Independent reviews

[EskeRahn 5,459]

1 hour ago, Craig said:

I imagine the reason he thought the camera button didnt take photos is due to the lack of feedback.  No thumbnail, no shutter sound.  I didnt think I was taking photos at first either.  I do hope this is fixed shortly as this affects these first impression type reviews.

If you take a multiple pictures it sometimes(!) changes the colour of the virtual shutter 'button' for an image. So actually it DOES have (a very subtle) feedback, but I can not see a clear pattern in when it does it. First time it was the first, when I tried again it was the third.... I must admit it is the first time I tested this button since very early on.

So this should be fixed to be there every time, and preferable a little less subtle please....

And off course the lacking Audible-feedback must be fixed, if turned on, as this noise is a legal requirement in some countries. At the least it is in Japan.

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

13 hours ago, Siani_8 said:

The multiple reviewers/owners saying how hard it is to open, have to train yourself to open and afraid they will fling it across the room or drop it on the street doesn't really give me confidence that it's a good design to me.  

I had no trouble opening it after like 5 minutes but yeah a lot of people I gave the phone too had.
But I can absolutely confirm that once learned it is a great hinge. As long as you don't pay attention to it, it basically opens itself.

Edited January 9, 2020 by Doktor Oswaldo

[D1ggs 141]

53 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

I had no trouble opening it after like 5 minutes but yeah a lot of people I gave the phone too had.
But I can absolutely confirm that once learned it is a great hinge. As long as you don't pay attention to it, it basically opens itself.

How much you want to bet those writers only played with the phone for about 4 minutes before writing the article? 🙄

[FlyingAntero 869]

46 minutes ago, D1ggs said:

How much you want to bet those writers only played with the phone for about 4 minutes before writing the article? 🙄

I believe that Steve got the device at the same time when the small batch was delivered. First post on Twitter with Pro1 on 6th of January. So I believe he played with it like a day or two and was able to learn how to use the hinge mechanism 😉. He said that "however, you do get used to the opening system".

 

[jjarmasz 81]

Here's another (related) review - audio review/1st impressions from Steve Litchfield's and Ted Salmon's Phone Show Chat Ep. 533 (discussion of the Pro1 starts around 42'40"):

https://ia801408.us.archive.org/30/items/psc533/psc533.mp3

I was pleasantly surprised at how complimentary Ted Salmon's comments were overall. He's definitely persuaded me to not cancel my order yet 🙂

 

[Erik 1,487]

Some footage from CES. FYI, the CES demo units are early developer units (as you know we are very tight on stock with the pre-orders), hence the strange rotation behaviour in the video. 

 

[Hook 3,016]

Glad to hear his positive tone, but it was really too bad the software wasn't working as smoothly as the production units do.   Not just the bad screen orientation behavior, but the screen keyboard popping up in landscape ( that has never happened to me).  Someone seeing only this video might get scared away.

[Erik 1,487]

Just now, Hook said:

Glad to hear his positive tone, but it was really too bad the software wasn't working as smoothly as the production units do.   Not just the bad screen orientation behavior, but the screen keyboard popping up in landscape ( that has never happened to me).  Someone seeing only this video might get scared away.

It's either that, or using production devices, which we like to save for pre-orders at the minute. Right now that is the priority - we didn't want to affect the already small batch from 2 weeks ago by taking a bunch of devices to CES which will never be owned by a user. 

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

1 minute ago, Erik said:

It's either that, or using production devices, which we like to save for pre-orders at the minute. Right now that is the priority - we didn't want to affect the already small batch from 2 weeks ago by taking a bunch of devices to CES which will never be owned by a user. 

Honestly while I find this really really nice. It may have been more important to have good devices at CES. In the end we all need you to survive.

But in the end it is a nice move, thank you!

[Erik 1,487]

13 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

Honestly while I find this really really nice. It may have been more important to have good devices at CES. In the end we all need you to survive.

But in the end it is a nice move, thank you!

We use our own production units for sales meetings :).

[elvissteinjr 359]

It's kinda sad how this video also shows right away how prone the display is to accidental touches on the edges.
Hopefully we'll have some solution for that working with both orientations in the future.

[netman 1,424]

1 hour ago, elvissteinjr said:

It's kinda sad how this video also shows right away how prone the display is to accidental touches on the edges.
Hopefully we'll have some solution for that working with both orientations in the future.

For me it's mostly solved simply by owning the phone a while. It's thicc enough that you can grab it without accidentally pressing the screen.

[Doktor Oswaldo 904]

8 minutes ago, netman said:

For me it's mostly solved simply by owning the phone a while. It's thicc enough that you can grab it without accidentally pressing the screen.

Well not for me, but only because I often use it one handed.
Once I reach all the way to the left with my thumb my palm does touch the right edge.

Edited January 13, 2020 by Doktor Oswaldo

[Hook 3,016]

27 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

Well not for me, but only because I often use it one handed.
Once I reach all the way to the left with my thumb my palm does touch the right edge.

Edge Null, works pretty well for me. You do have to remember to take it off battery optimization or Android 9 will keep closing it after a while. Like Netman, I was okay after some use, but this app just makes it so I don't have to think about it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meatcube.edgenull&hl=en_US

[okayphoneme 28]

He gives the wrong price in the video, and also incorrectly states that you can use two SIMs and expandable storage at the same time.

[EskeRahn 5,459]

28 minutes ago, Doktor Oswaldo said:

Well not for me, but only because I often use it one handed.
Once I reach all the way to the left with my thumb my palm does touch the right edge.

For me it changed a lot when I added a case, And I'm still using the rather bulky (21mm) flip case, as the device is not currently easy replaceable. But I guess I will go back to a shell protecting the bottom half, but that had about the same effect, as the fingers grab the case, and thus about 1mm from the device (and fingerprint scanner), unless I deliberately grab and unlock it in one go. (The pre production unit that can not connect to the net, I keep in a simple shell)

[EskeRahn 5,459]

3 minutes ago, Hook said:

Edge Null, works pretty well for me. You do have to remember to take it off battery optimization or Android 9 will keep closing it after a while. Like Netman, I was okay after some use, but this app just makes it so I don't have to think about it.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.meatcube.edgenull&hl=en_US

The only problem with edge null, is that it is touch only, so interaction along the edges are no longer possible. If you open e.g. the apps list, you can not pull the scroll bar slider.

But it is for sure a big help for those having issues.

[Hook 3,016]

1 minute ago, EskeRahn said:

The only problem with edge null, is that it is touch only, so interaction along the edges are no longer possible. If you open e.g. the apps list, you can not pull the scroll bar slider.

But it is for sure a big help for those having issues.

In Nova, the apps list scrolls from anywhere,  I haven't run into any problems with the apps I use, but I imagine for an app that required and edge scroll-bar rather than scroll screen from anywhere it could be a problem. 

[EskeRahn 5,459]

Just now, Hook said:

In Nova, the apps list scrolls from anywhere,  I haven't run into any problems with the apps I use, but I imagine for an app that required and edge scroll-bar rather than scroll screen from anywhere it could be a problem. 

I meant the installed apps list. "Setting",  "Apps and notifications" "See all ### apps"

[VaZso 1,998]

8 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

The only problem with edge null, is that it is touch only, so interaction along the edges are no longer possible.

Another problem with edge null is that it has no settings for top and bottom edges in landscape mode - it always tries to solve left and right touching problem but in landscape mode of Pro1, it does not make sense as shorter edges are not easily touchable as opposite to longer edges especially when accessing the number row of keyboard.

Edited January 13, 2020 by VaZso

[EskeRahn 5,459]

...I do not think I break any secrets by saying that something similar to edge null is already active in the hardware driver. The outer most pixels are not touch sensitive. The whole display was active on the early builds, where the problems was much more pronounced.

[Hook 3,016]

2 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

I meant the installed apps list. "Setting",  "Apps and notifications" "See all ### apps"

I have absolutely no problem with the all apps screen in app info in settings.  Does not require edge scrolling for me.

[EskeRahn 5,459]

5 minutes ago, Hook said:

I have absolutely no problem with the all apps screen in app info in settings.  Does not require edge scrolling for me.

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 🙄

[Hook 3,016]

1 minute ago, EskeRahn said:

Sure, you can do classic scrolling, but you can not grab the scroll slider and scroll quickly, as it is at the very edge.

I find no difference in speed finger scrolling (measured speed to see what is scrolling) and finger flicking (speeding up and down the list  versus grabbing the side scroller in landscape, where I can. 

[EskeRahn 5,459]

1 minute ago, Hook said:

I find no difference in speed finger scrolling (measured speed to see what is scrolling) and finger flicking (speeding up and down the list  versus grabbing the side scroller in landscape, where I can. 

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)