has to be excellent, I wouldn't care to pay a bit more for this. I would sacrifice the gaming buttons for a bigger regular keyboard and use a trackpoint instead of a tiny trackball. The thing with the trackpoint is that almost requires no lift of hands from the keyboard, it takes a bit getting used to but in my opinion is one of the best input devices that a notebook or small computer can have. The devterm seems to follow the Dynabook layout which I think is great, if you could also bend a bit the screen a that would be terrific.
Doesn’t like itDoesn’t say they own it
I'm in love this device and would pay 10x the cost to have one if it included Wifi and QMK firmware for the keyboard. Bluetooth and NFC would be great too, but not critical. The keyboard reminds me a lot of the Atreus42, which is ideal for me. Too many of these small devices follow a conventional keyboard layout (looking at you, ClockworkPi DevTerm and Popcorn Pocket Computer).