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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

#181

Post by nfriedly »

_nalply wrote: post #147
HideousKojima wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The PinePhone will be coming out with a keyboard add-on soon

Hopefully not as a slideout. My wife is handicapped and don't manage fiddly slideouts. She is happy with Blackberry Key2 style keyboards.

There's renderings on [1] and [2] and prototype photos on [3] and [4] that makes it look like more of a clamshell / laptop shape with the phone screen and keyboard folded against each other when it's closed. Kind of like a tablet with a keyboard case. Apparently the keyboard will also have a 22Wh/6000mAh batter in it.

[1]: https://www.pine64.org/2020/12/15/december-update-the-longes...

[2]: https://www.pine64.org/2021/01/15/january-update-happy-new-g...

[3]: https://www.pine64.org/2021/02/15/february-update-show-and-t...

[4]: https://www.pine64.org/2021/03/15/march-update/

Search for "keyboard" or just scroll about halfway down each of the pages to see the pictures.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#182

Post by AnssiH »

Pxtl wrote: post #35
darau1 wrote: post #30

I really wish they would just make some keyboard-case-love-child for some of the more popular mainstream devices. I really want a physical keyboard, but I don't want to give up my daily driver for a $900 unknown variable.

They were supposed to. This company was launched on an ill-fated Kickstarter for a slide-out keyboard attachment called "Livermorium" for the Moto Z. It's the reason I owned a Moto Z. I have no interest in buying a no-name brand phone, though.

I got the Moto Z keyboard attachment, and it was too clunky to use compared to e.g. my current Pro1 or whatever I had back then (BlackBerry Priv probably).

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#183

Post by Cu3PO42 »

I used to use a Motorola Milestone/Droid. It was great, I really loved the slideout keyboard and could touch type on it. Even with just two fingers actively in use, it felt great. Also being able to type something in landscape mode while still being able to see anything but the textbox and keyboard was phenomenal.

All of that said, typing on a touch screen is fine and I don't think I'm willing to pay the premium for such a device anymore.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#185

Post by zokier »

KaiserPro wrote: post #169
andreygrehov wrote: post #139

I see positive comments about the keyboard, but is it really a good UX to type on such a small keyboard? I mean, when you use your laptop, pretty much all of your fingers are involved in the process of typing, whereas if the same keyboard is part of a mobile phone, you only use your thumbs, which is the opposite of how qwerty keyboards supposed to be used. It feels like the idea of a full-blown keyboard on a mobile p…

The n900 had a _tiny_ keyboard. But it was practical to type are almost normal keyboard speeds. Unlike on a touch screen, where auto correct gets in the way.

N900 benefitted from tinyness, because thumbs could reach all keys easily. On modern-sized phone you'd need to stretch far more to reach the middle with thumbs

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#186

Post by jolux »

jostylr wrote: post #162
remram wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does look like two phones. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to make it actually two phones (or separate phone-sized devices), so you can use the touchscreen part as a phone, and have the other part be a pluggable keyboard + powerbank.

The textblade ( https://waytools.com/ ) would be the ideal form factor in my mind. Unfortunately, it has been 6 years since they said they were going to release it though there have been people (testers) using it for real for several years.

If it's not released it's pretty suspicious that they let you buy one without mentioning that.

edit: this thing looks like a total scam. Announced as being 12 weeks out in 2015, taking orders, and still not released in April 2021, yet still taking orders? That's more than a blown deadline at this point. They're lucky they haven't seen legal action.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#187

Post by corty »

Pxtl wrote: post #35
darau1 wrote: post #30

I really wish they would just make some keyboard-case-love-child for some of the more popular mainstream devices. I really want a physical keyboard, but I don't want to give up my daily driver for a $900 unknown variable.

They were supposed to. This company was launched on an ill-fated Kickstarter for a slide-out keyboard attachment called "Livermorium" for the Moto Z. It's the reason I owned a Moto Z. I have no interest in buying a no-name brand phone, though.

Problem is, Motorola took its time certifying the keyboard and by the time they were done, hardware components where no longer available, so they had to redesign. Same thing happened again, but they successfully delivered a few prototypes. After which Motorola discontinued the attachment ports altogether.

So fuck Motorola, never again.

And from what I've seen in the Pro1 (no X), it works pretty well, does what it is supposed to. Price could be lower, but there is always something.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#188

Post by thesuitonym »

seanhunter wrote: post #110

There's no free lunch, and it's easy to overlook the compromises involved in the devices that used to have physical keyboards. By modern standards, blackberrys had a woefully small screen and phones with slideout keyboards were very fat. This device doesn't look fat which suggests to me that the compromise might be either battery life or low processor power. That said, although this is definitely not for me, it's gen…

It's kind of crazy to me that people are concerned about the thickness of phones, yet nobody bats an eye when they keep getting bigger and bigger in the other dimensions. I guess screen size trumps all other concerns.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#189

Post by flatline »

blandflakes wrote: post #34
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?

Honestly, I find that it works astonishingly poorly. Autocorrect is often wrong, sometimes showing the right thing milliseconds before second-guessing itself into a totally wrong word, so now I'm having to backspace because for some reason typing the actual letters I want is bad user interface. Agreed regarding target audience, though.

I turned off autocorrect years ago and never looked back. Sometimes I misspell a word but it’s better than typing a word slightly wrong and having a completely different word pop out. I’ll still use autocomplete sometimes to save some typing.
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