Independent reviews

[Hook 3,022]

3 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

If you grab the grey slider you can go from the top to the bottom of the list in one screen length, grabbing the page, you can move one page at the time only (and more swiping)

I dunno then,  I can easily get from top to bottom in one flick and vice versa.  Must not have enough apps.  😄

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Just now, Hook said:

I dunno then,  I can easily get from top to bottom in one flick and vice versa.  Must not have enough apps.  😄

This is a fruitless discussion... This list as an example we all have, so all can test it. The functionality is not a big miss here. But it might be in another context.

I merely tried to point out that a functionality build into Android is prevented from working with the fix Edge null give us. Whether it will be missed or can be circumvented is a totally different story. And for many it most likely is a less nuisance that the edge is passive than the accidental grabbings.

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

12 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Sure, you can do classic scrolling swiping like crazy (and the more apps installed the worse), but you can not grab the scroll slider and scroll quickly, as it is at the very edge.

ADD: Actually Pie is a little odd here, as you can drag that slider, but you can NOT drag the similar slider in e.g. Developer options 🙄

Since i use Launchtime which does autocategorize apps (and has a search screen). I do not scroll in an app list anyway.
So I give edge null a shot. But don't like the idea to have an overlay on my apps the whole time!

[david 929]

8 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

But don't like the idea to have an overlay on my apps the whole time!

Can you explain what this means?

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

Just now, david said:

Can you explain what this means?

Edge Null does draw over other apps. With a dead zone on the whole right and left. This does on one side mean that it is running constantly and also draining a bit of battery.
The bigger problem for me is, that drawing over other apps is a potential security risk. 
To be clear I am not aware how android currently implements the draw over app function.
But it at least was a thing that some apps were drawing over the whole screen record all your input and dispatch the input down to the underlying apps.
So it was easy to get hold of passwords etc.
After all the app has full network access, so it could send stuff.
I currently see no signs of malicious behaviour of the app but i still dislike the idea and an update can change a lot.

P.S. If someone has newer informations on how the overlay is handled and if there is a protection for this now in please feel free to correct me!

[david 929]

10 hours ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

Edge Null does draw over other apps. With a dead zone on the whole right and left.

Oh, so it draws a visual border?  I just assumed it made it a dead zone without any visual cues.  

[Craig 1,435]

Can you set the border solid black, so you don't see the rounded corners?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

55 minutes ago, Craig said:

Can you set the border solid black, so you don't see the rounded corners?

Other apps can do that, BUT the problem is that some apps seems to look at and draw relative to the physical display and others more benign relative to the logical remaining display. So to really work, it has to go deep enough to also modify the answer for the physical size. So I assume the best would be if it went into the hardware driver.

[SchattengestaIt 559]

But are there really no root apps that can handle this? It wouldn't be too hard to change some parameters to the settings you like.

With custom roms I expect this to be done (maybe possible in the settings, maybe with different downloads or a file exchange).

[david 929]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

Other apps can do that, BUT the problem is that some apps seems to look at and draw relative to the physical display and others more benign relative to the logical remaining display. So to really work, it has to go deep enough to also modify the answer for the physical size. So I assume the best would be if it went into the hardware driver.

It really is a shame that apps don't draw relative to the logical size, or give the users the option to have them work against logical or physical.

Agreed that this would be best done by fxtec.  And it does seem appropriate, since the curved screen is part of the phone design and does cause some people issues (whether functional or visual).  And by that, I mean not just replicating the edge null functionality, but also re-setting the physical display size so that we can have the display end before the curves (user configurable, of course).  

[VaZso 1,998]

4 hours ago, david said:

Oh, so it draws a visual border?  I just assumed it made it a dead zone without any visual cues.  

It has an option to draw visual borders (shades) but you can turn visualization off.

[mosen 202]

Pro¹ is the lightest phone with hardware keyboard (German)
https://benedikt.io/2020/01/fxtec-pro1-leichtestes-android-smartphone-hardware-tastatur/

[Bloodhoundje 78]

The review I wrote for the Pro1, I never write reviews and it's in Dutch so be aware 🙂 : https://tweakers.net/productreview/228910/f(x)tec-pro1.html

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

On 1/19/2020 at 12:05 AM, Bloodhoundje said:

The review I wrote for the Pro1, I never write reviews and it's in Dutch so be aware 🙂 : https://tweakers.net/productreview/228910/f(x)tec-pro1.html

I did not read the whole thing, mainly because my dutch is somewhat limited, but may I point out that the found has QWERTY and QWERTZ and not QWERTY and AZERTY.
But as far as I understand the rest I like the review.

[netman 1,424]

I wrote one also 🙂 http://matland.be/?p=things&s=pro1review

[YelloDumpling 23]

I could give a quick rundown of my first few hours:

• Hinge is very stiff;  Definitely spend a few minutes opening and closing it, so it becomes easier.
• Power button directly in the middle of the right side is a terrible design choice.
• Despite being slightly shifted,  the qwerty keyboard feels very nice to type with.  However, you have to hit the yellow arrow key for symbols, not LShift.
• The screen is very pretty;  Beautiful and vibrant.
• Audio is nice and loud.
• I'm currently getting good performance.   I haven't really noticed any slowdowns and rebooting is very quick.
• The bundled screen protector is junk;  Ended up ripping in half while peeling it off the plastic.
• I really enjoy having no bloatware; Going with stock is a smart move, however stock definitely feels 'stock' in terms of fluidity.  Few UI quirks that AREN'T the fault of the phone.  Major one being closing apps but the app drawer sometimes pops up instead.
• Due to stock, the bundled camera isn't amazing (talking about the software).   The camera itself is quite nice, but I haven't found a suitable software replacement YET. (ideas?)
• Google apps are included, if you're into that.   So, right off the bat, you've got google maps and play store at your disposal.
• The phone itself isn't light, but it's not a complete brick either;   Feels sturdy.  --  (when to pick it up while typing this.... ended up hitting that damn power button.   Such crap placement)
• Using my gigabit connection, I get really good streaming speeds.  This device handles HULU and VLC very well;  Youtube too.
• Thanks to the keyboard, messaging/writing in general is really fun.

That is all I have to say, currently.

EDIT: disabling gestures fixes my app drawer complaint.

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by YelloDumpling

[EskeRahn 5,460]

12 minutes ago, YelloDumpling said:

• Despite being slightly shifted,  the qwerty keyboard feels very nice to type with.  However, you have to hit the yellow arrow key for symbols, not LShift.

Installing FinQWERTY handles that (also) - can only recommend it.

[VaZso 1,998]

I have also written something about Pro1 here.
However, translation from Hungarian to English has a really poor quality anyway...

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Here is a new one, they mentioned on twitter https://www.zdnet.com/article/fxtec-pro1-changes-the-landscape-of-smartphone-keyboards/

[rejujacob 77]

On 1/28/2020 at 5:12 AM, EskeRahn said:

Installing FinQWERTY handles that (also) - can only recommend it.

I installed FinQWERTY and used "US international for physical US QWERTY"

In this keyboard the "Alt" key works like the default "slant yellow arrow" key, and slant yellow key works for some other special characters like 1/2 1/4 etc .

Ok fine, but now when I reverted to back US English or UK English keyboards after uninstalling FinQWERTY, the slant arrow key refuses to work! So I cannot get the special yellow characters like ?<> etc to work. But Shift key now enables all the yellow characters on the numeric keys viz., @#$% etc.

I had to reinstall FInQWERTY to use the special characters. Feel Hijacked by FinQWERTY :-)

What is the default keyboard for QWERTY version of Pro1?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, rejujacob said:

What is the default keyboard for QWERTY version of Pro1?

Yes, this is odd: The default is deselecting ALL tick-boxes! (It would have been nice with a tick box for Stock US)

If you got FinQWERTY installed you can select his "None" layout, that offers the stock with no alterations (hence the "none")

[rejujacob 77]

4 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Yes, this is odd: The default is deselecting ALL tick-boxes! (It would have been nice with a tick box for Stock US)

If you got FinQWERTY installed you can select his "None" layout, that offers the stock with no alterations (hence the "none")

My issues resolved by deselecting all tick boxes to enable "default" keyboard.

[YelloDumpling 23]

I'm too used to the PRO1 standard to change the keyboard.

On 1/27/2020 at 5:42 PM, EskeRahn said:

Installing FinQWERTY handles that (also) - can only recommend it.

 

[netman 1,424]

Here we go

 

[SchattengestaIt 559]

5 hours ago, netman said:

Here we go

 

It's a shame that he also received a phone with many software bugs but I guess it's fair since we do as well. I just hope they (FxTec) can start production soon, otherwise many potential new buyers will disappear soon.

 

By the way, I had a reminder in my phone that told me every three months to check if there were new keyboard phones. If I hadn't, I would have received the information from Linus first. So there is definitely a wider consumer group out there.