Pro¹ X – state of production and delivery

[claude0001 1,340]

31 minutes ago, Hook said:

I don't know much about UT, but as I mentioned above, I think Lineage is awaiting the firmware update.  The fact that Droidian ans Sailfish are advancing, I think, shows that  the community is interested in this phone.

In the end, all those OS's rely on the stock Android 11 core. I do not think UT or LOS are any more dependent on an updated firmware from F(x)tec than SFOS or Droidian. But I can see your point that the latter two indeed show that not all is lost. Probably I'm just overly pessimistic ...

[SchattengestaIt 559]

My guess is that they're missing parts and always expecting them to arrive in time. It might not even be their fault since suppliers can very well promise delivery as well without actually delivering (with the possibility that they're also missing parts or staff).

Transparency would be the key here but many of us have waited years and we never got reliable information.

If they're missing stuff they should simply offer to send all the parts for self-assembly. I wouldn't mind building my own phone and I believe many of us nerds would be able to do so.
But I'm almost sure that they always need parts which don't arrive in time, are faulty, etc. And those dumb excuses suck.

[EskeRahn 5,459]

5 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

My guess is that they're missing parts and always expecting them to arrive in time. It might not even be their fault since suppliers can very well promise delivery as well without actually delivering (with the possibility that they're also missing parts or staff).

Transparency would be the key here but many of us have waited years and we never got reliable information.

If they're missing stuff they should simply offer to send all the parts for self-assembly. I wouldn't mind building my own phone and I believe many of us nerds would be able to do so.
But I'm almost sure that they always need parts which don't arrive in time, are faulty, etc. And those dumb excuses suck.

Well they told us long ago that the devices were produced and are awaiting shipping, so parts should not be the issue.

[SchattengestaIt 559]

6 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Well they told us long ago that the devices were produced and are awaiting shipping, so parts should not be the issue.

I'm sorry to say that but they told us the same thing a year ago. I am calling that a lie - even by foot delivery the devices should have arrived at the customers already.

[Rob. S. 1,660]

Since I ordered my first Fxtec phone, a Pro1, in Sept 2019 (which also seems to become the one to arrive last...) I've read everything Fxtec communicated (plus every comment in this forum), including a couple of personal mails from support, and while I've been having my doubts and a lot of bad feelings about the goings-on myself more than once, too, from all we know nothing of what they have said over the time can safely be called a lie. Wrong, overly optimistic estimates by the bucketful, yes, but really nothing where we can be absolutely sure they would have known beforehand that their announcement couldn't come true.

Like with the Pro1 X, there were similar delays with the Pro1 already, and in the end most of the devices reached the customers – except for a few which were changed to Pro1X and haven't been shipped yet due to the current problems with the Pro1X production and delivery (like my original Pro1).

With all the effort Fxtec has been and is still putting into keeping its operations going, after I would have expected them to long since have thrown in the towel (how are they even paying their employees' wages?) with none of us being able to receive either our devices or get our money back anymore, I say innocent until proven guilty!

For every earlier delay there were plausible explanations, and with a bit of imagination we can think of reasons why the devices are now supposed to come in small batches even though they've all long since been manufactured—like the other party in a perhaps still ongoing logistics dispute, which seems to somehow have gotten hold of the majority of devices, only releasing them in batches, for whatever reason. Who knows, there might have a change of the shipping company with the switch not being perfectly smooth, and that's just one guess.

Expansys, by the way, seems to have only blue versions of the Pro1X left for retail at this point.

And just for the record, I have been contributing to two other Indiegogo campaigns since I've ordered my first Pro1. The first one was a tiny mobile inkjet printer, backed in Oct 2019, delivered in Jan 2021 as a non-functional piece of electronic waste, without the accessories I had also paid for, and no communications whatsoever from the Chinese company (which still seems to sell the printer through other channels, perhaps some of the devices actually do even work in one way or the other, who knows). As the comments section of the Indiegogo campaign shows, I must even consider myself lucky, because from there it becomes clear that a huge number of people didn't receive anything at all. That campaign definitely turned out a scam.

The second campaign was for a portable, attachable guitar amplifier, backed in Nov 2020, from a small US company that massively suffered from supply chain problems during the pandemic, too, and I still have hopes there, too, even though the latest communications so far came in August, finally announcing a first pre-production phase of fifty pieces to perform final testing on, with the promise of frequent follow-ups—with complete radio silence since then...

Just as I'm still optimistic to finally see the Pro1 (X) I'm still waiting for, at some point in 2023.

Edited December 17, 2022 by Rob. S.

[EskeRahn 5,459]

26 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

Expansys, by the way, seems to have only blue versions of the Pro1X left for retail at this point.

Yup, and seems to be limited to US qwertY only too

[MrPib 31]

FYI:  There's a Facebook group called F(x)tec Pro1 Users and Fans, and there was a post today about another store getting a bunch of Pro1-X's:

Hey guys, as you may already know, 100 unused fx tec pro 1x(SD662 6GB 128GB) arrived at a store in Japan the other day and sold out by the end of the day. The price is about $300 USD.

The performance is not up to date, but other than graphics-heavy games, it's fine and comfortable for me, who used to use a blackberry.

https://weekly.ascii.jp/elem/000/004/116/4116714/

Edited December 17, 2022 by MrPib
Made easier to read quote

[EskeRahn 5,459]

3 hours ago, MrPib said:

FYI:  There's a Facebook group called F(x)tec Pro1 Users and Fans, and there was a post today about another store getting a bunch of Pro1-X's:

How weird make me wonder how many other stores they sold to?

[SchattengestaIt 559]

I've worked for a company before that sold their stuff in supermarkets. It was very usual that we didn't have some products (up to 30-50% missing in the start of Covid19) but then we see the same products in other supermarkets (from our company) in which they wanted to expand to. There are people who want to make sure their customers don't run away and others who only want to expand, risking the loss of everything.

We already paid the full price for our phones. Of course it's more rentable to sell the newly produced devices to new companies and earn further money (that's how they pay the salary of their stuff :D). One day it's cheap enough to produce so many devices that they can deliver to those customers who already paid.

Let's hope this is not the reality we're facing.

[suicidal_orange 100]

100 of the budget version is a day is impressive especially as there's no Japanese keyboard.  Maybe they can sell all the ones that don't work (maybe they work better with Japanese bands?) and make us some good ones for next Christmas.

[sequestris 710]

On 12/16/2022 at 4:12 AM, claude0001 said:

OK ... this does not seem to go well.

According to the past updates, almost all units should have been sitting at "their" warehouse (really Expansys', I understand) already for four (4) months. Given that Expansys are obviously able to ship their own Pro1-X's without any problems, I think F(x)tec should stop blaming "logistical issues" in "China and Hong Kong" for everything ... they must have at least some part in this mess and I think people would appreciate if they admitted that.

However, the most disappointing part about the last few updates is how alternative OS development is increasingly being framed as "not our problem ... community thing ... ask somewhere else". Guess what? We are asking "the community" and get responses like "we do not know that device, ask at F(x)tec". Seems like everyone is pointing at everyone else. Is anyone actively working on a LOS port for Pro1-X? If one remembers that the Pro1-X was once branded as the "XDA phone", it is quite saddening that alternative OS development is seemingly no longer given any priority at F(x)tec ...

Sorry for the outburst. Had to vent. Please proceed, nothing to see here ... 🙂

You know what's interesting is that I have gone from being on the "nice" list and having all my emails responded to - even ones not about devices @EskeRahn you know you have heard me sing their praises. But now even I am getting ghosted and all they send now are copy and pasts from the announcements.

 

Edited December 24, 2022 by sequestris

[Acurus 17]

If here is anybody living in London, it would be nice to check, if "Fx Technology Limited" is still existing at this address: Lincoln's Inn, 2 Stone Buildings, London WC2A 3TH, GB 

[dobroplr 1]

@Acurus, I am pretty sure that is where the company attorneys are and that is the registered address. There are a lot of companies registered at that address.

[DieBruine 397]

I just received an SMS stating that something will be delivered on the 27th. It was shipped from Hong Kong by Expansys. I haven't ordered anything recently... Could it be my engraved Pro1x!?

Still haven't unpacked and put my OG Pro1 online (for sale). So delivery of the Pro1X would be nice. Very strange though, I really can't figure out what it is and why it is shipped by Expansys...

[VaZso 1,998]

19 minutes ago, DieBruine said:

Could it be my engraved Pro1x!?

Yes, it could... at least other Pro1X phones were shipped using Expansys, so there is a chance.

[suicidal_orange 100]

Wow, not a complete "mistake" with the some will be sent before Christmas in the last update.

[Name_not_avail 64]

On 12/13/2022 at 1:09 AM, Name_not_avail said:

After extensive trial and error, I am sorry to have to confirm that the only way to get voice service with these phones on Flow is to lock out LTE and select "GSM only".

So one more comment about comparing firmware versions 2.1.2 and 2.1.5 and GSM vs LTE, if a Pro1x is set to "GSM Only", then it sucks the battery down notably faster than if it were set to "LTE Only".

I understand the current firmware update boffins were focussed on battery draw instead of inability to carry voice calls on LTE, and I will now suggest these are problems that are two sides to the same coin.

There is no difference between 2.1.2 and 2.1.5 phones in this battery draw regard, "GSM Only" always hits the battery harder.

Frustrating to see some very acceptable data speeds on LTE, yet the phone cannot carry voice calls that way. I hope there are enough staff still getting paid, that they can fix this.

[xhajt03 27]

10 hours ago, Name_not_avail said:

So one more comment about comparing firmware versions 2.1.2 and 2.1.5 and GSM vs LTE, if a Pro1x is set to "GSM Only", then it sucks the battery down notably faster than if it were set to "LTE Only".

I understand the current firmware update boffins were focussed on battery draw instead of inability to carry voice calls on LTE, and I will now suggest these are problems that are two sides to the same coin.

There is no difference between 2.1.2 and 2.1.5 phones in this battery draw regard, "GSM Only" always hits the battery harder.

Frustrating to see some very acceptable data speeds on LTE, yet the phone cannot carry voice calls that way. I hope there are enough staff still getting paid, that they can fix this.

Do you know that you can select LTE network, but disable VoLTE, i.e. enjoy higher data transfer speeds and longer batter life while having no problems with voice quality?

[claude0001 1,340]

9 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

Do you know that you can select LTE network, but disable VoLTE, i.e. enjoy higher data transfer speeds and longer batter life while having no problems with voice quality?

That's a good option for regions where GSM/2G or 3G still operate concurrently with 4G/5G. I use that solution with my Pro1 in Germany.

However, @Name_not_avail is located in the US. They recently shut down all pre-4G networks. 4G simply does not implement traditional voice calls outside of VoLTE. Hence, with the modem no longer able to fall back to one of the older, non-IP-based protocols (2G/3G) upon initiating or receiving a call, VoLTE is now mandatory in the US.

Edited December 24, 2022 by claude0001
tried to clarify

[xhajt03 27]

2 hours ago, claude0001 said:

That's a good option for regions where GSM/2G or 3G still operate concurrently with 4G/5G. I use that solution with my Pro1 in Germany.

However, @Name_not_avail is located in the US. They recently shut down all pre-4G networks. 4G simply does not implement traditional voice calls outside of VoLTE. Hence, with the modem no longer able to fall back to one of the older, non-IP-based protocols (2G/3G) upon initiating or receiving a call, VoLTE is now mandatory in the US.

I don't know current status of network technologies in various parts of the world (US or elsewhere), but Name_not_avail mentioned setting hir/her Pro1x to "GSM only" (resulting in quick battery consumption), so it seemed to me that GSM was available in his/her area...

[Name_not_avail 64]

Indeed @claude0001and @xhajt03you are both correct. Normally I use my 1x in the USA or Canada with a T Mobile (USA) sim card. In the USA, there is no 3G option anymore and voice calls are unuseable with the 1x on LTE, but with the same T Mobile sim card the phone defaults to 3G roaming in Canada and voice calls are suddenly useable.

When roaming in Canada with my T Mobile sim card, I do not have the option to select LTE, so I am stuck on GSM because of the T Mobile roaming contract.

However, I am currently on Grand Cayman with two 1x phones, one on 2.1.2 firmware, and one with version 2.1.5. Each phone has a new local "Flow" sim card, and I am experimenting with them both in this new environment that allows me to switch between LTE and GSM.

Flow does permit "GSM Only" connections, as well as "LTE Only", which is a new possibility for me here with the two 1x phones.

I tried to choose the "LTE Only" connection and then deactivate the VoLTE as @xhajt03 suggested, but that does not seem possible with this Flow sim card, so I cannon speak to that experiment.

Screen shot from the 2.1.2 phone.

[xhajt03 27]

5 hours ago, Name_not_avail said:

However, I am currently on Grand Cayman with two 1x phones, one on 2.1.2 firmware, and one with version 2.1.5. Each phone has a new local "Flow" sim card, and I am experimenting with them both in this new environment that allows me to switch between LTE and GSM.

Flow does permit "GSM Only" connections, as well as "LTE Only", which is a new possibility for me here with the two 1x phones.

I tried to choose the "LTE Only" connection and then deactivate the VoLTE as @xhajt03 suggested, but that does not seem possible with this Flow sim card, so I cannon speak to that experiment.

Simply allow all types of network technologies instead of restricting the selection to LTE only. If you don't allow anything but LTE and disable VoLTE, there's no network remaining for you for voice calls. If you allow everything, the phone still prefers LTE for permanent connection, but uses GSM as soon as a call is made or received.

BTW, partly related - in my experience, it's better not to allow calls over Wifi as long as there's some mobile network available, because quality with the Wifi calls hasn't been optimal either. However, that may be due to other factors (many competing Wifi networks) and not necessarily valid for everybody.

[Name_not_avail 64]

9 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

Simply allow all types of network technologies instead of restricting the selection to LTE only. ... If you allow everything, the phone still prefers LTE for permanent connection, but uses GSM as soon as a call is made or received.

That does not appear to be the way these two 1x phones operate. If I allow all network types, then it prefers LTE for voice, but it doesn't drop back to GSM if it can't connect by LTE. It will not work for voice calls 90% of the time, whether taking or placing a call. Allowing all network types has the same effect as allowing LTE only... ie. it becomes a small Android tablet with a keyboard, not a phone.

[xhajt03 27]

6 hours ago, Name_not_avail said:

That does not appear to be the way these two 1x phones operate. If I allow all network types, then it prefers LTE for voice, but it doesn't drop back to GSM if it can't connect by LTE. It will not work for voice calls 90% of the time, whether taking or placing a call. Allowing all network types has the same effect as allowing LTE only... ie. it becomes a small Android tablet with a keyboard, not a phone.

If you disable VoLTE (option just before the network technology preference within the mobile network settings), it should perform the fallback to 2G or 3G depending on their availability (and it does so for me). If it doesn't work that way for you, it's the matter of the particular network configuration controlled by the particular network provider, not a limitation of Pro1x (admittedly, the network probably may be configured that way, although it isn't a very wise choice).

[Name_not_avail 64]

4 hours ago, xhajt03 said:

If you disable VoLTE (option just before the network technology preference within the mobile network settings), it should perform the fallback to 2G or 3G depending on their availability (and it does so for me). If it doesn't work that way for you, it's the matter of the particular network configuration controlled by the particular network provider, not a limitation of Pro1x (admittedly, the network probably may be configured that way, although it isn't a very wise choice).

Nope, apparently not an option with this sim card.

I guess I go back to manually switching to GSM Only when I hope to be able to receive calls, and then manually switching to LTE Only when I need to use data.

Very clunky. I suppose it could be automated with Tasker or a root script in places like this that still have both GSM and LTE operational, but my hope is for the new Fx Tec firmware to address this glaring deficiency instead. And obviously places like the USA that no longer have GSM are screwed for voice calls on the 1x.