Retiring Pro¹ as my daily driver

[jakfish 133]

@claude0001 I think we all agree that the Pro1x--as a working phone--is a colossal disappointment, at least in the US. @Hook is the one of the few that can make actual calls (and I believe there's a California user on Discord who can still call on AT&T, despite AT&T's threat to cut her off).

@brunoais re: data drops. I get them all the time in the US state of Maryland. I just sit tight and it soon comes back. It's God's way of telling me I'm spending too much time on-line.

[Tsunero 215]

I am also considering retiring mine, it's been a good 3 years but I realized it is extremely clunky to haul around.

Those flip ones like the Oppo Find N2 and similar Samsung ones are extremely tempting but the pricing is horrible on them for the gimmick to literally fit my backpocket so I may end up using my Pro1 until it's completely dead. lol

[SchattengestaIt 559]

I may be on the other end of the opinions here.

I use my Pro1 as a phone since around two years now and it was always a pleasure. I dropped it many times and every corner is damaged but the screen and phone works fine. I type excessively and fast (+300 keystrokes/minute) and the keyboard still works fine. I even melted some keyboard buttons on the right part when trying to change the usb port as I forgot that there was another side of the phone (you can easily get out the usb port pcb). But it works fine.
I removed my fingerprint sensor and added a secondary usb port and... since I use my phone in landscape mode all the time, it works even better now.

Basically, I use my phone in landscape mode 95% of the time, even for basic applications. Whatsapp, browser (Kiwi browser with addons), Netflix (shortcuts to work) and calls are the most used apps. With higher display resolution (I have the lowest available setting, "smallest width 597") you get a lot of information onto your pocket computer while still having access to everything you need.

The signal strength isn't great but okay (both Wifi and cell), the microphone quality is bad (technical flaw of my device, no problems with the headset though) and my battery is dying. But everything else is simply wonderful.
The only issue I have with the Pro1 is the knowledge that a) it's very expensive compared to 2023 phones with similar tech and b) something will break down eventually and there won't be options to replace it. Even replacing the stock usb port can be quite frustrating since it's mounted on a separate pcb which you can't order anywhere. And even batteries cost 100$ without shipping to replace.

But the phone itself is great and very versatile.

[EskeRahn 5,464]

5 hours ago, brunoais said:

12 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

(e.g. GSAM or 3C toolbox)

Got any open-source alternatives?

Not really no. Obviously a little can be found hidden a bit under Settings►Battery►ellipsis►Battery usage

[brunoais 334]

10 hours ago, claude0001 said:

However, please let's agree on that the Pro1-X was not marketed as an HPPC, but as a phone that could (maybe) double as an HPPC.

I do. As a phone it works fine for me. I've tried for 1 week some months ago and it did it's work as I'd expect from a phone in which I do calls and SMS. Even the tinny speaker doesn't "broadcast" the call to everyone around you, unlike many other smartphones.

10 hours ago, jakfish said:

re: data drops. I get them all the time in the US state of Maryland.

I'm in EU. Maybe that's why it just works for me without tweaks.

5 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Not really no.

I suppose so. If it's not open-source, I only run sandboxed with limited and tight control on what permissions I provide (inside work profile). They would be useless there.

5 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

Obviously a little can be found hidden a bit under Settings►Battery►ellipsis►Battery usage

Yeah. I check that (and just re-checked that). The biggest spenders are reported as using negligible amounts of time in the background.

Edit: I've been only charging the battery up to 90%. I wonder if it's needing recalibration

Edited May 23, 2023 by brunoais

[Hook 3,033]

4 hours ago, brunoais said:

I'm in EU. Maybe that's why it just works for me without tweaks.

It's more complicated than that. I'm in the US a couple of hours from @jakfish and mine works fine.  @claude0001 is in the EU.  Given I don't use mine as a phone, I think it's just a cruel joke of the gods that mine works.  😄

[Slion 1,201]

On 5/19/2023 at 9:33 PM, sequestris said:

So does this mean that you have a Pro1 you are not using and might be willing to part with @Slion

Two actually, and I also have a couple of replacement screens in my stash. Also got a couple of custom made leather smart cases too. Not sure when or if I'll be willing to part with them. As a developer being able use them for testing apps is convenient. Testing Lineage OS is also a plus. Though to be fair it looks like they are both bound to spend a lot of time in a drawer.

[EskeRahn 5,464]

On 5/23/2023 at 8:50 AM, brunoais said:

Edit: I've been only charging the battery up to 90%. I wonder if it's needing recalibration

It is always a good idea to occasionally charge it fully, and also (almost) deplete it, for calibration purposes.
As the Pro1X seem to have a bug, where you can not have it charging while off, we should be careful NOT to discharge it completely though. (The Pro1 we can enable charging while off, look for "fastboot oem off-mode-charge")

[Adrienspawn 126]

5 hours ago, Slion said:

Two actually, and I also have a couple of replacement screens in my stash. Also got a couple of custom made leather smart cases too. Not sure when or if I'll be willing to part with them. As a developer being able use them for testing apps is convenient. Testing Lineage OS is also a plus. Though to be fair it looks like they are both bound to spend a lot of time in a drawer.

If you ever find the leather cases don't get used much, they sound lovely to this leather fanatic 😄

[claude0001 1,343]

3 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

As the Pro1X seem to have a bug, where you can not have it charging while off

The Pro1-X can can do off-mode-charging. I have it enabled and working on one of the Lineage beta releases.

That being said -- as @Sean McCreary clarified in another thread -- Android devices are not truly "off" during "off-mode-charging". The Linux kernel and battery management software need to be up and running, just like if the device was switched "on". The only difference is that the Android GUI is not loaded.

Now the problem with the Pro1-X is that it's got a bug which allows the battery to discharge completely. If that happens, the device is bricked, irrespective of off-mode-charging being enabled or not. The point is that switching the power source over to the USB PSU is software-controlled. Thus, even with off-mode-charging enabled, the phone needs enough residual charge to at least boot its OS from the battery. Only then can the re-charging actually start.

Normally (as with the Pro1), battery protection should prevent a total discharge from happening. I.e. the battery should get disconnected from any power sinks before the stored energy reaches a so low level that the OS could no longer boot. With the Pro1-X, that part somehow does not seem work, thus letting its battery run low is very dangerous.

Edited May 24, 2023 by claude0001

[brunoais 334]

On 5/24/2023 at 12:51 PM, EskeRahn said:

It is always a good idea to occasionally charge it fully, and also (almost) deplete it, for calibration purposes.

I'll do that some time shortly.

On 5/24/2023 at 12:51 PM, EskeRahn said:

As the Pro1X seem to have a bug, where you can not have it charging while off, we should be careful NOT to discharge it completely though.

Too late. That happened to me last week.

On 5/24/2023 at 12:51 PM, EskeRahn said:

(The Pro1 we can enable charging while off, look for "fastboot oem off-mode-charge")

Same with the Pro¹-X. I'm not sure if the command is the same but I activated it on the same day I installed the OS. Thanks anyway 👍

On 5/24/2023 at 3:47 PM, claude0001 said:

Normally (as with the Pro1), battery protection should prevent a total discharge from happening. I.e. the battery should get disconnected from any power sinks before the stored energy reaches a so low level that the OS could no longer boot. With the Pro1-X, that part somehow does not seem work, thus letting its battery run low is very dangerous.

Interesting... I wonder if it's fixed on version 2.1.5. I didn't encounter that when it discharged fully last week.

[claude0001 1,343]

2 hours ago, brunoais said:

Interesting... I wonder if it's fixed on version 2.1.5. I didn't encounter that when it discharged fully last week.

Happened to me once with LOS 20. The battery literally ran down to 0.00 V and I had to use a lab PSU to recharge it -- definitely not something you want to do every week.

@Sean McCreary confirmed that it is a problem with the proprietary BMC code, so the fix needs to come to Stock before community OSs can pick it up. I do not believe it is fixed in 2.1.5 as that has been around since September last year, and f(x)tec reportedly were working on the issue as recently as in March. Maybe in that 2.1.6-beta?

Edited May 26, 2023 by claude0001