Pro¹ X – state of production and delivery

[david 914]

@MonCon and @xhajt03 - Would it be possible for you to install the LTE Discovery app and report what band you are connected to that works for data and voice, along with your location, and cellular carrier?

Mine works on Band 4 with T-mobile.  I have tested this in Minnesota (Twin Cities area) and the Memphis area of Tennessee.  

T-mobile likes switching it from Band 4 to Band 41, even when the Band 41 signal strength isn't as strong as Band 4.  Once it does this, data won't work.  Unfortunately, due to it being a Qualcomm modem, the apps that can pick a preferred band don't work (even with my phone being rooted).  The only way to get it working is to turn airplane mode on and then off.  It will then connect to Band 4 first and I can use the data until it finds the weaker Band 41 again.

Of course, in some locations, Band 41 isn't usable/reachable.  It will stay on Band 4 and work fine in these locations.

I don't know if Band 41 being shared between LTE and 5G plays into this, or the fact that Band 41 used to be Sprint, before the merger with T-mobile.

@EskeRahn - Feel free to move these band discussions to another topic.

David

Edited July 13, 2023 by david

[xhajt03 27]

58 minutes ago, david said:

@MonCon and @xhajt03 - Would it be possible for you to install the LTE Discovery app and report what band you are connected to that works for data and voice, along with your location, and cellular carrier?

First of all - as already discussed earlier in this thread, I disable VoLTE in my configuration (and enabled voice over Wifi only as the last resort if not mobile network is available) because it led to lower voice quality. I understand that this option may not be usable for people in locations/carriers not providing other network options for voice calls, but that's what works best for me.

As far as LTE Discovery app is concerned - I installed it (the basic free version, i.e. no Pro). Note that my phone is not rooted (and I'm not willing to change that because it would limit usability of the phone for some of my use cases). Does the application provide any usable/reasonable information under these conditions? I don't see anything useful in the "basic information" part. I understand just some elements of the "advanced information" part, i.e. if you believe that the band details should be available there, tell me what to look for. Also, if getting this information requires a particular configuration of this application, tell me. FWIW, I allowed the application to access the phone state information, but it didn't help much. I don't have GPS reception turned on most of the time, but I assume that this shouldn't be necessary unless one wants to see the bands on map, etc.

[MonCon 116]

7 hours ago, david said:

Would it be possible for you to install the LTE Discovery app

I've installed 'Network Monitor' from 'FDroid', I'll see what the logs look like later and look into LTE Discovery if need be.  

7 hours ago, david said:

along with your location, and cellular carrier?

Serial No. might be good as well if we have a bad batch. 

5 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

I disable VoLTE in my configuration

Also maybe stating what your 'Preferred network type' selection is in settings. 

Edited June 26, 2023 by MonCon

[xhajt03 27]

13 hours ago, MonCon said:

I've installed 'Network Monitor' from 'FDroid', I'll see what the logs look like later and look into LTE Discovery if need be.  

Serial No. might be good as well if we have a bad batch. 

Also maybe stating what your 'Preferred network type' selection is in settings. 

I don't see much useful information in Network Monitor either - there is information like Cell Signal Strength and LTE RSRQ, but columns like LTE Cell RF Channel (not even mentioning LTE Cell Id) are empty...

Regarding Preferred network type - I allow the last/widest option (NR/LTE/TDSCDMA/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA); obviously, some of these technologies are not available here, but that shouldn't matter.

Regarding Serial No. - do you mean IMEI (in my case ending 137664 for SIM slot 1 and 168669 for SIM slot 2)?

[MonCon 116]

9 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

I don't see much useful information in Network Monitor either - there is information like Cell Signal Strength and LTE RSRQ, but columns like LTE Cell RF Channel (not even mentioning LTE Cell Id) are empty...

I see the same, lots of blanks in the 'interesting' looking columns, not that I really know what I'm looking at.  
I've tried changing a few settings, VPN on, VPN off, WiFi on, WiFi off, but still no data in the CDMA, GSM, LTE columns beyond signal strength.  Neither of us is rooted, I wonder if that makes a difference.  
Happy to submit my logs to someone who understands them, but I don't see any useful 'band' information in there. 

 

9 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

Regarding Serial No. - do you mean IMEI (in my case ending 137664 for SIM slot 1 and 168669 for SIM slot 2)?

The serial number is on a sticker that was on the back of the PrawnX when I took it out of the box.  My serial number is 'S/N: fxtec007110'.  
IMEI may also help, I don't know, but they may be assigned somehow sequentially at build, or the serial number may be traceable from the IMEI number.  
If this connectivity issue is being caused by a bad batch maybe this info will prove useful.  

 

In summary:  
Status:
    Calls work, SMS works, browsing works, hotspot works
OS:
    LineageOS, unrooted
Preferred network type (from settings):
    GSM/WCDMA/LTE
Model:  
    QX1050
Serial number:
    007110
Country:
    NZ
Carrier:
    2Degrees
Bands (from frequencycheck.com):  
    GSM:  
        900 (E-GSM)
        1800 (DCS)
    UMTS
        B1 (2100)
        B8 (900 GSM)
    LTE
        B3 (1800 +)

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by MonCon

[Rob. S. 1,616]

On 6/25/2023 at 10:05 PM, xhajt03 said:

As far as LTE Discovery app is concerned - I installed it (the basic free version, i.e. no Pro). Note that my phone is not rooted (and I'm not willing to change that because it would limit usability of the phone for some of my use cases). Does the application provide any usable/reasonable information under these conditions? I don't see anything useful in the "basic information" part

I think the relevant information for this topic is the 'band', which is logged on each new connection under 'signal log' (top right, just left of the three-dot menu symbol). I'm not totally sure, but I think this should also be available in the free version. It definitely doesn't need root.

Edited June 26, 2023 by Rob. S.

[xhajt03 27]

47 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

I think the relevant information for this topic is the 'band', which is logged on each new connection under 'signal log' (top right, just left of the three-dot menu symbol). I'm not totally sure, but I think this should also be available in the free version. It definitely doesn't need root.

I'm sorry, but the free version doesn't seem to provide this information. Regardless of what the price of the paid version is, I'm not willing to provide my credit card information to Google (Play/Pay) and I suspect that there's no other way to get the full version even if I'd want to pay for it (feel free to consider me paranoid 😉 ).

[Hook 2,833]

The signals tab on the free version of LTE Discovery will show you what band you are on.  Most of the time I am on Band 4, but lately have been switching sometimes to B2.  Both are high frequency bands and work fine for LTE. This does not require root or paid version.

[xhajt03 27]

25 minutes ago, Hook said:

The signals tab on the free version of LTE Discovery will show you what band you are on.  Most of the time I am on Band 4, but lately have been switching sometimes to B2.  Both are high frequency bands and work fine for LTE. This does not require root or paid version.

I'm sorry, but I don't see the band there, it states "LTE band unknown". It also says "Active connections (0)" and "N/A" for all of "DL EARFCN", "UL EARFCN", "DL Freq" and "UL Freq". The "Cell bandwidth (kilohertz)" value seems to be -1 converted to an unsigned 32-bit number. I don't know if there's anything useful in the Advanced data section, but I doubt it - apart from MNC/MCC, etc., I see only "Channel number" (6200), "Data network type" (13) and "Radio technology type" (14 - apparently meaning LTE).

[Trained2Type 7]

Where is my phone?

[Hook 2,833]

19 minutes ago, Trained2Type said:

Where is my phone?

I moved this post here, where discussions on this topic take place.  This is a user-to-user forum, so we can't answer your question.  Although we do sometimes see input from @Casey and others, the answer to your question will always be whatever the latest update on the IGG site is as that is the official information.

[zundappchef 92]

bought a samsung fold 4 and it allows the screen to be used like the pro1/x 
it took me about 2 hours to get used to the typing but its realy nice 

would recommend for people who are realy looking for this layout of a  keyboard and screen combo 
also you can just switch to each type of keyboard you want qwerty qwertz .
the only downside to this setup is that u dont have the clicky feel

idk why at the beginning of the year i was hoping for a positive result in shipping the devices but clearly i was wrong
lets hope fx tec does not go under . i wanna see a colab of them and unihertz 

[Rob. S. 1,616]

14 minutes ago, zundappchef said:

lets hope fx tec does not go under . i wanna see a colab of them and unihertz

They seem to be mildly successful with one or two other products, so their existence might not be in immediate danger... I'd really like to see the slider phone product line continued, though, but the chances for that look a bit dim at this time. 

As for cooperations with Fxtec, another British company comes to mind which doesn't produce phones (yet?), but another niche product, Linux laptops: Star Labs (https://de.starlabs.systems/). Even though they must be a rather small business, too, they have very nice products, sensibly priced, excellent support, and it looks like their commercial success is at least adequate...

 

 

[guest274848 3]

2 hours ago, Rob. S. said:

They seem to be mildly successful with one or two other products, so their existence might not be in immediate danger... 

Just out of curiosity, could you point me to one of these "mildly successful" products?

I only managed to find Linxdot, which, judging by the forum (https://community.linxdot.com) does not go very well. Maybe even worse than the Pro1x, depending on how one grades the scale.

[brunoais 317]

2 hours ago, guest274848 said:

Just out of curiosity, could you point me to one of these "mildly successful" products?

https://www.fxtec.com/#Linxdot
(hopefully) https://www.deckhd.com/

[guest274848 3]

2 hours ago, brunoais said:

https://www.fxtec.com/#Linxdot
(hopefully) https://www.deckhd.com/

As I see it, Linxdot has hit the same problem as Pro1X, I mean, if one reads on their forum, it sure does look like for months they didnt even have cash enough to let customers activate their recieved products. There also seem to be serious problems for them to deliver ordered devices.

 

DeckHD sounds like a cool thing (I didnt find that before for some reason, so thanks), but will there really be a market for it?

If I wanted to change the screen to a better one on my Steam Deck, it would be because I wanted better resolution while playing graphically detailed games with more clarity. However, when increasing the number of pixels from about 1.02 Million to roughly 2.3 Million, then that means more than double the amount of pixels for the GPU to render, while still running at the same speed. Im sure optimizations and other techniques will make sure it will not be more than double the effort, but nevertheless, I would expect a performance hit, forcing me to actually lower the graphics quality, in order to run the game in native resolution on my crisp new screen. Im not sure this is a compromise everyone would want to make, even factoring in the better sRGB compliance.

[Rob. S. 1,616]

1 hour ago, guest274848 said:

Im sure optimizations and other techniques will make sure it will not be more than double the effort, but nevertheless, I would expect a performance hit, forcing me to actually lower the graphics quality

I've been away from even just halfway serious gaming for a long time, but while you do have a point there, I would expect a performance hit only for the more demanding games? And even then, people might still want to trade some rendering features for higher resolution. After all, at least for younger people than me, 1280x800 may come across as rather low-res even on a 7" screen...

Provided that they actually get a screen, and a working one to boot, that is... 

Edited July 9, 2023 by Rob. S.

[claude0001 1,244]

1 hour ago, Rob. S. said:

After all, at least for younger people than me, 1280x800 may come across as rather low-res even on a 7" screen...

The competing Switch is hugely popular with its 1280x720 pixel 7-inch display, so the screen itself is probably fine for people. One may argue that, as the Deck is (also) supposed to run games made primarily for (larger) PC displays, there may be a case for a higher-resolution built-in display here.

While far from a gaming expert, my experience with Steam on Linux (which is what the SteamDeck is running) is that the total number of pixels to be rendered still matters as much as in the olden days. It also seems to be agreed among users that, when using the Steam Deck's (much) higher resolutions as already supported via HDMI-out, the FPS do suffer.

However, the main problem with a higher-resolution built-in display will probably be the increased power consumption of the GPU. The battery life seems to be the weak point of the device already now, even though Valve implemented workarounds like FPS-limiters and shading rate dividers. I guess a FHD+ display won't help with that .... 

[KaKi87 8]

So, @Casey, how's coordinating with our logistics company to arrange the shipment going ?

[david 914]

On 6/25/2023 at 3:05 PM, xhajt03 said:

First of all - as already discussed earlier in this thread, I disable VoLTE in my configuration (and enabled voice over Wifi only as the last resort if not mobile network is available) because it led to lower voice quality. I understand that this option may not be usable for people in locations/carriers not providing other network options for voice calls, but that's what works best for me.

As far as LTE Discovery app is concerned - I installed it (the basic free version, i.e. no Pro). Note that my phone is not rooted (and I'm not willing to change that because it would limit usability of the phone for some of my use cases). Does the application provide any usable/reasonable information under these conditions? I don't see anything useful in the "basic information" part. I understand just some elements of the "advanced information" part, i.e. if you believe that the band details should be available there, tell me what to look for. Also, if getting this information requires a particular configuration of this application, tell me. FWIW, I allowed the application to access the phone state information, but it didn't help much. I don't have GPS reception turned on most of the time, but I assume that this shouldn't be necessary unless one wants to see the bands on map, etc.

Did you disable volte, or does it show as off and grayed out automatically?  Can you send a screenshot of the setting?

Also, what does your phone show for these two values?

Settings->About phone->SIM status (sim slot 1)->Mobile voice network type and Mobile data network type

[xhajt03 27]

22 minutes ago, david said:

Did you disable volte, or does it show as off and grayed out automatically?  Can you send a screenshot of the setting?

Also, what does your phone show for these two values?

Settings->About phone->SIM status (sim slot 1)->Mobile voice network type and Mobile data network type

No, the VoLTE setting was not off originally, I turned it off explicitly after I discovered that having it enabled led to worse phone call quality. I can enable it again, but I don't want to do that with this firmware version. I'm not attaching a screenshot because the Czech messages wouldn't be useful for majority of forum users - just believe me, please. 😉

Mobile voice network type and Mobile data network type both show "LTE".

[david 914]

2 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

No, the VoLTE setting was not off originally, I turned it off explicitly after I discovered that having it enabled led to worse phone call quality. I can enable it again, but I don't want to do that with this firmware version. I'm not attaching a screenshot because the Czech messages wouldn't be useful for majority of forum users - just believe me, please. 😉

Mobile voice network type and Mobile data network type both show "LTE".

Interesting that you have volte disabled, but it how's voice network type as LTE.  For Tmobile, it grays out the setting and has it turned on.  No way to test by disabling it.

I'm not sure why the LTE apps can't see what band you are connected to.

[xhajt03 27]

1 hour ago, david said:

Interesting that you have volte disabled, but it how's voice network type as LTE.  For Tmobile, it grays out the setting and has it turned on.  No way to test by disabling it.

I'm not sure why the LTE apps can't see what band you are connected to.

Well, "for Tmobile"... 😉 I assume you mean TMUS, right? It's just that my network is also T-Mobile (Czech Republic) - obviously, there's nothing in common between the two from the technology point of view (not more common than any two random mobile network operators anyway), it's just funny that U.S. people believe that "Tmobile" is clear and unique distinction. 😉

[david 914]

2 minutes ago, xhajt03 said:

Well, "for Tmobile"... 😉 I assume you mean TMUS, right? It's just that my network is also T-Mobile (Czech Republic) - obviously, there's nothing in common between the two from the technology point of view (not more common than any two random mobile network operators anyway), it's just funny that U.S. people believe that "Tmobile" is clear and unique distinction. 😉

I didn't realize T-mobile was in other countries.  Yes, I meant T-mobile in the USA.

[claude0001 1,244]

2 hours ago, david said:

I didn't realize T-mobile was in other countries.

The "T" in "T-Mobile" actually refers to the German company "Deutsche Telekom AG". The various T-Mobiles around the world were initially independent operators that have been purchased by Telekom and incorporated into their brand.

Of course, inspite of the similar name, the radio frequencies in use are different for all of those networks, as they are governed by the different national authorities.