EskeRahn

I'm quite sure that we will be able to have the layout we want software-wise, including all kind of special symbols and nationally bound letters. So the discussion here is merely on what should be printed on the keys. It is an interesting idea if a Swiss layout could be a compromise that is acceptable to several nationalities.

Ouch! That was a nasty one! ;( Though I'm quite sure the Pro¹ parcel is going to be both smaller and lighter than a chair. ;) But it could still be disproportional expensive.

Indeed! Living reasonably close to a border or having friends at the other side, can make a huge difference. I remember once when I should send a Ricoh camera to Germany for repair, it would cost a minor fortune from Denmark, but as a friend was visiting Berlin a few days later he brought it and sent it for 'next to nothing'... Though compared to the €650 it is likely to be marginal.

I'm totally with you, I saw it as an annoying back step when going from N97mini to Xperia Pro. (The N97 was on the other hand utterly useless outdoors except at night, due to very very poor contrast, I actually used a Samsung Wave when outdoors...) I do recall that the N97mini was not intuitive to open though. That you needed to press slightly 'downwards' with the slide, meant that when you showed it to new people, they were usually unable to open it. Not a big deal today when everyone got a phone, but back then it was not uncommon that someone borrowed my phone, and could not open it.

The whole idea behind this mechanism is two arms of different lengths, so the angle is going to be completely fixed at a specific point in the extend. From 0° when closed, to 25° raised fully opened. (Or as F(x)tec oddly count: 180° when closed to 155° open) This keeps the mechanism rather simple, and thus stable over time, compared to the double motion ones with the slide and tilt as two independent mechanisms. In my experience, the double arm system is also MUCH easier to blow free of pocket lint or the like. My N97mini only occasionally needed you to blow at it. Both the SE Xperia Pr

I would claim that we the last couple of years has seen an incline in he prices, but a very limited evolution of the phablets. So the incitement to upgrade what ever we have is lacking or at the least limited. For many years the prices of the 'flagships' was roughly the same, but the phones improved YoY. The last almost ten years we have seen a decrease in variation, so almost only slabs are available, and even with very small variation in the stamina. We have had slowly increased surfaces, increased pixel density, and increased image qualities of the camera substitutes. And to handle this in

For the principal functionality, I'm sure you are right. But it seems that not all apps handle it equally well. e.g. apps 'locking' to a specific phone number. Hence the popularity of the cloning apps. You might want to use the same account with two phone numbers if you operate in a border region, and would avoid roaming. Or it could be a work&private scenario, where you would like things separated.

Had it been a less known chipset people would most likely never have known if it was not the newest available. *LOL* That is the flipside of using a well known and tested chipset. 'Everybody' know it is not the newest, and the fewest are asking the question if it really matters... (nor the risk of bugs on being first movers on anything) You see the same with car models and people saying "but that is last years model", not really reflecting on whether the differences matters for their usage.

Totally agree here. Early on when I bought a new device, I gave the old one away, and with a new battery or two, it would be as new. After a couple of year an 'old' flagship is comparable to a new midranger, so now sending the device in somewhere for a battery swap, would easily be for a price comparable with a new midranger, so it just end up as waste... Again here aPple are the greedy crooks, they were the first to on a massive scale use this planned obsolescence nonsense, and frankly I wish that a large player like the EU would say that by a certain year (say 2025) it would simply not b

As said earlier I see that on one hand a flat screen with substantial mechanical metal bezels would be better protected on edge impacts. On the other that would (keeping all else the same) require a lesser display area and make the device about 1mm thicker, thus making it look even more of something out of the past. And my GUESS would be that the guys designing this after careful considerations have decided in favour of the edged design. Remember that for many people looks is still a big thing (fashion in clothing is strangely important for a LOT of people). So if they felt the looks to be

My thought is that if the top number row follow the letter rows it will feel like it was four keys at the right side that was moved to the left, but all the rest kept their usual logic (relative) positions. But sure you could be right that the experience is so different from a standard keyboard, that it does not really matter either way.

Would be interesting to know what you expected from a forum just a few months before release. Did you expect that we could influence any substantial hardware changes at this late stage? I think that we might influence a bit on things like the print on the keys (see e.g. the thread on the German QWERTZ keyboard) And we might be able to influence the software, if we can come up with some useful ideas, that are not too far from what they already have made. Many of the wishes for how things could be different hardware-wise, I see that as input for a Pro2 (if they will make one). Once we go

Ah well just did a little search on Google and ebay for "Elephone U PRO", and ordered a couple of each of these three variants. 1, 2 & 3 But there are several others vendors out there, and I have NO idea if the ones I bought are good or bad. So not endorsing them, just picked at random, to be sure I had some protection from day one. Note that none of the ones I found are curved tempered glass. So I hope F(x)tec (or perhaps Elephone?) would entice someone to make curved tempered glass protectors for them.

Sorry to disappoint, I have not had the chance to have my hands on the device yet. So my suggestion is from a purely theoretical viewpoint.

Just to be sure: You mean you prefer unmodified to standard, and not unmodified compared to what the Pro¹ images we currently see, right? My suggestion is that IF the letters should be shifted THEN the numbers should follow. (That is either all four or no rows shifted, not a mix)

Now THAT would be awresome, though I doubt $10 could cover the cost of handling them individually... Continuing on the customization wishes, imagine 3D-prints in a suitable partly transparent elastic material...

Yup and from the number on the display (BF060Y8M-AJ0-7702), we can see that it is the one used also on "Elephone U Pro", see e.g. this. And there already are screen protectors for that one - so one concern less. :) PS: It should even be Gorilla Glass 5. That is not 3 as the early preproduction units.

Don't get me wrong, my point was that it is not that important, what is actually printed on the key, as long as it is not way off. I mean a Dvorak print or the shifted QWERTY print would be problematic used with Danish layout. But anything roughly close would work with Danish for me. And the suggested QWERTZ is certainly close enough for me :) - But sure I would prefer a Scandinavian print.

Agree. My point was if the numbers should follow the letters or not. Currently the layout we see has shifted the letters only, leaving the two parts 'misaligned' compared to what we are all used to, and that is what I think could be problematic. (Tried to edit the OP to make it more clear)

I know this have been mentioned deep inside other threads, but would like to have it isolated, to hear what others feel. For languages like English and American English only using A-Z and no additional nation letters, I do get the idea of logically right shifting the keys to get them more centred, making it easier to let the left/right thumb do what the left/right hand do an a normal keyboard, without too much stretching from the right. However in the current layout the digits and dash keys are not shifted in the same way. I personally think that digits and dash should follow the lett

Exactly, and I hope it did not seem I wanted to stop the discussion. As it is for sure valuable input to how a next generation (that I hope will come) should be in say a year or two. We are at the same pace I think. Would personally prefer a screen with protective bezels. BUT if curved screens can wheel in more buyers, then fine with me. As with the keyboard trying to monetize the "prefer", I would not pay £200 more to get it with a flat screen, but £50 I would.

Feel exactly the same, especially if it is the print only, and we can select a national layout if we so choose. So we can choose between using the standard layout printed, but not perfectly fitting, or a national layout slightly different from the printed. I would say that more than 90% of the time I use my Danish-printed PC-keyboard with a logic US-layout, primarily to get to brackets and braces easily for coding.(but also since there were no Danish layout for the first computers I used, I made my own keyboard driver back then...)

Thanks for the info on the Russian+English combination. :) I feel much the same way on multiple keyboards, as long as the base layout is there, all the fine details is not that important. I would not like a completely blank keyboards, as the different size from a pc will not trigger the 'muscle memory', but it is not that important to me whether A-Z are printed as QWERTY , QWERTZ or even AZERTY. It would still be enough familiarities to 'anchor' the layout. Not unexpectedly I would prefer a Danish print, but it clearly is a nice-to-have and not a need-to-have for me. How much do I really

I totally agree with you. I think the "door" to all this opened as they said that it was their intention to replace the screen with a different one than the one that was on the prototypes presented in Barcelona during MWC. But this was back in February, So I would be very surprised if they here in April had not long settled on a specific display - and likely have been preparing the production for it too. And if that was a principal different type of display, I'm pretty sure we would have heard more on it. Though it could be ever so slightly thicker/thinner or larger/smaller than what was on th

The whole point in this thread is that people tell what would be the best qwertZ keyboard for them, so we should listen to you. That people of other nationalities (like me) might find it closer to what they want than the US qwertY, I would say is just a bonus. Have we heard any voices from Austria in here? Do they use the exact same layout as in Germany, or does it (like Swiss) have some differences? This claims that it is the same for Germany and Austria AND displays the differences with the one for Switzerland&Luxembourg according to IBM. The difference mainly being the later ease