The Astro Slide! (sliding keyboard phone competition from planetcom)

[SchattengestaIt 559]

16 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

What about the cable... Will that be freely exposed on the underside when opened?

It can not be seen here on the rendering so maybe it curls up under the keyboard somehow?

On a theoretical basis, they could include the display signal (+ sound) transmission into the mechanism itself. So you'd have around 16 parallel data lines built into the metallic hinge itself. Internally it wouldn't be a problem, externally there should be ways to extend the mechanism with a short cable.

Or maybe you just include contact pins on both ends? Of course you'd need to make sure that there will be contact all the time but I'd compare it to a hdmi slot. It COULD work.

Sure it would be difficult to achieve. This also brings me to another potential problem: what about dust and sand getting into the internal hinge? Imagining a grain of sand slowly scraping across the internal sliding mechanism... ouch.

[D1ggs 141]

Give it a few years gents. It seems the keyboardless dark ages we lived in has caused us to forget what makes a good keyboard.

We'll have to crunch through a few before we get that perfection again. Pro 1 is close, but not quite there yet. 

[Luke 19]

Being that I ordered the Pro1 December 4, 2019, and I still have not received it, I will look closely at the development of this new keyboard prototype. While I can appreciate the challenges of COVID-19, FxTec continues to advertise on their website timely deliveries to people that order the Pro1. This is simply not true  and a set up for people who order the Pro1.

I had hoped to beta test the Pro1 for software medication administration. I paid for the device at the time of purchase at December. 

I'm still waiting for delivery.

Very frustrated,

Luke Queen

 

 

 

[rootytooty 1]

I ordered a Cosmo in December and still have not received it as of 2 April.  Had I seen the Pro 1 first I probably would have ordered it.  I have asked for a refund on my Cosmo but haven't heard back from them yet.  How do you like your Cosmo.  You are the first person who i know of who has one.  I do have two Gemini's.  One Wifi and one that does take a sim card.  I find that with the sim card its a bit awkward to use.  Unless I am using it wrong, you have to open the case to anything which isn't that handy.  I had most of the Nokia communicators and liked them at the time.  Also still have a Nokia N900 which would be much closer to the PRO 1.  Trouble is that the N900 is so old now and very slow, also Maemo is not the easiest system to use.  I would be very interested in your opinion on the Cosmo and how it might compare to the Pro 1.

Thanks,

Bob

[tdm 2,322]

MediaTek is a hard stop. I won't t touch it.

 

[Slion 1,201]

6 hours ago, tdm said:

MediaTek

Is it that bad?

[tdm 2,322]

7 minutes ago, Slion said:

Is it that bad?

MediaTek doesn't release any open source code. So custom roms like Lineage etc. are very difficult to make. So you are stuck with stock. And further, given that it's all closed source Chinese code, I'm not going to take any chance that it's spying on me.

Edited April 5, 2020 by tdm

[Slion 1,201]

25 minutes ago, tdm said:

closed source Chinese code

Don't you worry Americans are spying on you too, they will just find a way to make it legal 😁

Joking aside, I got it, closed source is bad especially for niche, community driven products like those.

[Muth 132]

The astroslide has an interesting mechanism indeed. However I think it will be very prone to the same problem I had with one Droid4. If a play build up between the two rails, every time you try to open or close it by pushing not at the center, the screen put itself crooked asymmetrically and hang. And it seems to be yet the case on the prototype video. Not speaking of the mandatory ribbon or flex PCB fatigue with such a long travel.

Anyway, I had a Gemini and didn't like it unfortunately (hardware and software, removing the Sim to put it in the Pro1 was such a relief!), so this new planet device is not for me. I like the Pro1 a lot and hope to keep it a long time. The only thing I can hope is a ProMini, size of the Droid4 (small hands here).

[lameboyadvance 98]

Quote

Dimensions: 16.4(W) x 7.66cm(D) x 1.5(H)cm

...That's even larger than the Pro1!

I wanted to like it (and give me yet another keyboard phone to consider), but the fact it has a 'mechanical keyboard' (IMO these do NOT belong on phones, phones are mobile pocket devices that WILL fill up with crud) as well as ending up even bigger than the oversized Pro1 means this one is a hard nope from me.

[Rob. S. 1,661]

8 hours ago, lameboyadvance said:

Quote

Dimensions: 16.4(W) x 7.66cm(D) x 1.5(H)cm

...That's even larger than the Pro1!

Indeed, but to be honest, those one or two millimeters more probably wouldn't make it a hard exclusion criterion for me, either 😉 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, Rob. S. said:

Indeed, but to be honest, those one or two millimeters more probably wouldn't make it a hard exclusion criterion for me, either 😉 

Well as thumb typing on this is going to be hard, you could say that is not an issue. But for those that want to not use it on a desk but in their hands thumb typing, an extra 1cm wide and keys close to the edges would certainly be an issue reaching for many. Edge to edge of keys are 134mm versus 153mm, so 14% wider key-section..., so a bit more than "two millimetres", it is "two centimetres".

 

...But I do agree that the extra few mm in thickness and portrait width is less of an issue, as Pro1 already is beyond one hand operation for the majority of people.

[Luke 19]

On 4/3/2020 at 10:47 PM, rootytooty said:

I ordered a Cosmo in December and still have not received it as of 2 April.  Had I seen the Pro 1 first I probably would have ordered it.  I have asked for a refund on my Cosmo but haven't heard back from them yet.  How do you like your Cosmo.  You are the first person who i know of who has one.  I do have two Gemini's.  One Wifi and one that does take a sim card.  I find that with the sim card its a bit awkward to use.  Unless I am using it wrong, you have to open the case to anything which isn't that handy.  I had most of the Nokia communicators and liked them at the time.  Also still have a Nokia N900 which would be much closer to the PRO 1.  Trouble is that the N900 is so old now and very slow, also Maemo is not the easiest system to use.  I would be very interested in your opinion on the Cosmo and how it might compare to the Pro 1.

Thanks,

Bob

Bob, 

I don't actually have the Cosmo. However, I need a phone with a keyboard to document medication information when frontline health providers provide services while in the community. While I appreciate the challenges of COVID-19, it causes me to lose trust in a company that continues to advertise false information (e.g. delivery in 4-6 weeks).  What else do they say that is not true? 

I'm have empathy for everyone that continues to wait on their Pro1 order. 

However, it also frustrates me when I read that some have received their Pro1 phones who ordered in February 2020 and received it 2 weeks later, while I ordered mine December 4, 2019, and cannot even get a personal response from FxTec regarding my order other than "processing."

I co-own an electronic software company that operates an EHR worldwide. As a licensed doctorate level mental health practitioner, I would like to advocate for a dependable QWERTY to use for the electronic health record, perhaps the Pro1.

Unfortunately, at this point, I don't think FxTec cares about any of this. If you won't be honest with your advertising, who can trust anything you say?

Just my thoughts, 

Luke

 

[Rob. S. 1,661]

From all we've seen here, "cannot get a personal response" is not the rule – although communication errors did happen and probably continue to happen. At least some of them could be solved here in the forums. In your specific case, though, I would have suggested to try and establish something more like a B2B contact very early, instead of just ordering a device as any old consumer. I have no insight in the inner workings of F(x)Tec myself, but I think things might have gone different then...

And who was it that "ordered in February 2020 and received it 2 weeks later"? if it happened, it definitely was a singular exception, and probably not a "normal customer", either.

3 hours ago, Luke said:

If you won't be honest with your advertising

I totally get your frustration, but, "advertising" and "honest" – In which world do you live? 😉 

 

Edited April 7, 2020 by Rob. S.

[Luke 19]

On 4/7/2020 at 8:51 AM, Rob. S. said:

From all we've seen here, "cannot get a personal response" is not the rule – although communication errors did happen and probably continue to happen. At least some of them could be solved here in the forums. In your specific case, though, I would have suggested to try and establish something more like a B2B contact very early, instead of just ordering a device as any old consumer. I have no insight in the inner workings of F(x)Tec myself, but I think things might have gone different then...

And who was it that "ordered in February 2020 and received it 2 weeks later"? if it happened, it definitely was a singular exception, and probably not a "normal customer", either.

I totally get your frustration, but, "advertising" and "honest" – In which world do you live? 😉 

 

"Advertising and honest" - I live in a world where I own my own software company (electronic health records), I have three grown daughters with families, and I've never met a cellphone company that advertised what they cannot deliver. The world is full of those who lie, but my standards are higher than that, and people who work for a company have a responsibility to enhance, not diminish its reputation.

This is what we do in the United States. I was excited to see the Pro1 vision coming from Great Britain, the mother country of the U.S.! I have long wanted to see this wonderful country. Unfortunately, it appears that FxTec is just another Chinese Company attempting to frontline in Great Britain.

Sir, I do live in this world and will continue to thrive and push standards that move people to higher ground. You can accept lies and deceit for yourself, but I will push for better than that for myself, my family, and FxTec.

Luke

[EskeRahn 5,460]

12 minutes ago, Luke said:

Unfortunately, it appears that FxTec is just another Chinese Company attempting to frontline in Great Britain.

By that logic Apple is a Chinese company attempting to frontline in the US.
You will find it really hard to find any phone-brand out there, that is build 'in the west'.

[eldarion 46]

I do have a cosmo communicator, it's shelved. I tried making it a daily driver for a month or so.

It's not past the prototype stage to be honest. The outside screen is a gimmick that doesn't work but comes with MASSIVE downsides (they somehow messed up the android doze / deep sleep by implementing the cover display sync, it's an extra low power microcontroller that exchanges information with android).

The mediatek performance is shit (like expect typical websites to literally stutter and hang while rendering). The battery life is awful too (thanks to the messed up android sleep, but even if you turn the entire Cover Display off the battery is really really bad). The stability is terrible, I got random reboots and sometime it boots into safe mode for no reason. Enjoy paying with contactless  when you take the phone out of your pocket and turns out it's in safe mode.

The software updates are very rare and when they fix something it's some basic dumb bug that wouldn't have happened without the cover display. IMHO the gemini is the superior device just because it doesn't have the cover display. They must have spent so much time R&D'ing on that thing, and it's so utterly useless. You can't do anything with it except the most basic calls, it's slow and unreliable, and you will be turning it off anyway because it uses up so much battery for no reason.

 

So personally my experience was that they kind of delivered on the project updates and delivering my unit, but everything else is dumb, especially the Cover Display. It's sitting on my shelf since 2 months. I'm ashamed of having given them money, it's that bad.

Edited April 8, 2020 by eldarion

[Hook 3,020]

24 minutes ago, Luke said:

"Advertising and honest" - I live in a world where I own my own software company (electronic health records), I have three grown daughters with families, and I've never met a cellphone company that advertised what they cannot deliver. The world is full of those who lie, but my standards are higher than that, and people who work for a company have a responsibility to enhance, not diminish its reputation.

This is what we do in the United States. I was excited to see the Pro1 vision coming from Great Britain, the mother country of the U.S.! I have long wanted to see this wonderful country. Unfortunately, it appears that FxTec is just another Chinese Company attempting to frontline in Great Britain.

Sir, I do live in this world and will continue to thrive and push standards that move people to higher ground. You can accept lies and deceit for yourself, but I will push for better than that for myself, my family, and FxTec.

Luke

Oh, for heaven's sake, you completely ignore the substance of Eske's post and bring out the Flag and a full marching band for the humorous quip he made at the end (I'm not really sure what having three full grown daughters with families has to do with anything here, but congratulations).   And lol on the the comment about GB our mother country. 😄

 

[Rob. S. 1,661]

2 hours ago, Luke said:

I've never met a cellphone company that advertised what they cannot deliver [...]

So you never heard about the Samsung Galaxy Fold? And that's just the first example that comes to mind. And advertising never, ever, was honest. In the best case, advertising is about presenting and exaggerating advantages over the competiton while hiding disadvantages.

And I cannot see what your marital/family status has anything to do with this, either.

This is simply a question of how we deal with mistakes people make. And whether we want to apply even stricter standards of judgement to a small British company than to the largest South-Korean business conglomerate, a small British company for that matter where only a few people work (with very possibly all of them having more important work to do than to edit their website every few days) .

And if you call that "lies and deceit", you utter an accusation that you cannot even prove. There's a rule in many western jurisdictions that's called the benefit of doubt. Don't attribute to ill will what can be explained by error and negligence.

I call your behaviour, your accusations, malevolent. I hope your family, since you've brought it into this, suffers less malevolence from you than what you're so intent on dealing out here.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

47 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

3 hours ago, Luke said:

I've never met a cellphone company that advertised what they cannot deliver [...]

So you never heard about the Samsung Galaxy Fold? And that's just the first example that comes to mind. And advertising never, ever, was honest. In the best case, advertising is about presenting and exaggerating advantages over the competiton while hiding disadvantages.

Ask aPple about their charging pad...

But of course it is totally unfair to the industry to take to tiny players like Samsung and aPple as examples 😇
[/sarcasm]

[Slion 1,201]

5 hours ago, eldarion said:

I'm ashamed of having given them money, it's that bad.

Feeling sorry for you mate. Don't worry though even the smartest of us make bad decisions at times.

Thanks for sharing your experience with Planet. When I saw the Cosmo specs I thought those guys are either really talented or out of their minds. Now I know which one.

[Slion 1,201]

@Luke I understand your frustration concerning the delays but surely you realize our world is facing its toughest challenge since WW2. Most planes world wide are grounded people are dying, grasping for air by the thousand. I'm sure you will find in yourself the strength to wait a few more months for your shiny electronic gadget. In the worst case scenario you loose a few hundred dollars surely that's not such a big deal for someone of your stature.

TBH at this stage we could count ourselves lucky if Fxtec survives COVID.

If they ever manage to really restart production I will definitely buy another unit. It is that good. For a startup first product that is.

Edited April 9, 2020 by Slion

[michael.bosscha 142]

I concur: especially for a startup, this phone is very, very good. I know the long production time has people irked but in all honesty: it's worth it. There's small bugs and little things that can be done better, sure. But I find this phone very pleasant to work with.

Just... ditch the curved screen next round...

[EskeRahn 5,460]

30 minutes ago, michael.bosscha said:

I concur: especially for a startup, this phone is very, very good. I know the long production time has people irked but in all honesty: it's worth it. There's small bugs and little things that can be done better, sure. But I find this phone very pleasant to work with.

I'm very pleased too. Note that going for a non-curved screen would mean two thing

1. Higher price
2. Lesser Screen-to body-ratio. (larger body or lesser screen)

So personally I think it would be MUCH better to at a deep hardware-driver level at the users choice offer the display to the system as

• Full, 2160x1080 (18:9)
• slightly reduced keyboard side only, 2160x1035 (18.8 : 9)
• slightly reduced  both sides, 2160x990 (19.6 : 9)
• substantially reduced  keyboard side only, 2160x990 (19.6 : 9)
• substantially reduced  keyboard side, slightly on opposite, 2160x945 (10.6 : 9)
• substantially reduced both sides, 2160x900 (21.6 : 9)

A VARIANT of the above could be that it concerned touch only, not the displayed area. (Similar to the Edge Null hack, but implemented in the system) This generally works, but can course troubles interacting with some edge elements, depending on each app.

[ahunter 108]

4 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

I'm very pleased too. Note that going for a non-curved screen would mean two thing

1. Higher price
2. Lesser Screen-to body-ratio. (larger body or lesser screen)

So personally I think it would be MUCH better to at a deep hardware-driver level at the users choice offer the display to the system as

• Full, 2160x1080 (18:9)
• slightly reduced keyboard side only, 2160x1035 (18.8 : 9)
• slightly reduced  both sides, 2160x990 (19.6 : 9)
• substantially reduced  keyboard side only, 2160x990 (19.6 : 9)
• substantially reduced  keyboard side, slightly on opposite, 2160x945 (10.6 : 9)
• substantially reduced both sides, 2160x900 (21.6 : 9)

A VARIANT of the above could be that it concerned touch only, not the displayed area. (Similar to the Edge Null hack, but implemented in the system) This generally works, but can course troubles interacting with some edge elements, depending on each app.

The phone is fine as it is hardware wise. People that have had no choice but to revert to a touch screen only phone seem to be the ones struggling the most. I have been QWERTY only all the from Symbian on Nokia. 

I have never developed the habits a touch screen only phone user has. So no real issue here. But yes USER CHOICES you suggested could work.

Deep customisability at the ROM level is what the 'tweaker' purchasers of this phone requires.

Edited April 9, 2020 by ahunter