Independent reviews

[netman 1,424]

A fresh one has landed!

 

[FlyingAntero 869]

This makes me just sad. Great device and I don't know when I am going to get it. I hope it will be soon anyway.

Edited December 5, 2019 by FlyingAntero

[Polaris 423]

3 minutes ago, FlyingAntero said:

This makes me just sad. Great device and I don't know when I am going to get it.

Here's a friendly tip... Plan on June 2020 and be pleasantly surprised when it arrives before then.

[FlyingAntero 869]

On 12/3/2019 at 7:20 PM, Polaris said:

Here's a friendly tip... Plan on June 2020 and be pleasantly surprised when it arrives before then.

I did that a half year ago. When they first time delayed the shipping back in summer I was thinking that maybe before the end of this year. Now that does not seems to happen. Not going to wait another half year but maybe a month or two 😉.

Edited December 5, 2019 by FlyingAntero

[Polaris 423]

47 minutes ago, FlyingAntero said:

I did that a half year ago. When they first time delayed the shipping back in summer I was thinking that maybe before the end of this year. Now that does not seems to happen. Not going to wait another half year. 

If you truly did what I suggested you wouldn't be disappointed now as it's not June 2020 yet! 😉

All kidding aside, manufacturing a new hi-tech item such as this is a very long and arduous process.  Their hopes were passed along as promises, which is a common pitfall for the naive.  The good news is that it sounds like more phones will be shipping soon.  Let's keep our fingers crossed that it's a large batch (and plan on June 2020 😉).

[netman 1,424]

Addendum to that xda video:

 

[Krzysieq 55]

Here's a fairly recent one:

 

https://www.androidauthority.com/fxtec-pro1-review-960653/

[netman 1,424]

4 hours ago, Krzysieq said:

Here's a fairly recent one:

 

https://www.androidauthority.com/fxtec-pro1-review-960653/

[t3hwx9 8]

Oh, the long-awaited sequel to

 

 

[Rob. S. 1,647]

5 hours ago, Krzysieq said:

Here's a fairly recent one:

https://www.androidauthority.com/fxtec-pro1-review-960653/

Wow. By someone who doesn't really know what the keyboard even is for.

[jjarmasz 81]

Well that Android Authority review is pretty disappointing -  almost makes me wanna cancel my order... but it also doesn't really seem to fit with the xda video - based on that the phone totally looks like what I am hoping for/expecting... I figure the performance issues that AA noted might well just come down to software optimization and can be fixed. Heck, by Pixel OG with a SD821 and 4 Gb RAM is still pretty useable, I have no doubt the SD835/6 Gb combo will be fine. But the complaints about the hinge had me worried until I looked at the xda video.

[Hook 2,945]

He lost me with:

Quote

I’ve never been a fan of the sideways keyboard layout.

(By the way, that's "horizontal slider")

On the hinge... it takes a bit of training to finally get it, but you will, and once you do you will be grateful because the reason it is initially so hard to do is because a) the hinge is very strong and b)there is absolutely no wobble or looseness in the hinge.  This is an industrial strength hinge that isn't going to wear out.

I now can open it one handed.  I love the hinge!!!!!

Let me assure you that the Android Authority review does not get it  It's not perfect (what is), but F(x) Tec get most everything that matters right.  Make no mistake, this is a premium phone and the 835 is excellent as measure by the real world performance of this phone as opposed to silly spec sheets.

Edited December 20, 2019 by Hook

[elvissteinjr 359]

The Facebook app must've advanced quite a bit in the recent years for it to be janky on a Snapdragon 835...

[FlyingAntero 869]

The guy from AndroidAuthority really doesn't seem to like QWERTY phones 😅.

BlackBerry Priv review from the same person: https://www.phonescoop.com/articles/article.php?a=17093&p=6693

"I'm not sold on the keyboard. The quality is fine, but the keys are a bit flat to me, They have BlackBerry's signature scalloped shape, but each individual key's profile could be more defined. Travel and feedback are solid enough. I pulled out the BlackBerry Classic (late 2014) and can tell you I like that keyboard much better. The Priv's keyboard feels a bit cramped and offers no benefit to me over the excellent software keyboard. Hardware keyboard purists, however, may find that the Priv's keys are just what they need to more effectively tap out emails on the go."

However, he has some points there and software of Pro1 needs some fixes. Good to see that battery life is good.

[jjarmasz 81]

3 hours ago, Hook said:

I now can open it one handed.  I love the hinge!!!!!

This. THIS!!! This is just about the #1 concern I have. When I had a Nokia N97, it became second-nature for me to flip it open one-handed, and I would be very disappointed if I couldn't so the same with the Pro1. Sounds like that concern is unjustified -  which gives my patience a boost as I wait for my unit to arrive, one day 🙂

 

[D1ggs 141]

17 hours ago, jjarmasz said:

Well that Android Authority review is pretty disappointing -  almost makes me wanna cancel my order... but it also doesn't really seem to fit with the xda video - based on that the phone totally looks like what I am hoping for/expecting... I figure the performance issues that AA noted might well just come down to software optimization and can be fixed. Heck, by Pixel OG with a SD821 and 4 Gb RAM is still pretty useable, I have no doubt the SD835/6 Gb combo will be fine. But the complaints about the hinge had me worried until I looked at the xda video.

I wouldn't base your buying decision off of the rantings of some tech journo.

The people who write these articles are some of the most myopic and ignorant people that exist out there.

I don't know why this is endemic to tech writers, but most of them can't seem to see 5 inches outside of their face. Let me sum up the entirety of what most tech journalists write about:

"Golly gee! I only use my device for vapid consumption and ego validation on twit-face-gram-tok-gasm. There are people out there who don't spend the entirety of their lives posting needless updates about life in <insert coastal big city here>  and who are, gasp, doing real work?! Clearly these people do not exist and they should only use technology to feed a bottomless ego pit. "

It's twats like these that have encouraged us into this veritable waste land of boring phones with exact minute feature differences, wailing and gnashing their teeth about non-issues like notches and camera bumps. 

The XDA guy was authentic, honest, and by far the most genuine and unbiased review of the device. 

That "android unauthority" guy?  Just another whiney consumer of boring social media. If I want pre-built in bias with the devices I own, I'll go over to Apple and its fanboi sites, thank you very much. 

Slow production be damned, we're in a mobile device renaissance with FxTec, Gemini, GPD, and beyond. 

Edited December 21, 2019 by D1ggs

[silversolver 849]

9 hours ago, D1ggs said:

I wouldn't base your buying decision off of the rantings of some tech journo.

The people who write these articles are some of the most myopic and ignorant people that exist out there.

I don't know why this is endemic to tech writers, but most of them can't seem to see 5 inches outside of their face. Let me sum up the entirety of what most tech journalists write about:

"Golly gee! I only use my device for vapid consumption and ego validation on twit-face-gram-tok-gasm. There are people out there who don't spend the entirety of their lives posting needless updates about life in <insert coastal big city here>  and who are, gasp, doing real work?! Clearly these people do not exist and they should only use technology to feed a bottomless ego pit. "

It's twats like these that have encouraged us into this veritable waste land of boring phones with exact minute feature differences wailing and gnashing their teeth about non-issues like notches and camera bumps. 

The XDA guy was authentic, honest, and by far the most honest and unbiased review of the device. 

That "android unauthority" guy?  Just another whiney consumer of boring social media. If I want pre-built in bias with the devices I own, I'll go over to Apple and its fanboi sites, thank you very much. 

Slow production be damned, we're in a mobile device renaissance with FxTec, Gemini, GPD, and beyond. 

Well, I no longer need to reply. You wrote it for me. 🙂

[EskeRahn 5,427]

On 12/20/2019 at 7:49 PM, jjarmasz said:

This. THIS!!! This is just about the #1 concern I have. When I had a Nokia N97, it became second-nature for me to flip it open one-handed, and I would be very disappointed if I couldn't so the same with the Pro1. Sounds like that concern is unjustified -  which gives my patience a boost as I wait for my unit to arrive, one day 🙂

 

as a N97 owner your muscle memory will kick in, and you can do the slightly odd arch from day one. It is the exact same logical mechanism

[jjarmasz 81]

5 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

as a N97 owner your muscle memory will kick in, and you can do the slightly odd arch from day one. It is the exact same logical mechanism

That's exactly what I was counting on. Since the N97 I have also used the Samsung Relay and while it served me well for a couple of years (I still have it actually) I really missed the angled screen pop-out. These last few comments are really helping me stay patient as I wait for my order... Thanks guys!

[Gon009 70]

Kinda funny seeing people comparing two biased reviews (android authority vs xda) and of course calling people names because someone said that Pro1 is not worth buying. Also, these are two separate reviews, one is for masses and second is for geeks(do you really expect "normal" people to care about LineageOS or SailfishOS at all?).

Android Authority tells actually about some problems but there are things that are unfair or weird, like saying that hardware gives "janky" performance. For me so far everything feels excellent when it comes to performance.

But there are still some valid problems in this review. The keyboard is difficult to open at first, I learned how to open it properly with two hands and with one hand it's still difficult and I usually just press all the buttons at the opposite side, this is probably a thing that you need to get used to, however the first impression is indeed that it's too difficult to open. Volume button is fine for me but I have the same concerns with camera button, you can feel the "focus" click but nothing can be felt when actually taking photo, you just press the button stronger and hope that it works.

When it comes to fingerprint sensor, it's way better than my previous phone when it comes to fingerprint recognition. Sometimes there are still problems with reading but nowhere as bad in my previous phone. However the sensor is indeed too low. When I hold the phone in one hand the sensor is throwing errors because a part of my hand covers it. It's sometimes even throwing errors when unlocked, the phone still vibrates randomly because of it. I also usually trigger it(with errors) when I try to grab the phone. In my eyes all buttons should be way higher. I can't understand the design decision made on that part, it feels like it wasn't really deeply thought.

Of course there are also some weird things in that review like telling that keyboard is not backlit(lol) or that some apps are stuck in portait(well, maybe because that person didn't knew they don't support landscape at all?).

Together with tons of software bugs the phone suffers a lot and in hands of anyone who doesn't feel the must of having the physical keyboard this phone is not worth that money. For me it's more the software that makes the phone feels like it's running some sort of buggy beta software. If you give it to anyone just wanting a phone, you will also hear "what the hell is that?" opinion. Pro1 is not a phone that works flawlessly from the start like other slab phones and you shouldn't omit the problems with it when talking to average user or else they will get angry once they get the phone in their hands. The phone is not perfect. Android Authority review shows that it's made by someone who doesn't see much reason of having a physical keyboard at all, yeah, but who else should review Pro1 for average user? A person that waited months for Pro1 wanting to install LineageOS on it? Do you really need a review that is targeted to Pro1 pre-order customers? Reviews are not targeted for physical QWERTY enthusiasts but for Average Joe. And Average Joe doesn't care that a phone is made by a startup or that can have LineageOS installed on it, Average Joe just wants a phone. Of course Android Authority review is a bit unfair, especially when it comes to performance but there are still valid things in that review. Or maybe the unit they got had some problems? So far there are some people that experience some issues with Pro1 that other don't. For me currently software issues are really making the phone less usable than my old one and I hope that all software issues will be fixed.

On 12/20/2019 at 4:27 PM, Hook said:

(...)

On the hinge... it takes a bit of training to finally get it, but you will, and once you do you will be grateful because the reason it is initially so hard to do is because a) the hinge is very strong and b)there is absolutely no wobble or looseness in the hinge.  This is an industrial strength hinge that isn't going to wear out.

(...)

Hmm, really not even a single wobble? When closed, my Pro1 wobbles in the bottom and when I press the screen at the bottom and move my finger from left to right I can head parts hitting each other, also when I tap the bottom of the screen I can also hear parts hitting each other. The top of the phone is fine however.

For me the wobble, camera button and button placement on the right are main concerns, it makes the phone feel much less "premium" than it should be. The wobble was the "standard" thing in the old keyboard phones I had so I don't care, but the rest of problems is valid. The software issues(I hope all are software issues) are something that I hope will be fixed.

Edited December 22, 2019 by Gon009

[Hook 2,945]

9 minutes ago, Gon009 said:

Hmm, really not even a single wobble?

None. 🙂

[Gon009 70]

22 minutes ago, Hook said:

None. 🙂

Damn, I wish my unit was like that...

[Gigadoc2 54]

It is somewhat funny (but please don't take this as an insult, it is not) how the community "rediscovers" why horizontal sliders like this (or maybe sliders in general) died out. From people selling this phone in a very public way to debating over reviews like this it kinda looks like history repeating itself :D

It is not only that phones without sliding mechanisms and complicated keyboards are easier to produce and are (in some ways at least) more durable (or waterproof, etc) than those with them; it is also that the learning curve for a "candy bar" is basically nonexistent. Sure, you will have more fun with a phone like this after the learning curve, but for most "regular" people this is not worth it. I have no idea why it is not worth it for most people (after all I am here with you waiting for my "overpriced" slider phone), but that is the situation and thus phones like the pro1 don't have a chance to compete with candy bars on the regular market. It can only establish itself in a niche somewhere between "normal users" and people who only use notebooks anyway.

So, this Android Authority review is kind of fair in the regards that you shouldn't buy a Pro1 unless you want it for that keyboard, even if it could frame this in a nicer way. But still, there are two points in this review that I can't stand:

Quote

[…], and solutions such as Gboard, Swype, and auto-correct helped resolve the typing issues prevalent on screen-only phones.

In general the review seems to imply that HWKBs are for old people who don't get swiping keyboards or have nostalgia issues. Well, I've used a swiping keyboard some time ago (I think it was mistakenly included in an AOSP based ROM) and those things are only as good as the dictionary they complete from. Which is to say, for my language, even in normal non-geek communication, I often had words not be in that dictionary (or, way more infuriating, Google insisted on wrong grammar). It didn't happen too often, but if it happens it completely breaks the flow, because now you have to switch from swiping back to typing, and that is really annoying if you got used to swiping. And of course for the technical minded like us, no dictionary or swipe keyboard so far integrates with bash-completion...

But even without all that, I don't see too many people use swiping keyboards nowadays. They just somehow get good at using the virtual keyboard and autocompletion. So I wouldn't say that Swype is the reason HWKBs died out, the reason is that most people just manage to get by with virtual keyboards. Also, voice messages. Lots of them (I am filled with glee every time someone sends me a voicemail when I'm in a library silence zone).

Quote

Now, at the end of 2019, and after Qualcomm announced the Snapdragon 865, the 835 feels like a serious misstep.

Sorry, but that is just nerding out over specs. And if this review is targeted to regular users (which it seems to be apart from this), nerding out over specs has no place in it. I know, firsthand, that a Wileyfox Swift, a Phone from 2015 with a Snapdragon 410 and 2 GB of memory, can run Android 9 just fine, completely without hiccups. So, if the Pro1 runs slow it is definitively an issue for the normal user, but don't make it look like it is an unfixable hardware issue, because it is not. If a phone is arm64 and has 3GB memory or more, it is fine from a performance perspective. You could rightfully argue though that it will be harder to get updates from Qualcomm for an "old" chipset.

[glumreaper 144]

Good reply, @Gigadoc2! I think you've identified some of the key points there. It's foolhardy to dismiss the Android Authority review on the basis of populism, and even more so on some snobbish grounds about the author. 

I also don't understand why hardware keyboards seem to be such a niche interest. I think AA are completely wrong that autocorrect and swype have 'resolved' virtual keyboard typing. I've used Swype (now gboard) for probably nearly ten years and it's better than pecking away at intangible keys, but it's still a slow and error-prone method of text entry. I find autocorrect/prediction typing (a la iPhone pre iOS13) worse. Having to swap attention between the keys and the suggestions just produces a horrible flow that makes for very slow typing.

For me the best solution is a decent-sized hardware keyboard... Now where could I get one of those on a phone. 😉

 

 

 

[okayphoneme 28]

Clove have a review up:

 

Edited December 23, 2019 by okayphoneme