F(x)tec Pro¹ - Slider Smartphone with physical keyboard

[Swordfish II]

Hopefully you guys get yours.

I just received my Cosmo Communicator waiting on the rooted android and linux but great hardware.

 

[mrpalmtop]

Hopefully you guys get yours.

I just received my Cosmo Communicator waiting on the rooted android and linux but great hardware.

So I have a Gemini but in the end have stopped using it much. My main problems with it were that the phone mics were poor quality (people often said they couldn't hear me well) and that the keyboard hinge was covered in a flimsy plastic which frequently broke when I used it as a daily driver. I had to do several RMA requests.

I wasn't interested in an external display and was wary of poor quality so I took a pass on the Cosmo. What do you think of yours so far?

 

[NetBLOKS]

So I have a Gemini but in the end have stopped using it much. My main problems with it were that the phone mics were poor quality (people often said they couldn't hear me well) and that the keyboard hinge was covered in a flimsy plastic which frequently broke when I used it as a daily driver. I had to do several RMA requests.

I wasn't interested in an external display and was wary of poor quality so I took a pass on the Cosmo. What do you think of yours so far?

It is a big improvement:
It feels more robust in every way.
The keyboard is far superior, ten finger typing is no problem any more.
The feeled speed or the reaction speed is much faster and the backlit keyboard is wonderful.
The hinges look more stable, but I don't know how long they will last.
I think, most likely longer than the Gemini ones.
The outside display is a nice to have, but I would not miss it, if I wouldn't have it.
More often than not, I accidently (de)activate something in android, just by touching the outside display, which is very laggy by the way.
The cell reception, the mic and the voice are much better than on the Gemini.
So for me, it was a big improvement and I use it on a daily basis as my primary (work)phone.
Also: Bluetooth and WLAN are really stable now!!
AlsoAlso: The fingerprintsensor is a very nice edition too!

 

[Swordfish II]

It is a big improvement:
It feels more robust in every way.
The keyboard is far superior, ten finger typing is no problem any more.
The feeled speed or the reaction speed is much faster and the backlit keyboard is wonderful.
The hinges look more stable, but I don't know how long they will last.
I think, most likely longer than the Gemini ones.
The outside display is a nice to have, but I would not miss it, if I wouldn't have it.
More often than not, I accidently (de)activate something in android, just by touching the outside display, which is very laggy by the way.
The cell reception, the mic and the voice are much better than on the Gemini.
So for me, it was a big improvement and I use it on a daily basis as my primary (work)phone.
Also: Bluetooth and WLAN are really stable now!!
AlsoAlso: The fingerprintsensor is a very nice edition too!

Exactly this. I can type accurately and shockingly fast on it. I like the outside screen, coming from an lg v20 with a second screen that i love. Sure it's a bit laggy but nbd and it is shockingly accurate even with my large hands/fingers.

The whole thing feels solid. My biggest complaints are the battery optimization (poor right now), the large amount of useless stuff preinstalled, and lack of linux right now.

 

[mrpalmtop]

Thank you @Swordfish II and @NetBLOKS for those impressions. I appreciate the updates.

I was so irritated with the hinge stuff. I hope it will be better this time. The outside screen didn't look very nice to me on the videos so that was another reason I've held back.

What do you guys mean by being able to type better on the Cosmo? How is the keyboard better?

 

[NetBLOKS]

Thank you @Swordfish II and @NetBLOKS for those impressions. I appreciate the updates.

I was so irritated with the hinge stuff. I hope it will be better this time. The outside screen didn't look very nice to me on the videos so that was another reason I've held back.

What do you guys mean by being able to type better on the Cosmo? How is the keyboard better?

The Gemini keyboard did not react very often, the space bar did not work half the time, the click was not exact etc.
The Cosmo keyboard feels like a real laptop keyboard with a significant click to it.
You do not have to check for missing letters that you know you have typed but the keyboard did not accept them.
It just feels right!
The Cosmo is a real Mini-laptop... with Android

 

[Swordfish II]

Thank you @Swordfish II and @NetBLOKS for those impressions. I appreciate the updates.

I was so irritated with the hinge stuff. I hope it will be better this time. The outside screen didn't look very nice to me on the videos so that was another reason I've held back.

What do you guys mean by being able to type better on the Cosmo? How is the keyboard better?

I didn't have a gemini. But i do have a viliv n5 which is about the same size as the cosmo but thicker (being a umpc from about 2008). The viliv keyboard is terrible since the buttons are all flat and you can't tell where one starts and the next ends.

If you look at that keyboard from the side, all the keys look like this ----. The Cosmo keys have like a bevel so you can feel where they start and end and feel the gap between keys. They are more like this /\/\ but flatter on top.

The key spring feel is great and the size on the keys is also decent while including arrow and number keys. So far the only mistakes when typing are due to me.

The hinge feels very solid.

 

[mrpalmtop]

I didn't have a gemini. But i do have a viliv n5 which is about the same size as the cosmo but thicker (being a umpc from about 2008). The viliv keyboard is terrible since the buttons are all flat and you can't tell where one starts and the next ends.

If you look at that keyboard from the side, all the keys look like this ----. The Cosmo keys have like a bevel so you can feel where they start and end and feel the gap between keys. They are more like this /\/\ but flatter on top.

The key spring feel is great and the size on the keys is also decent while including arrow and number keys. So far the only mistakes when typing are due to me.

The hinge feels very solid.

I have an N5 as well. The keys on it are indeed terrible. They also press down too easily which makes typing difficult. The shape of the keys on the Gemini/Cosmo is much better.

 

[Swordfish II]

I have an N5 as well. The keys on it are indeed terrible. They also press down too easily which makes typing difficult. The shape of the keys on the Gemini/Cosmo is much better.

I wanted an mbook bz back then but there were delay issues. So i ended up with the viliv. My most under used pocket computer. Keys are terrible, battery was terrible.

I still have it just in case i absolutely need a Windows computer for something.

 

[mrpalmtop]

I still have it just in case i absolutely need a Windows computer for something.

I still have mine as well but the Windows was so slow that I just wiped it and put Linux on it. I managed to get a slimmed down Plasma 4 desktop on there that took up 200MB of RAM.

Unfortunately, the SSD on mine just died one day. I haven't bothered to see if it can boot and run from microsd. Not worth the effort for such a lousy keyboard.

 

[kabouik]

I don't mean to advertise for the Pro¹, I'm just a long time user of devices like this since the N900 era (I'm a lurker here but have a long history on talk.maemo.org). However, since there is already a thread here, and being myself following the Pyra development very closely because I love the idea of having Linux in my pocket, I thought you guys might be interested in this recent achievement thanks to a dev making LXC containers a thing on Sailfish:


Of course it's not like booting Linux directly, but it opens many possibilities too. There are some disadvantages compared to multi-boot, but one advantage is all mobile and telephony SFOS apps are still available alongside the container, so I'm still using the device as a phone, not an extra device.

Regarding the keyboard, I'm averaging 50 wpm on the Pro¹, but the most important is I have 100% typing accuracy with it. I'd still love to have a Pyra though, I think the uses cases are not exactly the same. There is no video out or cursor support on SFOS for instance, so LXC containers cannot be used with an external monitor, and no hardware acceleration in containers either, but still very usable for anything but gaming with great battery life.

 

[Swordfish II]

I don't mean to advertise for the Pro¹, I'm just a long time user of devices like this since the N900 era (I'm a lurker here but have a long history on talk.maemo.org). However, since there is already a thread here, and being myself following the Pyra development very closely because I love the idea of having Linux in my pocket, I thought you guys might be interested in this recent achievement thanks to a dev making LXC containers a thing on Sailfish:


Of course it's not like booting Linux directly, but it opens many possibilities too. There are some disadvantages compared to multi-boot, but one advantage is all mobile and telephony SFOS apps are still available alongside the container, so I'm still using the device as a phone, not an extra device.

Regarding the keyboard, I'm averaging 50 wpm on the Pro¹, but the most important is I have 100% typing accuracy with it. I'd still love to have a Pyra though, I think the uses cases are not exactly the same. There is no video out or cursor support on SFOS for instance, so LXC containers cannot be used with an external monitor, and no hardware acceleration in containers either, but still very usable for anything but gaming with great battery life.

Does SFOS work out of the box on the FX Tec? Does it have android app support on it?

 

[kabouik]

It's a community port (but it is solid, not many bugs left), so no Alien Dalvik included, and you cannot buy it from Jolla. However with Debian running on it, I honestly have no use for any Android application anymore. There's a arm64 package for Anbox on Debian Sid too, so I suppose it should be possible to use that too. The best is probably to head over one of the community chats for further talking attempts to get Android working on community ports though, because it's probably grey area depending on what solution is being investigated (Anbox would be legal but others things that have been tested may be grey area).

Regarding SFOS itself, there's a link to a flashing guide in the video description, it's actually not difficult, perhaps even easier than official devices since the bootloader is not locked.

 

[kabouik]

Since I was mentioning typing speed above, here is a video of it in the same Debian container:

And another one from another user running LineageOS (but I beat him :O — actually no, we have the exact same cpm, which is more reliable than wpm):

 

[kabouik]

You guys might be interested in the upgrade of the Pro1, the Pro1x. It's currently trending on IGG, and they stated that the plan is only to sell it during the 6 weeks of the campaign (Pro2 plans for longer term maybe?).


And an interesting discussion between Linux for Everyone and the founders:
They detail the technical choices in the interview, that's cool to hear something more constructive than the usual "You stupid company sell a 835 for $99999" bullies.

(Screenshot and post from my Pro¹. )

 

[PowerGod]

That interview made me wanting...

 

[kabouik]

For those hesitating, there's 3 days left in the IGG campaign, but still some "secret" perks (the token in this URL unlocks this perk) with the special XDA price that makes the Pro1x cheaper than the Pro1 (527€ at today's currency rates).

If that can help, I made a comparison video with Ubuntu Touch and SailfishOS side by side on the Pro1, with some discussion on how the keyboard compares to competitors too:


(I'm not sponsored, I just had a broken device under warranty that I kept for about 6 months while stocks were very low, and when they finally could replace it, they let me keep the old one for dev tests.)

And also another one on LXC containers within SailfishOS, more detailed than the short video I posted here some months ago:

 

[Swordfish II]

For those hesitating, there's 3 days left in the IGG campaign, but still some "secret" perks (the token in this URL unlocks this perk) with the special XDA price that makes the Pro1x cheaper than the Pro1 (527€ at today's currency rates).

If that can help, I made a comparison video with Ubuntu Touch and SailfishOS side by side on the Pro1, with some discussion on how the keyboard compares to competitors too:


(I'm not sponsored, I just had a broken device under warranty that I kept for about 6 months while stocks were very low, and when they finally could replace it, they let me keep the old one for dev tests.)

And also another one on LXC containers within SailfishOS, more detailed than the short video I posted here some months ago:

Lol didn't know you were on here too, but not surprised since there are very few Linux handhelds.

You answered some of my questions back in Aug.. And i jumped in on it.

 

[kabouik]

I'm just a long time lurker here since the early stages of the Pyra, this thread is what made me create the account. Small world, yes! :]

 

[kabouik]

Mainline is happening!