How will you use the Pro1?

[itsdevilslettuce 85]

Greetings from wonderful New England everyone!

I would first like to say thanks a bunch to everyone behind the F(x) Tec Pro1. You have seriously made my dream phone real.

 

That said, I would like to ask anyone who cares to answer: How do you plan on using the Pro 1.

I for one will use the device in landscape mode even with the keyboard closed.

As far as Android goes most apps seam to work fine in landscape. I don't do the social media apps so I wouldn't know. But Outlook and many other apps work fine.

I would love for root access to lock the orientation to always landscape!

 

Till then I will stick with my always portrait atomic BlackBerry Key2 LE ...

[EskeRahn 5,460]

I primarily use my phones/phablets for SMS, and a bit of browsing.

 

I think I will use it in landscape whenever I need to enter text, and keep it in portrait for utilities such as advanced calculators or playing sudoku.

 

In my experience not too many apps support Landscape. It was already an issue back in 2011-2012 on my Xperia (Neo) Pro, and it certainly has not become better since.... Lazy programmers!!

 

But whenever I got more than one available app I consider to use, the first thing I do after install is to rotate the device, and if no landscape-suport I look for alternatives....

And many apps are not designed for there NOT to be a software keyboard. Many SMS apps only allow a few lines of entry even in portrait (That was a pest with finfdng apps for the BB Priv. Textra is one of those that works well - it is not perfect, but does the job for me.

 

To me the Key½ is the worst of two worlds. You get a large device and a small display. I never understood why anyone favoured the form factor of the Key½ over the Priv. But there have been long discussions on the pros and cons on CrackBerry, to each their own, and let us keep that discussion over there, amongst those that prefer a keyboard in the 'wrong' orientation.... ;-p

[netman 1,424]

Lately i've been using my android only as a fancy camera and sending photos to people thing because i always get angry and dread typing more than a word or so with only a touchscreen. So I imagine myself using the pro1 to be able to message people comfortably and be able to look things up on the net and take notes (and photos) when at work as a technician. And I may even use it to take my programming hobby to the bed and couch occasionally if my thumbs can handle that :).

 

It does not seem all that long ago I used my nokia e72 to message and ssh to my desktop pc and get some small things done, still miss that and I've been tempted to get one of the android blackberries but the form factor seems silly and no rooting is kindof a dealbreaker, and attaching a bluetooth keypad to a phone is not really ideal either.

[aznfantasystar 5]

 

When I had a Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G, I made heavy use of the Number Row, dedicated decimal button, and the movement keys. ← ↑ → ↓

The open nature of Android (i.e rooting) ensured I was able to go into #/system/usr/keylayout and edit in whatever dedicated keys, macros, that I wanted such as greek symbols, math symbols well after Samsung dropped support. You can imagine this made spreadsheet work incredibly mobile. If Livermourium (or F(x) Tech, or f(x)tec) stays true to their word then I'll be able to return to those glory days of 5 years past; when I finally gave up my aging Galaxy S Relay 4G for a Blackberry KEYone.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Steven, I too hope for open access to the layout, and hopefully even without rooting. And there is a thread also with that here.

[zurvan2 125]

I've used phones with slide-out keyboards before. It's not an all-or-nothing thing. A lot of the time, I will use it more or less the same way I use a portrait form-factor phone. I will even still use the on-screen keyboard for stuff that is mostly english prose.

 

I will switch to the keyboard for:

Complex text like time, dates, figures, or anything where a spell-checker won't help.

ssh using VX ConnectBot

games, specifically roguelikes, specifically Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup, Cataclysm: DDA, and possibly nethack as native android apps

Similar games and terminal-based applications via ssh

 

I also really like the hardware camera button, and will use that quite a bit!

[ravelo 11]

As realease date is confirmed to be really close now, it is time to bump this thread.

If the keyoard fits my purpose then I think this phone will suit these use cases better than my old phone:

- Fotography

- Text structuring (org mode)

- Messaging

- Navigation

- Youtube

 

 

 

[Johan Edso 0]

The way it is now I would use it in portrait mode when I want to scan for information or read news etc and as soon as I want to type something which is more than a quick "yes" or "no", I would flip out the keyboard. Several times a day I scan through headlines of 5 different sites, 4 mailboxes, a couple of media sites etc and when flipping over to landscape I see a third of information of what I see in portrait mode so for this purpose the landscape is for me not very useful. I need advice on how I can improve my overview in landscape mode to be better than portrait mode. I have two functional eyes but I can only read and concentrate on one instance at the time so a split screen is of little use to me. Unless......the two splits show the same page, are sync'd and follow eachother. I guess this would be a software "thing" so maybe this could be a humble suggestion for a software development too efficiently use the landscape mode for a better overview of, for instance.......cnndotcom, or bbcdotcom?

[mv 85]

Hello fellow New Englander!

 

I too will probably use it more in landscape mode, as I did with the N900. I am also anxious for the SailfishOS support.

In any case I will likely use it as a phablet and hope to do more work from it so I can leave my laptop at home more often.

[antoine.sauve01 0]

I'm still unsure about how much I'll be using the physical keyboard.

I think when browsing web pages and social media, i'll be using it like a normal phone, except if I'm multi tasking; instant messaging with somebody and browsing ebay for example.

 

However I do use my phone to watch a ton of Youtube / Netflix / News and the angle of the screen when keyboard is out will be highly useful when the phone sit flat on a table.

I'll also be using it for occasional teamviewer session since the on screen keyboard won't take 3/4 of the screen when typing, Can't wait to use it for SSH connection with my local server in landscape mode.

Sending long emails will hopefully be a joy with the physical keyboard, as for reviewing text documents and notes.

 

[Muppensish 0]

I believe I will use the keyboard mostly for writing songs.

But I do have alot of GBA ROMs, so emulation is probably something I will use it for.

 

I'll see how the "in hand feel" is, mostly depends on that.

[VaZso 1,998]

Based on my experience with N900, I would use the keyboard also for reading web pages, especially forum messages.

Currently, web pages are trying to give a phone experience which is sometimes usable, sometimes not - but this way one will not really need to navigate the page sideways.

However, reading a text is much more convenient with the help of up/down arrows - don't need to touch the screen but the text will follow exactly the direction the user wants (as I also use it on my computer).

 

Also, I don't like to write any messages on touch screen, especially not long messages.

If someone writes me on instant messaging, I see myself doing the reply too much, then a new message, new reply - it consumes almost 100% of my time if I would like to do something else.

So instead, if I am near to a PC, I launch the application and answer on that interface - that way it consumes much less time.

It was also much easier with my N900 with its built-in support for Skype - I did not feel it is necessary to launch PC application.

 

Not speaking about e-mails, I don't really like to write them on my current phone because the lack of keyboard. On PC, it is much more convenient in every way.

(Also, sometimes e-mail quoting handled poorly on some phone applications anyway and maybe it is related of Google's threaded view...)

 

Moreover, I would use it sometimes for VNC-like connection and more often for SSH to some systems.

 

Otherwise, there are complains of user's spelling and shortening of words. I think touch-screen only virtual keyboards makes this thing even worse.

[cboehm91 14]

I believe I will use the keyboard mostly for writing songs.

 

But I do have alot of GBA ROMs, so emulation is probably something I will use it for.

 

I’ll see how the “in hand feel” is, mostly depends on that.

 

This! GBA emulation will be awesome on this thing. I was able to play PSP games on a much older phone too so that will be another option. All on the up and up of course...

 

Also love keyboards for texting and controlling other games

[Muppensish 0]

 

This! GBA emulation will be awesome on this thing. I was able to play PSP games on a much older phone too so that will be another option. All on the up and up of course…

 

Also love keyboards for texting and controlling other games

 

I have 70GB Gameboy/ Gameboy advanced games, 40GB Ds games and around 20Gb Ps2 Games.

Gonna definitely try some pokemon and some platformers.

 

[sorgo 13]

When I had a Samsung Galaxy S Relay 4G, I made heavy use of the Number Row, dedicated decimal button, and the movement keys. ← ↑ → ↓

The open nature of Android (i.e rooting) ensured I was able to go into #/system/usr/keylayout and edit in whatever dedicated keys, macros, that I wanted such as greek symbols, math symbols well after Samsung dropped support. You can imagine this made spreadsheet work incredibly mobile. If Livermourium (or F(x) Tech, or f(x)tec) stays true to their word then I’ll be able to return to those glory days of 5 years past; when I finally gave up my aging Galaxy S Relay 4G for a Blackberry KEYone.

 

Yep, this was one of my best keyboard phones. This is what I liked, being able to control all just by the keyboard, not needed to touch the screen at all. The keyone and keytwo are a disappointment, you can't avoid touching the screen for basic functions.

 

I especially miss the search key, which is unfortunately deprecated in higher android versions. Without root, we'll still be able to do some key remapping with 3rd party apps.

[therenegadeoffunk 0]

For me it will be sort of a hacker phone. I always keep two phones for different purposes. I have a Note 9 as my main phone and I'm perfectly happy with it (can't believe they removed the headphone jack on the Note 10! Bleh!).

 

The Pro1 will be for more experimental stuff and essentially a backup. I also just want to support new designs. Hopefully they come back in a year with a phone with better specs. If this one works well I'll consider making the next version my main phone.

[Hook 3,020]

I never got around to answering this question. I have always wanted a keyboard phone, but haven't had any except my work issued Blackberries (and nothing recent even there). One reason was timing-- I always seemed to have a good phone that I couldn't justify replacing when a keyboard phone was available. The other reason was that, although I loved the concept, they were mostly too small for my hands to use easily.

 

I am looking forward to having a phone I can actually type on. I am a writer (not of any note, I just like to write) and I look forward to not just being able to read notes and research, but to be able to write notes, even long ones, do some light editing if the thought occurs to me when I'm out and about, write longer, more thoughtful emails-- to have a real text entry computer in my pocket wherever I am and wherever the muse hits me.

[PC_ 61]

I'll probably use the keyboard at every opportunity. Even if just writing a short message. I hate using touchscreens. I'd almost be tempted to disable the touchcreen completey if it were possible in Android. But then I guess the phone would need some kind of track pad and a mouse cursor on screen. Which I wouldn't be against to be honest. This thing will be an absolute joy to use.

[mathiasp 0]

I'm pretty much tied to termux with emacs and org-mode for all my planning, calendaring and most of my documentatin and personal knowledge management.

While it is already great to use with the fantastic Messagease keyboard (after some learning time), I miss the screen space, and esp. in landscape mode there's not much left from the content...

 

I'm just now experimenting with using triple stores into my KM setup via org-mode code blocks, and there I get lots of wide ouput right now which sort of requires landscape, and thus a physical keyboard.

 

It will also save me from carrying a surface go around to be able to log into my servers if something unexpected happens.

 

So, I *really* hope the keyboard works for this. I'm allready very happy with my emacs setup and org information/tasking/calendaring system, both synced via git to my desktop and laptop, but I hope it will get even better!

[EskeRahn 5,460]

So, I *really* hope the keyboard works for this. I’m allready very happy with my emacs setup and org information/tasking/calendaring system, both synced via git to my desktop and laptop, but I hope it will get even better!

 

If you do a search for termux in here, you will see that I already checked. And it seems to work just fine https://www.fxtec.com/forums/search/termux/

[mathiasp 0]

Mathias Picker wrote:

So, I *really* hope the keyboard works for this. I’m allready very happy with my emacs setup and org information/tasking/calendaring system, both synced via git to my desktop and laptop, but I hope it will get even better!

If you do a search for termux in here, you will see that I already checked. And it seems to work just fine https://www.fxtec.com/forums/search/termux/

 

I did, and I'm hopeful, but Emacs uses quite a few key combos, and in my experience some of them might not work as expected. I have an LG Rolly keyboard, and while almost all key combos work, a few really important ones do not. If I remember correctly Alt-X does not work for some reason, it sends a totally different key code. I need to use ESC x which is slower and tends to return to the home screen. As a result, I do use it much less than I hoped I would. Actually, I think I haven't used it for a year...

So, until I can test it, I just hope that the keyboard on the Pro1 works for emacs ;)

 

Cheers, Mathias

 

 

[Raksura 270]

I'd like the Pro1 to replace my bulky laptop in addition to upgrading my phone.

I would love to see if it is possible to install Gentoo Prefix on a phone OS that uses the Linux kernel. I expect this to let me rely on the phone OS for anything related to my usual phone usage (GPS, SMS/MMS, camera, phone), yet have a very large native UNIX userland (web browser, vim, latex, emulators, etc... without the performance cost of remote display). I am going to give Sailfish OS a go, just to see if that fits the bill.

[netman 1,424]

I’d like the Pro1 to replace my bulky laptop in addition to upgrading my phone.

 

I would love to see if it is possible to install Gentoo Prefix on a phone OS that uses the Linux kernel. I expect this to let me rely on the phone OS for anything related to my usual phone usage (GPS, SMS/MMS, camera, phone), yet have a very large native UNIX userland (web browser, vim, latex, emulators, etc… without the performance cost of remote display). I am going to give Sailfish OS a go, just to see if that fits the bill.

 

vim, latex and most linux commandline things you could want can be used in termux under android, even browser and emulators if you install a VNC or X11 server app but those will hog the battery quite a bit and the X11 servers i tried so far aren't great (VNC with Xvnc server seems to be the better way).

If maemo or ubuntu phone end up getting ported to the Pro1 one of those would probably suit your needs, maybe sailfish does too though.

[peter3 10]

I'll be using it for everything, I hate using virtual keyboards. It's especially useful for e-mails, and IM conversations.

 

I might play a little nethack too, although it was quite awkward to play on the Priv, and there's some excellent mobile games out there which rarely use the keyboard.

[theo.hallenius 31]

I only have 2 working phones right now that I use on a daily basis, N900 and the original Jolla phone. (not counting bricked Galaxy Mini, N950 with leaked screen and some old Huawei)

N900 might have been a dream phone 5-10 years ago but times have changed. It's browsing capabilities are practically non-existent, app selection is lacking, security is lacking, I can go on forever.

Jolla is one of those phones I wish I never bought, it was alright at that time but it aged very quickly. Now I'm stuck with an outdated Android 4.1.1 that can't run essential daily apps (identity apps, banking apps, wallet apps) and Sailfish OS is lacking so much I can't even block unwanted calls. I also recently received my hardware wallet FuzeW but in order to use it I need an android device with at least Android 5.

 

My choice for 2019-2020? FxTec Pro1, which I pre-ordered nearly immediately after it went viral. I'm so used to N900 and it's keyboard that it felt like the right phone for me, and since I also have an N950 prototype I already know how solid the build quality will be. Now that I paid for my pre-order I can't wait for it to arrive, but delays are killing me..