Nerd in me: This is badass, I want one.
Brooklyn in me: My entire office is going to absolutely clown me for life if they ever see me with this goofy thing.
It's a brave device, that's for sure.
Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
41–50 of 358 posts
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#42Ubuntu touch is the worst of all choices for a linux phone right now. It is based on obsolete ubuntu sources and the browser is really limited
From what I've seen, Ubuntu Touch is the best mobile "Linux" distributions. Other, purely Linux operating systems lack common apps, have janky UIs and are barely functional on most hardware.
Ubuntu Touch runs on whatever the manufacturer or Qualcom have put down as a basis, instead of relying on a standard, open Linux kernel with open drivers. This has all the downsides of the Android kernel, but at least it's functional.
The point of having it run Ubuntu Touch is to show that the phone is not locked down like nearly every other (usable) phone in the market today. If pmOS or KDE Plasma get ported to the device, those systems will probably have the preference of most die-hard Linux users. Doing so requires a lot of work, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if improving or even just using the reverse-engineered drivers for many kinds of smartphone hardware would violate the NDA manufacturers sign with Qualcom.
To me, this device looks like what the Oneplus One looked like when it was first announced: an Android phone that doesn't lock its users out of the system. Getting any non-Android OS to run on the device underlines that without going through the effort to make everything nice and open.
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#43The Nokia Communicator dream never dies. The original 9000 series was first introduced impressive 25 years ago.
At one point I had a HP Jornada 720 running Jlime Linux with a PCMCIA WiFi card for wardriving (15 years ago).
One of my first smartphones was Xperia Mini Pro with a slide-out keyboard and I loved that thing (10 years ago). This is also around the time of Nokia N900 which had a deserved cult following.
These days I think regular smartphones are good enough for quickly replying to a mail, for any serious work I'd use a laptop.
I don't see a niche for this any more.
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#44For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?
First of all, there are other languages than English.
Some of them are programming languages.
Also a touchscreen can not be operated with sweaty fingers or slightly unusual conditions.
No they really can not be reliably used, recent years’ improvements notwithstanding.
If I ever need to use my phone in an emergency outside in the cold with wet, sweaty perhaps bloody hands, I’d appreciate a 100% physical keyboard controllable one.
Touchscreens are handy though as an auxiliary control in the ideal circumstances.
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#45For english language, swipe typing coupled with autocorrect works astonishingly well. So much so that I use it regularly because of lazyness. What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? Youngins were born and raised touching the screen, so it's archaic to them. Old timers are jaded at this point to either wait for their dream phone or buy any cheap crap. So who's the target for this 900 usd device?
I often have a shell open on my phone, but far less often than I would if there were good options for typing. I'm very excited by the prospect.
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#46I would like to see the keyboard layout but I can't find any photo.
See [1], source: FTA. This is the spiritual successor of the Nokia N900, and it isn't a very good keyboard (but a better layout than N900). Its pretty much a rebrand of the same device with the same name from 2019 without the 'X'. Difference is it has better OS support (thanks to XDA, I guess), different SOC (recent SD600 series instead of SD835), and a different colour (blue instead of grey). If you want a very good…
Astro Slide 5G Transformer seems like a really good phone, one that I actually might get once it's past the Indiegogo stage.
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...
EDIT: and it has a backlight keyboard!
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#47Physical keyboards have interesting usage modalities.
One of my colleagues told me she missed physical keyboards because touchscreens are harder to use with acrylic nails. They can be used without turning the screen on, etc.
I wonder to what extent input technologies have a fashion cycle.
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#48Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#49Ubuntu touch is the worst of all choices for a linux phone right now. It is based on obsolete ubuntu sources and the browser is really limited
But it is far more likely to actually work. Obsolete sources or not, they're further ahead for actual phone stuff than basically anyone else.
Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard
#50Ubuntu touch is the worst of all choices for a linux phone right now. It is based on obsolete ubuntu sources and the browser is really limited
It's not that bad, it was way ahead of it's time with the way the full screen navigation was handled. It's obviously a bit dated now but more due to a lack of users and interest than anything else, I'm sure it could be brought back to a more modern stack if the community was there.