How soon should I expect to be delivered a Pro1-X?

[Tarteau 3]

Hi everyone,

first post here ! My "traditional" smartphone on / off key is unfortunately dead, I can use it, but if it decide to shutdown I won't be able to boot it again.

I'm looking into buying a Pro1 X, the physical keyboard being obviously the major argument, but I'm wondering the ETA of delivery. I won't be able to use my current smartphone for too long.

I've read some threads talking about months or year of waiting for some costumers of the Pro1.

The Pro1-X seems to be fairly new, November is the first shipping of this model ? I've read about the change of architecture, I'm not bothered by it but should we expecting extra delay because of it ?

Any user from France that can testify ?

Thanks to all !
 

[suicidal_orange 100]

They were supposed to be sent in March then they had to change the chip and delayed until August, then again to October/November as currently advertised.  They have been giving monthly updates on Indigogo but nothing yet in September so should be any day.

Edited September 19, 2021 by suicidal_orange

[Slion 1,201]

If you order now I guess you could hope to get it in a year at best, more likely winter 2022. They still need to show finished prototypes and start production. Then they need to ship to customers who ordered the Pro1, some years ago, and never got it. Then they need to ship to all the Pro1X buyers, then you. Though in terms of volume they don't need to produce that much really. Looks like they sold about 1500 units on IGG. So I guess with 3000 units they could easily complete all their orders. Much depends on how fast they can produce them really. I doubt they will be able to produce more than 300 devices in a month, in fact that's probably optimistic from what we have seen in the past. So it could be that winter 2022 is an optimistic guess...

All that is obviously assuming they don't hit other show stoppers in final prototyping or during production... things like design faults or components shortage could ruin it all.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Slion

[Tarteau 3]

Too bad, I can't wait that long, didn't know the final prototype wasn't revealed yet.

Do you think I'll be able to buy it later or the pre order are the only time to get it ?

Thanks for your replies !

[Slion 1,201]

There were people waiting for Pro1 general availability... they are still waiting. I think pre-ordrer is all we will get. But who knows maybe F(x)tec is making plans to pump out larger volumes. 

[VaZso 1,998]

You may also want look at the latest update of their IGG campaign sent out almost an hour ago.

It seems they have some working units (potentially good for development even if its mainboard has an earlier version), a potential last iteration of V3 main board, then an ongoing CE/FCC certification (it should be done using the final mainboard iteration) and mass production then.

They currently estimate shipping in November which is potentially the end of the month and that will mean if they are right, they will serve their pending orders first near the beginning of December.
So I would expect based on previous experience, they may send out later units early next year but it may happen they can scale up production better than near the start of Covid problems.

Edited September 20, 2021 by VaZso

[krispykreme 0]

This phone is going from newest phone hardware running linux/ non android/apple product to oldest and it isn’t even released yet.

 

Edit 01/20/2023: I forgot about this device. So many people quoted and replied to my original comment. One of them being about baseless cynicism which they were correct. However, it’s been almost 3 years since I backed this on indiegogo. It was postponed 3 times when I made my original comment and since then they had to change the processor because it was so archaic it was no longer being produced. Here I am, still waiting. I don’t want to come across as cynical, but I have waited for so long to get something remotely worth leaving android and apple for. Which apparently Ubuntu Touch still utilizes some android coding. I might just get a flip phone at this point.

Edited January 21, 2023 by krispykreme
Update on my thoughts

[Jacob_S 128]

5 hours ago, krispykreme said:

This phone is going from newest phone hardware running linux/ non android/apple product to oldest and it isn’t even released yet.

What later device is there? I'm not deep in the topic of linux on phones, so I don't know any recent developments in that regard. Or is this just cynicism not based on facts?

[claude0001 1,341]

5 hours ago, krispykreme said:

This phone is going from newest phone hardware running linux/ non android/apple product to oldest and it isn’t even released yet.

Sigh ...

Both the Pro1 and the Pro1X are designed as certified Android phones. Besides having an easily unlockable bootloader, there is nothing "open" about them. Yes, the community has been able to port LineageOS, UnbuntuTouch and SailfishOS. Like for a myriad of other phones, that is possible because all three of these systems rely on the original Android core OS of the devices.

The Pro1(X) being "Linux" phones is a misconception on the side of the media that F(x)tec never openly corrected. Probably as they expected to profit from the resulting (though unjustified) enthusiasm in the GNU/Linux community.

See this thread to enjoy some more ranting of mine on the topic. 😉

Edited November 13, 2021 by claude0001

[Rob. S. 1,661]

7 hours ago, krispykreme said:

This phone is going from newest phone hardware running linux/ non android/apple product to oldest and it isn’t even released yet.

It's still a capable phone, though, and it's also still one of a kind with regard to its specific design with that physical keyboard. That's why people want it, and that's why those who use it also mostly love it, despite quirks, issues and the company seeming to be overburdened with the support. It is definitely not a device for people who would want to boast with the latest and greatest specs (which they might not even need anyway), today obviously less so than when the Pro1 originally was introduced...

[Tsunero 215]

15 hours ago, krispykreme said:

This phone is going from newest phone hardware running linux/ non android/apple product to oldest and it isn’t even released yet.

I dunno about the X but the OG Pro1 still holds up very well imo (but that has the stronger SD835 in it). I have been using it for a good 1.5 year now and it's still quite snappy. I just hate that stock is neglected and forgotten but maybe one day I'll move on to Lineage.

[Slion 1,201]

On 11/13/2021 at 7:51 PM, Tsunero said:

I dunno about the X but the OG Pro1 still holds up very well imo (but that has the stronger SD835 in it). I have been using it for a good 1.5 year now and it's still quite snappy. I just hate that stock is neglected and forgotten but maybe one day I'll move on to Lineage.

I moved to Lineage OS 18.1 last summer and it's awesome but it takes skills and time to get it done the way you want. Though I would prefer an updated stock running the latest Android mostly because that means less work to maintain it. 

[Slion 1,201]

On 11/13/2021 at 9:47 AM, claude0001 said:

Both the Pro1 and the Pro1X are designed as certified Android phones. Besides having an easily unlockable bootloader, there is nothing "open" about them.

There are some BLOBs for proprietary device drivers which are closed source but others such as the keyboard driver have actually been opened source.

[OKSun 103]

7 hours ago, Slion said:

I moved to Lineage OS 18.1 last summer and it's awesome but it takes skills and time to get it done the way you want. Though I would prefer an updated stock running the latest Android mostly because that means less work to maintain it. 

What were the main reasons for your change to Lineage? I understand it solves the "I cannot modify the call volume issue." I am interested since you gave a long try to the pro 1 with stock Android.

[claude0001 1,341]

8 hours ago, Slion said:

There are some BLOBs for proprietary device drivers which are closed source but others such as the keyboard driver have actually been opened source.

The point is that the major components that make the SoC useful as a phone are closed-source, like on any typical Android device using similar SoCs.

As a consequence, all projects of using a fully open-source Linux OS on the Pro1 are just proofs-of-principle that, while academically interesting, are so far from prime-time that the last Pro1 will likely have gone the way of all silicon before they mature to the point of becoming practically useful. Do not get me wrong: this is not an unusual situation. Practically all Android devices depend on these proprietary blobs, as we both know. As of today, a manufacturer has to go through significant lengths to make a truly open-source phone. FxTec chose not to do that, and I do not blame them for it. All I say is they could have stated this more clearly when that whole "Linux-enabled-keyboard-phone" thing took off.

I agree that open-sourcing the driver for the Pro1's keyboard was certainly a good thing.

Edited December 21, 2021 by claude0001

[VaZso 1,998]

3 hours ago, OKSun said:

What were the main reasons for your change to Lineage? I understand it solves the "I cannot modify the call volume issue." I am interested since you gave a long try to the pro 1 with stock Android.

I don't know @Slion's reasons but for me, it started doing a soft-reboot loop every time when I have restarted my phone.
Later, it has also started doing the same loop every time I put my phone to charger.

That loop took for half an hour or so before the system booted up correctly.
Also, uptime was still increasing, only Android soft-restarted on top of the kernel.

After a while, I did a factory reset and it worked fine, but after all applications were reinstalled, it started doing the same loop.
After another factory reset and unticking some applications during restore, it worked normally again.

...but after a few months, it has started doing its loop again.

After months of suffering (inability to charge the phone during day, etc), I have installed LineageOS 18.1 on my phone.

So that was my main reason but the lack of a plenty of features (what stock Android misses) and very old security level were another reason.

So far the phone is highly better under LineageOS.
The phone became much faster even after reinstalling all applications, no more reboot loops, Android 11 with recent security level instead of an outdated Android 9 with security level of more than a year behind.
I could finally set Google Pay up, so NFC payment is also working (although with some SW help), the whole phone is much better since then.

Oh, and stock Android could reach a state when someone was calling, the phone has started ringing and the screen has turned on after a huge delay... it has never happened using LineageOS...

[Slion 1,201]

On 12/21/2021 at 10:13 PM, OKSun said:

What were the main reasons for your change to Lineage? I understand it solves the "I cannot modify the call volume issue." I am interested since you gave a long try to the pro 1 with stock Android.

My stock Android 9 was working fine but I missed things like proper dark mode and full screen gesture navigation. LOS is far from bug free though. For instance I recently noticed one of my SIM cards won't receive calls when 4G is enabled. That is a major showstopper if you ask me. I have not bothered reporting that issue outside of those forum yet.

Edited December 26, 2021 by Slion

[VaZso 1,998]

6 hours ago, Slion said:

For instance I recently noticed one of my SIM cards won't receive calls when 4G is enabled.

I use my Pro1 using LineageOS with two SIM cards and I have no problems with it.
However, I have experienced a similar problem when VoLTE was enabled but Mobile Data was connected using the other card, so that may be the cause of such a problem.

...but otherwise it works well with 4G enabled, but only primary card can use 4G (by design, not limited to Pro1).
So in a country (like in the USA) where 4G is the only option (so no 3G or 2G coverage), the usage of two SIM cards really does not work because of technical limitations.