Unihertz Titan Slim

[EskeRahn 5,460]

I think the big differences are
1) They keep the ambitions low, no supposedly high end devices.
2) They take all the risk of development and have the devices ready for production before they launch a 'campaign', so they have a pretty accurate estimate of the production costs, and only have to order the number perked for. They might even have already ordered an amount they feel quite certain to reach, say 1000, before launching the campaign. This gives very good user feed back for fast delivery. But obviously is a chance UniHertz takes.

[jakfish 133]

That makes sense. I hadn't thought that they could've had a number of phones in tow. A kb slab easier to produce than a new design of clamshell or slider, for sure. But Planet does seem to have committed some unforced errors, starting with the sky-high price. I realize it's niche but costing over a USD grand, given the beta bugs of any new device...

[raymo 177]

As my pro1s keyboard is bad and things are slowly worse I have a titan pocket with Gargoyle GSI (LOS). Nice device, small, solid and three days battery life. I miss my full keyboard but so I can wait for a pro1x in a decade or never...

[jakfish 133]

I'm still in my window of return for my new Pocket, so I'm not going to flash anything yet.

But is Gargoyle hard to install? And can users flash back to stock Android 11?

[Rob. S. 1,661]

Thanks for all the Titan Pocket infos. I've just decided to give either that a try, or the Titan Slim, before I damage my last fully-functional (well, as much as it ever was functional) Fxtec phone (Pro1X) to the point that it may become unrepairable due to the absence of spare parts, and I'm hesitant to use my last spare display just yet. (As of now, the screen only holds together thanks to scotch tape. I'm surprised that touch is still working perfectly...)

Edited September 15, 2023 by Rob. S.

[jakfish 133]

@Rob. S. You might end up relatively content. A Unihertz  ROM maker talked me out of the Slim, to the Pocket instead, based on the kb. Since @EskeRahn owns both, he might weigh in on the kbs vs screen size, but I'm sold on the Pocket, despite a 3.1" screen and an aging Android 11.

I've played with the idea of going custom Lineage, but prolly won't actually do it. The Pocket is now my daily and the few phone calls I get, I can't afford to miss, so I'll stick with stock, which has yet to fail me.

[raymo 177]

On 9/14/2023 at 4:00 PM, jakfish said:

But is Gargoyle hard to install? And can users flash back to stock Android 11?

It's relative easy to install gargoyle GSI LOS on Titan Pocket especially if you use a linux system as you must install some scripts to make the rom fit in the phone memory. Not a big deal when you come from pro1 and had installed thousands of custom roms. There are links with software and rom if you want your Titan back to stock.

Also the Titans user (unofficial) discord server is really friendly, reactive and helpful for such things.

But you should wait for Gargoyles 1.3, announced end of september. I guess this will be easier to install and there's also a new keyboard app in developpement who smell really good, this will probably be implemented in the gargoyle's rom.

Ok I stop here as we are not in a Titan forum, but it's cool to discuss from a phone who is deliverable.

[Hook 3,020]

4 hours ago, raymo said:

Ok I stop here as we are not in a Titan forum, but it's cool to discuss from a phone who is deliverable.

I don't think there's any reason not to discuss other keyboard phones, especially in threads dedicated  to them.  This is, after all, a keyboard phone community.  :)

[EskeRahn 5,460]

21 hours ago, jakfish said:

Since @EskeRahn owns both, he might weigh in on the kbs vs screen size,

I tried to do that here
https://eskerahn.dk/?p=4539
Pocket is certainly more pocketable, But many apps struggles with the quadratic form-factor. Better apps supports both portrait and landscape screens, but the quadratic often causes trouble - it is so rare that it might not have been tested at all. Try e.g. the Android market for updating apps. Google splashes some silly gibberish, urging people to waste battery with automatic updates in the major part of the display, that can not be dismissed, leaving practically nothing to the updates...
 

[jakfish 133]

@EskeRahn  Good point about the P's square screen and the occasional app that might not play nice. Though the screen is square, I do find that rotation can produce missing buttons, especially if the buttons (i.e. Save) are at the bottom.

Are "Android market" and "Play Store" the same, or do I have something mixed up? If not, I am able to update Play Store apps manually with the P, without too much screen difficulty. I run my go-to apps--TextMaker, HanDBase, RSS readers--and don't app-hop much, if at all, and thus far, display has been okay.

I've been using the P as my daily for over a week, and its telephony, thank God, has been air-tight.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

8 hours ago, jakfish said:

Are "Android market" and "Play Store" the same

Yes, I just hate the new silly name and use the old one....😉(for me a phone is primarily a workplace not a playground)

I have not used the Pocket for ages, it has been factory/reset and is back in the retail box *LOL*
But attached are the similar google-bug from landscape on the Titan, but here it works in portrait. It's gets worse on the pocket, with even less below the text:

I can scroll down, and at the most see slightly over one line

On the Titan it works in Portrait though

But no such luck on the pocket.... (These are faked images, but the point is the app-list is unavailable)

And at the most i can scroll to this

Barely showing the top of the first item...
So if I do not want to update all, well then I have no option.
E.g. I used the once great K9-Mail that was made practically useless for me in an update, and hence it was important NOT do a "Update all" on the phones where it had not already been messed up....

ADD: Just tried changing the font size to smallest possible, it helps slightly as this reduces their blah blah from five to four lines, leaving room for one app-line, as this fake:

\*

(though a bit hard to read this small for an old fa.. like me)

 

[zundappchef 100]

I really enjoyed my Unihertz Titan Slim, but what ultimately made me decide to move on was its small screen. It's an excellent phone considering its price, delivering more than its worth. While I appreciated the keyboard, I had some issues with the layout.

Eventually, I switched to a Samsung Fold, and more recently, I upgraded to the Fold 5, which has been an incredible experience. You can fold it halfway and use it similarly to the Pro1 X, but instead of a physical keyboard, it has a touchscreen with vibrating feedback, providing a similar feel.

The next time Unihertz releases a phone with a keyboard, I will definitely be on board again. They are a fantastic company to deal with, even when it comes to issues or service needs.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

4 hours ago, zundappchef said:

The next time Unihertz releases a phone with a keyboard, I will definitely be on board again. They are a fantastic company to deal with, even when it comes to issues or service needs.

I'm likely to be on board too. Though I would like them to iron out some of the bugs, some that are pure software.

The worst (for me) is the unstable WiFi. I have not used it with a sim, so no idea if it is a-WiFi only issue.

The second is that it is virtually impossible to get to things not printed on the keyboard, and certainly 100% impossible with one hand. Would be lovely to get easy access to national letters for one thing. And even if a-z only, and option to turn modifiers sticky would ease one handed usage tremendously

[claude0001 1,341]

2 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

The second is that it is virtually impossible to get to things not printed on the keyboard

It seems like many Titan power users install the Blackberry Keyboard app to improve behaviour in that respect. Have you tried that by any chance?

As written above, I'd be most interested in a way to fluently enter all those symbols for coding and terminal work, i.e. things like | > { } [ ] ...

[claude0001 1,341]

... as to

2 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

The worst (for me) is the unstable WiFi.

Reportedly (some?) issues related to WiFi were fixed via OTA. Is your device up to date?

(I do not have a Titan, but am seriously considering it as my Pro1's keyboard is getting worse and worse ... 😥 )

[Rob. S. 1,661]

1 hour ago, claude0001 said:

3 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

The second is that it is virtually impossible to get to things not printed on the keyboard

It seems like many Titan power users install the Blackberry Keyboard app

Perhaps something could be made based on FinQwerty, at least for stock? Using the FinQwerty code to fix a keyboard layout issue the Pro1X (with stock) had was easy, so I guess I will have a look at that when I get the phone. There already are FinQwerty layouts for Blackberry PRIV and KEYone, by the way.

 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 minute ago, claude0001 said:

Reportedly (some?) issues related to WiFi were fixed via OTA. Is your device up to date?

AFAIK It say it is, but maybe the poor WiFi prevent it from actually fetching? The one I got is 2022-08-05 seen from google and the other says 20220810....
And the updates does not look like they failed "Your system is up to date" and "Your device's software is currently up to date"

[EskeRahn 5,460]

13 minutes ago, Rob. S. said:

Perhaps something could be made based on FinQwerty, at least for stock? Using the FinQwerty code to fix a keyboard layout issue the Pro1X (with stock) had was easy, so I guess I will have a look at that when I get the phone. There already are FinQwerty layouts for Blackberry PRIV and KEYone, by the way.

The problem with this is that FinQwerty uses modifiers to get the various stuff, but the Titan seems to react in unexpected ways if more than two keys are pressed (e.g. Sym+Sh+Space=>A), so I doubt it would be possible to 'simply' map Sym+Shift and Fn+Alt to something useful - and those would be the obvious combinations as they can be pressed with one finger easily.

[Rob. S. 1,661]

Oh, I see...

[jakfish 133]

@Rob. S. and @claude0001On my Pocket, I'm using the BB kb apk, along with Key Mapper to modify certain keys. The best feature of the BB kb is the ability to scroll with the kb rather than the actual screen. I'm not certain which Unihertz Rob. S. finally picked, but I imagine the BB will work on the Slim as well.

The Pocket (and probably the Slim, too) natively offers a collection of key remapping. For instance, since I don't do much with emojis and can map special characters with Key Mapper, I turned the Sym key into a TAB, very convenient for document editing.

I'm almost certain that you'll be able to get the kb to do what you want.

Edited September 20, 2023 by jakfish

[jakfish 133]

@EskeRahn My Pocket Build number is Titan_pocket_20220928, so I do seem to be ahead of you. Do you have a generous data plan that would permit you to OTA via data?

[Hook 3,020]

I've just joined the Unihertz club, even though both my Pro1 and Pro1x work great and I will continue to use my Pro1x most of the time. It's my cheap moto slab I'm trying to replace, which is just phone, texting and Android Auto.. essentially, a car phone.  But even for the very little bit of typing I do on it, I am so fed up with on-screen typing that I'm willing to give BB style portrait keyboards a try.  I settle on the Slim rather than the pocket.  Both keyboards are too small in my opinion, having one that is slightly smaller won't matter that much.  All the reviews seemed to think the Slim had better key switches and I hate square screens.  I'm still going to mostly be working on FxTec phones as pocket computers.  I don't really do a lot with a phone except set up doctor stuff.  Otherwise, I wouldn't even give out my number.  :D  I'm done with not having a keyboard in portrait (I never use my Pro1/ Pro1x in portrait). 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

8 hours ago, jakfish said:

@EskeRahn My Pocket Build number is Titan_pocket_20220928, so I do seem to be ahead of you. Do you have a generous data plan that would permit you to OTA via data?

Interesting! I tried (have plenty of data), but still claims but up to date.. Will try to see if there are other ways to fetch it.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

5 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Interesting! I tried (have plenty of data), but still claims but up to date.. Will try to see if there are other ways to fetch it.

Found this on the FAQ tab here

https://www.unihertz.com/products/titan-slim

 

Quote

 

#3 Why can't I receive the latest update on my phone?

Please follow these steps to clear cache before searching for the update again:

• Settings -> App Notifications ->See all apps ->Show System (top right corner with 3 dots) ->Wireless update-> Clear Data and Cache

 

•  

No such app exists in the version I got, but there is a "System upgrade" and an "Upgrade app". Tried the trick on both - to no avail.
 

This update

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jellyphone/titan-slim-the-new-sleek-and-slim-qwerty-android-smartphone/posts/3503739

also talks about "wireless update". So tried to change the language from proper English to US, that had no influence.

[EskeRahn 5,460]

8 hours ago, jakfish said:

@EskeRahn My Pocket Build number is Titan_pocket_20220928, so I do seem to be ahead of you. Do you have a generous data plan that would permit you to OTA via data?

Just notice the "pocket"  in the build name. I was talking the slim not the pocket. (The pocket is packed with protective plastic and everything, so will not try to start to update....)