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I do have a cosmo and honestly the keyboard is a LOT better than the pro1 if you want to do some actual work (something like tmux, emacs or vim). I find it very painful to use emacs on the pro1 because I can't touch type. On the planet keyboard this is possible, provided you can put the device somewhere or on your lap. But TBH, at that point you could be using an actual laptop... instead of running planet's shitty OS with 1+ year old security patches on a chipset that's not well documented or supported.

That is actually the only real innovation that apple brought to the smartphone market (everything else was more or less bought). What they showed the competition is, that variety may be good for customers, but it is much more lucrative to market just ONE device. Media talked about how innovative the device was, it wasn't, the marketing was. It destroyed years of innovation and prevented future innovation. Imagine having just one car for everybody. Driving Long distance? Well nobody needs that anyway. More than 2 seats? Oh that is a niche, we don't care. It is a sportscabrio for everybody. N

Sorry to everyone for yet another topic on the matter, but I have the feeling that the forum is filling up with owners' talk (which is great, since that means many people have got their phones, even though those are mostly QWERTY people) and unfulfilled orders are a bit on the backburner right now. My order is for a QWERTZ, placed on 20th November 2019 (order number 42XXX), back when my boss' biggest worry has been the Brexit and not COVID-19 (he paid for the phone). Last update we've got has been on 18th August 2020, which was probably a generic mail for everyone -- QWERTZ has been out o

Still, aren't those the first devices f(x)tec ever delivered on time? That's impressive, all things considered. Not being salty, but rather happy that planning and production seem to recover nicely.

I find the Pro1 pretty good for thumb-typing. The keyboard is approaching the limit of how wide it should be to be comfortable, but for me it's not too wide yet. I don't think it's a "jack of all trades, master of none", to me it seems like they chose to focus on thumb-typing, with desktop-typing being more of an afterthought. And the Astro Slide looks to be significantly worse for thumb-typing. They seem like different devices accomplishing different things, and I'm not interested at all in the Astro Slide. I like the keyboard to quickly flip it out and type something, on the Astro Slid

First of all this is great news. Competition in the sliding keyboard smartphone market means things are picking up and we can expect to have full keyboard sliders to choose from in the mainstream in the future. What I don't like about astro's slider: Subjectively the design doesn't look good to me: the keyboard looks like the keys have been thrown on there without any symmetry or bezels and the screen placement when open looks ugly. It sort of looks... functional yet cheap and there's a separation between the keyboard part and the screen, like 2 parts stuck together, not a whole dev

I have just tested my Pro1 using a cable which I have bought for a Dell Latitude E6530 and it worked well, microphone and the whole headset has worked perfectly well. I don't have a jack connector around now, so I could not check the exact pinout correctly, but measuring without a jack connector plugged in, I still think it has CTIA standard. ...but I am 100% sure it uses the very same pinout as E6530. 🙂 Sorry for bumping this thread, but I thought it may be useful.

(This is a very limited batch of just 10 devices)

I've decided to get an Astro over the pro1(x) as its not really an upgrade (more ram and storage don't make any difference to my usage) and I wanted to back them making hardware keyboard phones need all the backing they can get 🙂 but I couldn't afford to be backing 2 phones this year. I am hoping 2022 will bring a new device to the Fxtec family and I will be getting that 🙂 (fingers crossed a 5.1" device lol) Be interesting which I find more usable I see it more Astro been for computing tasks (one I would take to work) and Pro1 the phone I would use at other times. And I have to agr

Typing as such was great on the PRIV, but for my most important applications for a hardware keyboard a landsacape-oriented screen is desirable, if not mandatory, too, like working on a Linux terminal or even a remote desktop... Or entering text in a web app that doesn't reflow, otherwise forcing me to scroll back and forth horizontally all the time just to see what I just wrote. Many times I needed to hold the PRIV in landscape orientation while trying to type on a 90° rotated keyboard. That was awkward 😉

Well... the Ford T used that method to make something cheaper, which is not necessarily a bad thing. Since there will be high class alternatives more tailored to a specific user. But apple showed that this is not needed, you can just use marketing to sell everybody a high class phone with a huge margin and price... Which makes high class alternatives to a slab useless from a economic standpoint. Apple marketing has already told everyone that they need a slab, so why fight against that marketing, when you can just glue together your own cheap slab and sell it for big bucks?

Ford T ? 😏

Yes, I'm not "against" horizontal keyboards but I find the advantage of one hand typing a big advantage. I'm messaging a lot while doing my shopping, in the bus, carrying things, etc. I like to multitask on my life, I don't like to stop whatever I'm doing to reply a message. Since my 1st Smartphone I owned (longtime) a Nokia e61i, a Nokia e72, a BB Bold 9900, a BB Classic, a BB Priv and a BB Key2. My preferred layout was the one from the Nokia e72. My preferred phone as a whole was the Classic, I loved how it fitted in the hand and BBOS10 was really a great OS. But acce

Out of curiosity, what are your guesses?

I'm totally puzzled why the qwertZ keyboards have been unavailable for so long. I have several wild guesses but no knowledge.

Quite possible, but still an achievement in planning. If the devices arrive before Christmas, it will an achievement of logistics. Either way, good for them. (wouldn't mind them hand-crafting a couple of QWERTZ-Pro1 devices though...)

Ford T actually existed in a lot of different body style, Sedan, Coupé, Roadster, Pickup, etc. I would be happy if a manufacturer used a same technical base to offer us 6 different form factor (like the Nokia e-series in their time).

Oh indeed let us have variety, the more the merrier. There are no single model that are ideal for everyone. Just as those seldom using a keyboard should keep on using their slabs. Different users different usage patterns and needs. 🙂

I couldn't agree more, I want a mini version of the Pro1 or the Cosmo (or both). I often see people bashing vertical keyboards on this forum but with some training you can type reaaaaally fast on those thanks to the short distance your thumbs travel and when necessary you can even type one handed. Off course horizontal keyboards win on the special keys...

I also think that the Pro1's opening mechanism is much more robust. However, let's be nice among keyboard-lovers and recognise that the AstroSlide will have the much better keyboard -- probably more or less identical to the one its precursors had. From all that I have read, it seems to be as close as you can get to a "real" 10-finger keyboard in a PDA. In all honesty, I find that the Pro1 is some "in-between" solution that seeks to be compatible with, both, thumb-typing as well as multi-finger operation (when the phone sits on a table). As a result, it fulfils both roles pretty badly