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Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

fxtec.com

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Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#221

Post by smichel17 »

SamBam wrote: post #152
anotheryou wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple? My swiftkey on android is sooo much better.

I used Swype for a long time and loved it. Then it was killed, and Android shipped its default keyboard ("gboard") with one that included swiping. I've used it ever since, not thinking about it, but it has never been as good as Swype, and about 20% of my words are errors. I don't think about it much because their autocorrect suggestions are pretty good when you tap on a word, but it really is annoying. Honestly, it's…

Swype was killed? I still have and use it. It came preinstalled on my Galaxy S6.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#222

Post by stevehawk »

anotheryou wrote: post #137
blandflakes wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Apple? My swiftkey on android is sooo much better.

Apple swipe is f'n horrible. I've disabled every autocorrect I can and it still goes back and will change previous words to the word I've typed when it decides I don't know what the hell I'm typing.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#223

Post by uranium »

rainingmonkey wrote: post #65
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?

Everyone who remembers how much better phones with slide-out keyboards were. Commenters here seem to be focusing on the available OSes, but most flagship phones from a few years ago without a locked bootloader will run Lineage or Uubuntu Touch. FXtec's offering here is just that the bootloader won't be uncooperative. The real killer feature is the keyboard. Those questioning the utility of a slide-out keyboard on a p…

This. I haven't seen a good phone with a 5-row keyboard since my first android phone, a G-1. Having that fifth row means that all the punctuation goes where you expect it to be, and you don't have to learn another key layout. I've been making do with swiping text since about 4 phones ago, but it makes typing on a phone painful and about 10x slower. So far I've had to correct about 3 words per sentence. I can't wait to be able to order this phone!

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#224

Post by bogwog »

dmos62 wrote: post #103
kevingadd wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Can someone expand on this? My anecdotal experience contradicts this and I don't know much about CPUs.

ARM chips are heterogenous, so while they may claim to have 8 cores, not all of those cores are the same. Some are low-power cores meant to save battery power, and the high power cores are only activated when necessary.

Plus regardless of that, just because a CPU is old doesn't mean it's more power efficient than a new one. If anything, it's usually the other way around.

edit: more info at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ARM_big.LITTLE

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#225

Post by varispeed »

bradfa wrote: post #208
varispeed wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never needed customer support for a phone and never done any updates (I have not updated my phone for like 3 years, because I know the next update disables call recording). I'd love a phone with good specs, as many open parts as possible and with all schematics and BOM so I could fix it myself if something goes wrong.

I had the secure enclave in my iPhone 8 fail about 6 months after I bought it. Solution was to spend about half an hour on the phone with Apple while they ran remote diagnostics and then take it to an Apple store 30 minutes drive away. 10 minutes spent with Apple store employee while they ran even more diagnostics resulted in them handing me a replacement phone and I walked out. The ability to fairly quickly resolve…

I would never give my phone to the support under any circumstances. I just don't trust that they'll handle my data securely and who knows where my phone will land - some subcontractors instead of disposing it could try to refurbish. I've seen cases where someone bought a phone still with someone's data on it. I look on forums to see what kind of problems people have with a particular phone and if there is nothing serious, then I consider buying it. If something happens to my phone I destroy it myself and get a new one.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#226

Post by yxhuvud »

log101 wrote: post #9

What is the advantage of the slideout keyboard? It might save some pixels while you type, but it looks very uncomfortable.

If it is anything like the old HTC Desire Z, then it will be super comfy. The downside is the thickness and the increased risk of breakage due to having moving parts.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#227

Post by xearl »

svacko wrote: post #211

The pre-order site https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#t... says "Be one of the first to pre-order your Pro1 today. Shipping globally is estimated to be September 2019." ? Is it in the pre-order state since then?

That page you linked to is for the Pro-1. The OP is about the newer Pro-1x.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#228

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

Sodman wrote: post #170

I still consider my old Nokia E70[0] my favorite phone of all time, so I am definitely in the target demographic for this, as I'm 100% sold on the usefulness of a physical keyboard on a phone... However the CPU just doesn't match the "pro" branding, or the price range. I'd personally rather throw an extra $200-300 on top to get a flagship CPU and then it would be close to a perfect phone for me! As it currently is, t…

I have a Gemini that can triple boot ex. between Android, Debian, and Sailfish, so it's been done, but that was designed in by the manufacturer. There used to be some Android multiboot hack (multirom or something?), but I don't know details or if it's still around.

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#229

Post by LilBytes »

svacko wrote: post #211

The pre-order site https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#t... says "Be one of the first to pre-order your Pro1 today. Shipping globally is estimated to be September 2019." ? Is it in the pre-order state since then?

FAQ says the following, unsure if it's a typo or perpetually in pre-order.

https://store.fxtec.com/product/fxtec-pro%C2%B9-x-256-8gb/#t...

"

The current estimated shipping date to pre-order customers is September, watch out for updates over email or on social media:

Twitter (@thefxtec), Instagram (@fxtec), Facebook (fxtec)"

Other commenter is right, the Pro 1X has the following:

"SHIPPING IN AUGUST 2021"

Re: Pro1 X: A Linux smartphone with slideout keyboard

#230

Post by darksaints »

If you would have asked me 10 years ago, this would have been my ideal phone. But not anymore. For two reasons:

1) touchscreens have gotten a lot better...they're not perfect, but they're finally good enough for a phone. And not having a physical keyboard means fewer moving parts, and fewer physical design constraints, which translates to higher reliability and better performance.

2) Android and linux in general are not good enough for phones. I want a better security model. Android could have been built on top of any kernel...they had to build all of the userland and drivers from scratch. I'm disappointed that Linux was chosen instead of something like L4 or QNX, which would have allowed us to sandbox code that could be potentially malicious, deny access to sensitive resources like location, etc. It would also be far more reliable, with the ability to restart individual malfunctioning driver code instead of your whole phone. And most of the freedoms that come from rooting your phone would be built in.

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