Various questions to the PRO1 not yet answered

[TheRedStormer 0]

I just wanted to know if there was any warranty and what kind of water resistance rating this phone has.

[TheRedStormer 0]

I still haven't heard anything on water resistance or warranty. Does anybody have info on that?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

I still haven’t heard anything on water resistance or warranty. Does anybody have info on that?

 

It has been said at several places that this does not have an IP-rating.

 

I do not know any particulars on the warranty, but for those in the EU (assuming UK is still in in July), there are law bound warranty. But I hope someone from the company can tell you more.

[aznfantasystar 5]

I wonder whether fxtec will push for VoLTe and VoWiFi, per 3GPP spec. . It's not a dealbreaker for this phone, but was a dealbreaker for Blackberry; considering their premium pricing, but subpar carrier support for a telecom-focused phone.

 

Basically, will this phone have plans for WiFi-Calling and Voice over LTE?

[Waxberry 638]

Regarding IP rating and waterproof - before we goes into conclusion I want to first point out that in general for any device, the more "sealed" the device is (i.e things glued up together) and less moving components/parts, the higher IP rate the unit likely to be.

 

For a slider, where the unit has hinges, complicated structure and many extra FPCs, it's close to impossible to have IP rating similar to other "sealed" or "glued" phones. So don't expect you can open the slider and type under water.

 

Therefore when the device is closed, it will have basic splash-proofing. And when opened, as Eske said, no IP rating.

[Waxberry 638]

I wonder whether fxtec will push for VoLTe and VoWiFi, per 3GPP spec. . It’s not a dealbreaker for this phone, but was a dealbreaker for Blackberry; considering their premium pricing, but subpar carrier support for a telecom-focused phone.

 

Basically, will this phone have plans for WiFi-Calling and Voice over LTE?

 

WiFi Calling and VoLTE is very carrier specific - there is no general "support" of "unsupport", but down to putting individual carrier config info into the firmware. We cannot cover all the carriers globally, but we can support the few most popular ones. (Perhaps we could have a poll for the carriers that most used on Pro1)

[mv100 0]

If it will be with curved or not curved screen doesn´t matter. BUT WHO NEEDS 6" screen when it has slider keyboard?

Many people use they phones on constructions/factories or working outdoors and there is smaller - better.

I will pay 800-900€ for pro1 with 4,5"

please, make one for me.

I am still waiting for new version of photon Q, yeah pro1 will be great choice but I won´t buy it because 6" is too much to carry with on constructions

 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

If it will be with curved or not curved screen doesn´t matter. BUT WHO NEEDS 6″ screen when it has slider keyboard?

 

Many people use they phones on constructions/factories or working outdoors and there is smaller – better.

 

I will pay 800-900€ for pro1 with 4,5″

 

please, make one for me.

 

I am still waiting for new version of photon Q, yeah pro1 will be great choice but I won´t buy it because 6″ is too much to carry with on constructions

 

There has been a discussion on the size much earlier in the thread, so moved your comment here.

 

I too hope for a Pro2 of lesser size. If the Pro1 gets a big (excuse the pun) success, we will have a higher chance of later variants also. I'm quite sure they thought long on what size that would would suit the most users, and that is where they have chosen to start.

[Hook 3,020]

I'm always surprised by all these comments that the screen is too big, but I guess I must have big hands because my complaints with most HW keyboards is that they are too small (my thumbs are about 76.2 mm in length). I also want big screens. I have a Nexus 6p now and would certainly not want to ever go to anything smaller. Even with a massive battery case it fits fine in my front left pants pocket which is where I've carried all my handhelds since my Palm TX. I always dial down to the smallest resolution to maximize screen real estate. I'm 66 and my eyesight isn't what it was but I refuse to give up work space. ;) For me, the prospect of a 6" screen and thus a bigger keyboard with better spaced keys was a selling point.

 

I'm not being critical. People prefer what they prefer for good reasons and it would be nice if this phone is successful enough that in the future there could be different options. I just wanted to be the voice in all this of another perspective given the pile-on for a smaller screen. This is essentially a perfect phone for me.

 

 

[Noob 158]

I agree with those who think that 6" is too big. The dimensions of this phone are about the same as my Moto Z Play, which I find too big for single-hand use. My Droid 4 is about as big as I'd want a phone to get. And the bezels for that are huge, a modern design could have a much larger screen for the same size.

 

That said, I don't care that this phone is bigger than my preference. I've been waiting literally for years for a modern QWERTY slider phone to come out and when the Moto Mods keyboard was cancelled I thought I'd just have to suck it up and live without a keyboard. I am still impressed at FXTech's efforts to bring out a polished, modern phone with a keyboard. And at least they've used the larger dimensions to add a big battery, 3.5mm jack, etc. Same goes for the CPU; people are complaining that it *only* has an 835, but that's still light-speed compared to the 1.2GHz OMAP 4430 that I've put up with. The screen size and CPU may not be the best, but they were chosen for feasibility, and in my mind they're still pretty decent choices.

 

It's worth reading this post by Liangchen on another forum for better perspective on the choice of screen:

I'm fully aware of there being a demand of smaller screen devices, never denied it. Let's put the argument of which one is better aside, just for reality... in order to create a successful project commercially, doing a smaller screen is much much harder than, I say the mainstream size.

 

As a small company, on some of the parts we are relying on some standard components, not being the same as others but within a certain range of "tweak". For example, for a screen around 5.5", let's say from 5.0" to 6.0", there are plenty of suppliers to choose from, and we can modify the panel slightly to fit the sensors, we can choose the best TP, even with flex edge AMOLED despite being very expensive and hard to get.

 

On the other hand, if we do this device in 4" or 4.3", as many of you loved, it will be much much more difficult and risky to make it successful. First of all the modern phone has more components inside than 3G phones 10 years ago. More antennas, more sensors, even more cameras. Fitting everything in a small body plus a keyboard will make the device significantly chunkier (In modern standard, I know most people here probably won't care ) But this is not the biggest issue. The biggest problem is there is no good suppliers, all the 4" screens you can order or tweak nowadays are very poor TFT and FWVGA at its most. I know most of you probably won't care again compared with N900, but we won't have a chance to be successful if we use such poor quality screen. On the other hand, yes we can customise a new display from scratch, (my wishlist is AMOLED bezel-less and maybe 4.5 inch?) But this will involve a HUGE (I mean HUGE) front investment to make a new display product, and there will be risk of having problem here and there, and cause delays. Moreover, we need a number of shipment to supply this screen production. In general a few hundreds of thousands should be adequate, but how much units we can sell with it? It will be hard to even support this screen production, if there is no one else is using it. Unless we are Samsung or old Nokia, that can sell enough units to support production.

 

Making a slider phone, especially a slider phone and trying to catch up with a decent specs, quality, camera is very very costly. We have limited resources and it would be wiser we don't spend our resources creating a new screen, but on slider, camera, build quality etc.

 

I personally have used N810 N900 Jolla N950... I fully understand your feeling on a smaller device. I don't want to raise the argument, but at least it would be worth trying the nowadays mainstream screen size and ratio. Due to the removal of bezels it's not being as big as it sounds, but it does give a lot benefit - I can do so many more things on it than N900. Imaging running some decent part of Maemo on a 5.5" screen, it might not be the best for all (in fact there is nothing that everyone being happy with) but I would strongly advice at least give it a try.

 

That doesn't mean the dead of smaller screen sliders. We need to do one step at a time. So if this project is proven successful, and we have a slightly bigger scale and better resources, there is certainly a chance of having a 4" slider. But we need to get THIS product being correct first.

 

Last but not least, if you are disappointed about the size of the screen, and don't want to try the mainstream size, there is nothing wrong. But please regard this as the first step we need to take in order to achieve the product you want.

[Sero 89]

I agree that having a larger device means having better spaced keys, but as someone that went to the London hands-on event I did personally find it a tad difficult to comfortably press the middle keys of the keyboard. It's still doable, but people with smaller hands might want to take note.

 

In regards to the curved screen, I personally prefer a flat or close-to-flat screen for various reasons. That being said, given the size of the device I think the curved screen will be more comfortable day-to-day.

 

They did also discuss the possibility of a more compact version given success of this model. But for now this is what is being offered.

[_DW_ 628]

Maybe they should plan a Pro1 Mini something around 4.5".

[TeZtdevice 297]

Maybe they should plan a Pro1 Mini something around 4.5″.

 

Amazing idea!

720p or 1080p ?

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

I have actually nothing against the bigger screen sizes. But 6" seems to be a bit big for the keyboard from what you can read. So a 5.5" would probably be better while still using a stock display. I would go for a 5"-5.5" if I could choose (would have to try it to be sure).

[belletrist 59]

I have to buck the trend against a 6" screen. I'm actually looking forward to it.

I currently use an Xperia X with sailfish and my only gripe against it is I find the 5" screen a little small for terminal use. Increase the font size and you lose to much, with a font size that works, is at times hard on the eyes.

Terminal use is my main love of a keyboard phone.

 

[Swond 120]

U was wondering.. Does anyone anytime think about the logo? Is there some hidden message between the lines? :) I don´t know why it came on my mind, but today I saw a picture attached (quite impressive BTW! lol ).. So.. What does F(x)tec should remind? I have a humble opinion, but I am curious anyone else find out better though!

 

[attachment file=17417]

 

 

[divstar 164]

Actually: on my nVidia SHIELD tablet, if I boot up while holding the tablet landscape-wise, it'll show a landscape-type logo, otherwise a normal logo. And from what I remember it's running Android 7 or 8.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, divstar said:

Actually: on my nVidia SHIELD tablet, if I boot up while holding the tablet landscape-wise, it'll show a landscape-type logo, otherwise a normal logo. And from what I remember it's running Android 7 or 8.

As I understand it, This is allowed for tablets & PCs, but not for phones&phablets. Yes I know, this does not make any sense! But neither does their lacking landscape support of the homepage grid on a phone&phablet. Must be some strange 'political' decision some crazed cheif UI architecht had made at some point, trying to force us to use our devices not like we prefer but as he in his dictatorial mind wishes.... Google's variant of aPple's "You are holding it wrong"...

[david 929]

22 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Must be some strange 'political' decision some crazed cheif UI architecht had made at some point, trying to force us to use our devices not like we prefer but as he in his dictatorial mind wishes.... Google's variant of aPple's "You are holding it wrong"...

That type of thing drives me crazy.

[silversolver 849]

3 hours ago, david said:

That type of thing drives me crazy.

Me too, especially when it results in the uninitiate recording videos in portrait! :O

[david 929]

14 hours ago, silversolver said:

Me too, especially when it results in the uninitiate recording videos in portrait! 😮

Wow!  You just hit another one of my pet peeves.

https://youtu.be/dechvhb0Meo

[_DW_ 628]

4 hours ago, david said:

Wow!  You just hit another one of my pet peeves.

https://youtu.be/dechvhb0Meo

Video is meant to be in portrait 😂 😂😂😂😂😂

[EskeRahn 5,460]

31 minutes ago, _DW_ said:

The really shouldn't have needed to change android it should just be a new launcher swapped for the stock version.  I recollect something about messaging/email as well maybe @EskeRahn could confirm that.

AFAIK Android is unchanged as such, there is the replaced launcher and an addition in settings for the Slider. There might be other settings adjustments/enhancements. But generally it should be very very close to stock Android.

At an initial stage they were talking about adding some apps, including email. Those are not currently there. Whether they gave up on the idea completely, or just postponed the development as less important initially, I do not know. I for one havn't missed them...

[_DW_ 628]

30 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

AFAIK Android is unchanged as such, there is the replaced launcher and an addition in settings for the Slider. There might be other settings adjustments/enhancements. But generally it should be very very close to stock Android.

At an initial stage they were talking about adding some apps, including email. Those are not currently there. Whether they gave up on the idea completely, or just postponed the development as less important initially, I do not know. I for one havn't missed them...

Yeah I couldn't remember on the mail what happened why I asked.  TBH I have my own email apps that I use and would never use one they provided probably would be a redundant effort. (mine also works fine landscape)

[Gigadoc2 54]

Does the pro1 switch to landscape when the slider is opened? That is probably a modification to stock Android?

Also, I got the feeling I am derailing this topic a bit 😅