Advice for a newbie

[newbie91 0]

I'm looking for advice as to whether a newbie should invest in this cellphone. 

Background - I'm an engineer with decent programming skills and for the longest time was a Ubuntu user. Since starting a professional job, I mostly work on Windows now since that is what my company uses.

Reasons I like this phone - THE KEYBOARD. AT&T just forced me to get rid of my Blackberry Bold (which I LOVED!) and all of their alternatives have that damn touch screen which I can't stand. I mostly use my phone for calls and texts and to keep a calendar and random notes, grocery lists, etc... 

Two questions:

1) Will this Pro1be a good fit for me? I'm worried because some people mention the call quality being awful unless you make your own tweaks.

2) Should I get the Lineage OS or Ubuntu? (I kind of like the privacy aspect of Lineage, but I'm more familiar with Ubuntu, at least the older Ubuntu stuff from like 2013)

This would be the most I've ever spent on a phone, so I just want to get some feedback from more experienced people such as yourselves. Thank you! 🙂

[eldarion 46]

Are you prepared to buy a second phone as cold standby (preferably not a pro1)? It's not a question of if your phone will break down but when. It's not just software, you will need to do some stuff on the hardware too (including replacing parts unless you want to wait 9 months).
And are you prepared to wait a very long time to get your phone?
Ubuntu currently isn't very good on phones in general, so you will certainly have more luck with lineage.

[Hook 3,020]

A big problem you would have is that AT&T has also been kicking off Pro1s and I don't expect it to be any different with the Pro1x.  AT&T, after for years being willing to accept any phone and let you deal with whether or not it worked, has decided to only allow whitelisted phones that they have approved in their database.  This is disappointing.  I used AT&T pre-paid for years, starting when they were Cingular Prepaid.  I left AT&T before they started pulling this and am on T-Mobile now, but it is disappointing.

 

[newbie91 0]

@HookYes, I am aware of this and have little intention of remaining with AT&T.  Sorry, I should have mentioned that. IF I'm on a network that doesn't mind the Pro1, I'm wondering if it will be a good fit for me. Thanks for the information though, in the case that I wasn't aware, that is super helpful.

 

[mv 85]

22 hours ago, Hook said:

 

A big problem you would have is that AT&T has also been kicking off Pro1s and I don't expect it to be any different with the Pro1x.  AT&T, after for years being willing to accept any phone and let you deal with whether or not it worked, has decided to only allow whitelisted phones that they have approved in their database.  This is disappointing.  I used AT&T pre-paid for years, starting when they were Cingular Prepaid.  I left AT&T before they started pulling this and am on T-Mobile now, but it is disappointing.

 

Related to this, in not such an easy way, the key thing that i gathered from a lengthy call with At&t when trying to add the Xperia 10 ii (returned it cause At&t insisted it will not work) is that and impacts my current Xperia 10 (which they said it likely won't but were less insistent).  The key thing is they are doing a full court press (basketball) whenever a new device hits a 3G tower, which was the case with the Xperia 10 ii, for some reason on data it would not go 4G, so they immediately disabled it. However when calling them and getting to the advance tech support, they will ok the device, the thing is you need to be calling them with that new device, i.e. 10 or 10ii or Pro¹. The lack of VOLTE is going to be a challenge whenever someone calls, your call, will default to 3G. From the call, they did say that they would accept the unofficially supported device but said that it just won't work after Feb 2022, they are meaning the voice calls in this case, which I had to ask them to clarify.  So partly cause I get a better discount with At&t I am going to stick it out. I am tempted though when the Pro¹x arrives to keep it on LineageOS and wait until VOLTE is supported on SFOS before making that move, which I am not happy about but I can live with it.

Hope this is helpful

Edited October 19, 2021 by mv