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Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

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Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#91

Post by cstross »

raesene9 wrote: post #11

For another option, along similar lines, which has been shipping for a while now, there's https://store.planetcom.co.uk/collections/devices

Note that Planet Computers are currently developing the Cosmo Communicator, which kinda-sorta resembles the Pro1X layout, except with the (vastly superior) Psion-descended keyboard design of the earlier PC machines:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...

As it's their third iteration I'm reasonably confident that this isn't vapourware and will ship some time after June (it was originally promised for March but COVID19 has hit everyone -- along with chip shortages).

For those who haven't used a Gemini PDA or a Cosmo Communicator, the Planet Computers smartphones have a keyboard descended from the late 1990s Psion Series 5 PDA, which actually has reasonable travel and tactile feedback rather than the chiclet style keys of the Nokia N900 or Blackberry or Pro1X. This means the Astro Slide is inevitably going to be a bit fatter than the Pro1X, but be easier to type on (and has a similar dual-mode use case, with a big touchscreen and a slide-out keyboard). The Astro Slide also promises 5G connectivity, 8Gb of RAM, and support for Linux OSs as well as Android.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#92

Post by NathanielK »

maxsilver wrote: post #69
tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For 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?

You can have both, with no drawbacks. My favourite phone ever designed was the BlackBerry Priv. It was an Android-based smartphone with a full-sized (5.4in) touchscreen, an completely-hidden slide-out physical keyboard, that also doubled as a touch-sensitive pad. You could "swipe" (touchscreen-style) over the keys, and then press down on those same physical keys simultaneously. But you could also slide it back into t…

BlackBerry's keyboard software is excellent too. I use BlackBerry Keyboard[1] on my compact Xperia. The auto-suggests appear on the keys themselves. This saves valuable real-estate compared to having an extra row of words above the keyboard.

Sadly BlackBerry haven't released new hardware for ~3 years and their software is barely on life support. A shame since they have a knack for functional design.

[1]https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.blackberry...

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#93

Post by dmos62 »

froh42 wrote: post #85

I wonder why such devices have such a "meh" processor. This thing has a worse one than my several year old OnePlus 5. Don't know if it can do HDMI or DisplayPort output, but assuming that (and using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse) it might be a ultra-portable work machine for me, so I don't need to schlep my laptop around. But not with a meh processor, then it is only a phone with a keyboard.

But a non-meh processor means less battery time. I'd prefer meh processor to meh battery life. Meh.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#94

Post by Wildgoose »

I have another British 'phone with a better keyboard on order for delivery starting in June: The Astro Slide 5G from Planet Computers: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...

I bought their Gemini offering which is a great PDA but not so good as a mobile phone. Their new offering promises to provide a solution for both.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#95

Post by ISL »

artembugara wrote: post #79

Last summer, Maksym and I (2 co-founders of NewsCatcher, full team) went to the beach. It was like 1 hour walk from the place we were (where all laptops were). By the time we were at the beach, we began receiving the alarms that our ElasticSearch does not receive any new data. Maksym had to debug from my iPhone XR (and he actually succeeded in 20 mins). That was this time I though it would be nice to have a phone lik…

A small folding bluetooth keyboard can be awesome in this situation.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#96

Post by reasonabl_human »

BossingAround wrote: post #40
tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For 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?

> What segment does the physical keyboard appeal to? I definitely welcome this. Swipe typing has been completely unusable for me, personally (I must be doing it wrong, Galaxy S10) and the display registers so many typos when I type that I often break out the whole laptop to type a simple whatsapp message. The price is steep; if the phone is good though, it definitely interests me.

Whoa... maybe it’s the jenky touchwiz software Samsung bundles on galaxies (if that’s still the case?). Try installing the default google keyboard and setting it as default. Back when I used android, the Google keyboard swipe capability was solid, this was on an LG G6 with some debloated vanilla android rom.

Although I have to say, moving back to iOS has been pretty amazing. Swiping on the normal iOS keyboard allowed me to type this entire message from bed with one hand... barely any autocorrect kicked in...

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#98

Post by kevingadd »

dmos62 wrote: post #93
froh42 wrote: post #85

I wonder why such devices have such a "meh" processor. This thing has a worse one than my several year old OnePlus 5. Don't know if it can do HDMI or DisplayPort output, but assuming that (and using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse) it might be a ultra-portable work machine for me, so I don't need to schlep my laptop around. But not with a meh processor, then it is only a phone with a keyboard.

But a non-meh processor means less battery time. I'd prefer meh processor to meh battery life. Meh.

That's not necessarily true, if it remains clocked down most of the time and is using the low power 'little' cores the difference isn't going to be that significant.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#99

Post by s_fischer »

tifadg1 wrote: post #23

For 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?

They probably aren't the designed target market but I wonder if a physical keyboard would be easier to use for the vision impaired. Especially with the ridges on the home keys, they could rely less on the audio feedback experience of glass screen keyboards

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#100

Post by SergeAx »

dmos62 wrote: post #93
froh42 wrote: post #85

I wonder why such devices have such a "meh" processor. This thing has a worse one than my several year old OnePlus 5. Don't know if it can do HDMI or DisplayPort output, but assuming that (and using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse) it might be a ultra-portable work machine for me, so I don't need to schlep my laptop around. But not with a meh processor, then it is only a phone with a keyboard.

But a non-meh processor means less battery time. I'd prefer meh processor to meh battery life. Meh.

For Linux device I would expect a system slider setting like "speed/battery".
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