Maybe it’s just a problem with Dactnix? Or PipeWire/PulseAudio? Or maybe the modem firmware somehow? You could try another distro like Mobian (you might need to install Tow Boot for that). You can also try asking on the forums. Mobian has a Matrix room, so maybe Dactnix has some chat room as well where you can ask questions.

I don’t wanna throw any shade to the Pinephone devs but do you think this phone is ever gonna be usable?

It’s difficult to say. I’ve been using mine as my only phone for over 2 years. It works, but it’s not a good phone. I don’t want to use phones with a proprietary operating system, so I’m stuck with this one. Unlike Purism, Pine64 does nothing to contribute to the software and the kernel situation isn’t looking good (https://blog.mobian.org/posts/2023/09/30/paperweight-dilemma). Software like Phosh and some apps do get better over time though, but it’s small improvements and it takes a long time.

I think the biggest problem is the hardware. The phone is super slow and power inefficient. PinePhone Pro is faster, but even more power inefficient. You can’t install a desktop build of Debian or any other operating system on it, because it requires a custom kernel to work well. The kernel is being worked on entirely by unpaid contributors in their free time, so it takes years to get everything working properly. Even if Pine64 releases a fast and efficient phone with modern hardware, I assume it’s gonna have the same problem. The only solution would be for Pine64 to hire devs to work on software and on hardware support. Purism does that, but I don’t know how good Librem 5 is.