How to open/shut the Pro1/Pro1X

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, shani said:

...I'm completely baffled...

I'm baffled too.

In your reference to older keyboard phones you clearly have never used one of the many many Nokias with the same mechanism principle, or you would know that a tilted slider is opened differently than a straight slider. AND that many people had issues with those the first few times too.

YES it is not intuitive to open, and YES f(x)tec could have done a more clear job telling that to people.

But that you haven't mastered to open it yet does not make it a "design flaw". With that attitude a bike is a "design flaw" having only two wheels, and thus not easy and intuitive to ride from day one....

And just as with a bike, a technique hard to explain in words, but once the body masters it, one can not imagine how it ever felt complicated, and will find out that a bike is an ingenious invention. Just as a tilted slider is so much smarter than a straight one.

Those of us that are so old that we used the Nokias from a good decade back have the muscle memory already, and just opens the Pro1 super easy with a slight push.
New users -unfortunately- have to learn the technique first.
Roughly said, if you feel you need to use force, for the fem millimetres movement, it is a sign you are doing it wrong. it is NOT a push parallel to the keyboard that is needed.

[Polaris 423]

2 hours ago, shani said:

And that's a major design flaw. It should slide open easily, without applying much force. Just like all the other QWERTY sliders did back in the days.
Otherwise you can't even walk and type.

I don't see the design flaw, mine opens effortlessly

 

2 hours ago, shani said:

I've tried/found the various ways to open it described here and while, yes it gets a bit easier after a while, none of them is really practical for daily use.
It requires way too much force, it takes too long (which makes writing a quick message impossible), it's completely counterintuitive for a device that's supposed to bring back the keyboard slider.

 

To me it's just fine for daily use.  Takes milliseconds longer than my Droid 4 which is inconsequential to me.

 

2 hours ago, shani said:

If you open it the way it's apparently supposed to be opened, you're always in danger of throwing the device out of your hands.

Not once have I felt like it was going to fly, or be thrown, out of my hands.  It's like we have two different devices!

 

2 hours ago, shani said:

Accessing the keyboard should be an intuitive and subconscious process. Instead it's something you have to completely shift your focus to so that you can actually pry the device open without it landing on the ground.

I'm completely baffled how this design made it into the final product. There were so many QWERTY smartphones in the past that got it right, how could get it so wrong?

I hate to say it, but I think there is something wrong with your phone.  Or maybe mine is the outlier?  What bothers me the most is the shifted keyboard.  Even the QWERTZ isn't a solution because there are too many keys so one will always need to use an unnatural reach and unnatural home key landing (so to speak).  This is the worst part for me (and it certainly isn't a deal breaker).  Sometimes less is more (especially when there are so many unused keys).

[Craig 1,435]

4 hours ago, shani said:

I'm completely baffled how this design made it into the final product

For me, it's only the second worst thing about it.  I'm baffled they didn't include slash key.  To me I can't understand how it made it to production without this. It was mentioned many times years ago, and sure enough, we get it, and no slash key.    If I had to chose between easy open or slash key, I'd keep the difficult opening and have that key.

However, I think there is some significant variation in units, but this is personal opinion, I haven't handled more than one.  Some people like me and you and various reviewers report how difficult and awkward it is to open, and then someone here claims it's effortless and another nameless person constantly says it just takes practice and technique.  Well I'm with you Shani, it should not be this difficult to open, if there was another choice, nobody would buy this one if they tried both.   However, we don't have another choice, so I've stared at these diagrams and videos many times over the past couple months, and I am getting better.   Give me a few more months, maybe I'll even start defending it too.  (But nothing can justify the lack of slash key.)

And here's an idea.  Maybe these people with easy to open ones are loose, and they're the ones reporting all these vibration sounds when tapping on screen or rattling when typing, etc; I have none of that.

Edited January 31, 2020 by Craig

[netman 1,424]

6 hours ago, shani said:

And that's a major design flaw. It should slide open easily, without applying much force. Just like all the other QWERTY sliders did back in the days.
Otherwise you can't even walk and type.

All the others would include n97, e7, n950... In my opinion they made the best possible choice.

[Waxberry 638]

@shani You will get used to the mechanism it in a short time and hopefully you will change your mind. If you have ever used Nokia N97 (Mini) E7 N950 you will probably this is a "feature" instead of a design flaw.

I think the only this that can be mis-leading is calling it a "slider" with the fact that it uses a lift-turn hinge. "Slider" would mis-lead user to think it slides like Droid 4 and can push from middle of the screen. (Instead of lifting / pushing the edge)

Maybe we could invent a new word calling this?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

52 minutes ago, Waxberry said:

Maybe we could invent a new word calling this?

To me the best description of what is going on is that the display is like a dolphin jumping out of the water, where a slider is a boat sailing on the surface.

So maybe "Display jumper", "Display  lifter", "Display tilter", "Display Flipper"

I sort of like "Flipper" the best, as it both associates to how it flips the screen up and dolphins.

But let us see if some can come up with a better word!

Also remember that some are pronouncing "Pro1" as "Prawn", and prawns jumps too, so maybe some wise head can use that to find a good word?

 

Add: Actually "Keyboard slider " confuses even more, as we do not slide out a keyboard, but flips out/up the display....

 

PS

On the

52 minutes ago, Waxberry said:

"Slider" would mis-lead user to think it slides like Droid 4 and can push from middle of the screen. (Instead of lifting / pushing the edge)

Though you need to push a plain slider evenly, it can be done at both ends with two thumbs too. The great thing about the Pro1, is that you can do it by one or two thumbs anywhere along the edge.

[Zamasu 258]

Well it uses hinges instead of sliders, so a keyboard hinger? Though people might think it's a completely folding one like the Cosmo Communicator then.

[Craig 1,435]

clacker?

 

edit: realized that if the Pro¹ hinge mechanism ended up becoming known as the clacker, people might mix it up....

 

prawn crackers

Edited February 1, 2020 by Craig

[FlyingAntero 871]

On 1/28/2020 at 7:00 PM, FlyingAntero said:

Here is a video how I do it after 1 day of use. I just tilt the phone agaist me so that I can see the side of the phone. Then I push little bit downwards and rest of it is happening as if by itself.

 

I took a slow motion video of opening the Pro1. You don't need to pay attention to the technique I used because I had to use my other hand to shooting the video.

 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

Experimented with a slightly different approach that might be helpful for those that do not like any of the other techniques.

Simply applyied a tiny strip of high friction tape at the back edge, with this it is so easy that you can even lift up using your nose(!) ...Yes I actually tried it...

 

[SchattengestaIt 559]

I have finally received a (used) Pro 1 too, so I was able to try and play with it a bit today.
The ideas in this thread sounded very interesting but I looked for a completely silent method that also reduces the risk of dropping the phone because of the spring mechanism.

What I do is I lift up the back slightly and then push the top forwards. That way I can open the phone completely silent as you probably (can't) hear in this video. Also you do need less force to open it.
 

Don't forget to rate my camera setup...

[ToniCipriani 194]

I find one annoying thing is that by the time I pick up the phone, the fingerprint reader would've already got to "Too many attempts".

[Benni 183]

2 hours ago, ToniCipriani said:

I find one annoying thing is that by the time I pick up the phone, the fingerprint reader would've already got to "Too many attempts".

You can disable unlock using the fingerprint reader: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.davidshewitt.admincontrol

[ToniCipriani 194]

2 hours ago, kontakt said:

You can disable unlock using the fingerprint reader: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.davidshewitt.admincontrol

Which defeats the purpose...

[EskeRahn 5,460]

9 hours ago, ToniCipriani said:

Which defeats the purpose...

Indeed. @tdm has modified it for LineageOS with a delay, ignoring repetitious touches. Hopefully this patch will come to stock too.

[elvissteinjr 359]

Is that just disabling the maximum attempts or something different? Because that limit is part of Google's security requirements for fingerprint readers. Might not be able to make it to stock depending on how he did it.

[VaZso 1,998]

17 minutes ago, elvissteinjr said:

Is that just disabling the maximum attempts or something different? Because that limit is part of Google's security requirements for fingerprint readers. Might not be able to make it to stock depending on how he did it.

I think that is "just" a delay between fingerprint reads and not a modification of maximum attempts.
So it should not affect security requirements.

[tdm 2,322]

On 6/11/2020 at 5:24 PM, VaZso said:

I think that is "just" a delay between fingerprint reads and not a modification of maximum attempts.
So it should not affect security requirements.

Yes, this.

 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

For those that disables the edge-sensitivity anyway, this case-combo might be an interesting alternative, that is super easy to open:

 

[GameboyRMH 18]

After a few days of struggling with this, I discovered a shockingly easy technique for opening and closing the phone smoothly, hold the keyboard section with your index fingers and pinky fingers and then grip the sides of the screen section with your thumbs, then you can easily open or close it by moving the screen section diagonally up and away or back down and toward you.

[internationaltraitor 84]

basically, what i found out, is that you should push from the middle. or as close to the middle for easy opening.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, internationaltraitor said:

basically, what i found out, is that you should push from the middle. or as close to the middle for easy opening.

It should make no difference if you push in the middle or to a side, due to the construction of the mechanism. What matters is that it is NOT a straight push parallel with the keyboard (see my posts earlier in the thread)

[foxfreejack 60]

On 8/28/2020 at 10:39 PM, GameboyRMH said:

After a few days of struggling with this, I discovered a shockingly easy technique for opening and closing the phone smoothly, hold the keyboard section with your index fingers and pinky fingers and then grip the sides of the screen section with your thumbs, then you can easily open or close it by moving the screen section diagonally up and away or back down and toward you.

Hi,

Yes, it's the easiest way I found also. Works well as long as you have good grip. To me, the previously shared technique, by pushing from the bottom of the screen could lead to mechanical stress and early failure (I like to keep my stuff working for a long time 😉 ).

If I may suggest an improvement that would help this technique, as I hinted, sometimes you may not have proper grip on the two parts. Having something to grip on both sides of the screen and body would help.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

3 hours ago, foxfreejack said:

If I may suggest an improvement that would help this technique, as I hinted, sometimes you may not have proper grip on the two parts. Having something to grip on both sides of the screen and body would help.

I agree that a better grip in the back of the display would help the 'lift' method. But we do not really need it on the other side, as that is pushing only. I have suggested to carve some grooves in parallel to the screen in the top part over the fingerprint reader. Currently I have a tiny (5x20mm) piece of self adhesive non-slip tape (intended for use on stairs) mounted.

[foxfreejack 60]

20 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Currently I have a tiny (5x20mm) piece of self adhesive non-slip tape (intended for use on stairs) mounted.

I will try that. Wasn't sure what material would have a good adhesive for a small area.

Thank you!