Is Anyone Working with Pro1x Beta and Are the Results Encouraging?

[jakfish 133]

A user over on Discord says things are much improved with beta image 2.1.6/TMobile connection: "it's crazy having phone calls work"

Can anybody else verify this positive news?

 

Edit: incorrect version number.

Edited May 25, 2023 by jakfish

[doubleddav 34]

I'm part of the Telegram group for Beta testers etc. Based on a lot of discussion from the community, which seems to have died in the last few weeks, no one knows what causes the issue with data. A couple of people went as far as installing external antennae to see if it's something with the hardware or metal case. Hats off to 'em, not sure about the results though. Again, they were from the community.

No-one from Fxtec has communicated anything in months. As far as anyone can tell, all work on this issue is dead and has ceased, everyone has given up and no-one is looking at it at all. Unless Discord is where the action is? If I'm wrong, no-one's communicating this anywhere.

[Name_not_avail 64]

Can anyone post a link to the 2.1.6 beta?

Are there release notes to show what was changed?

[Hook 3,020]

5 minutes ago, Name_not_avail said:

Can anyone post a link to the 2.1.6 beta?

Are there release notes to show what was changed?

The link is pinned in the Beta Telegram group.

 

[jakfish 133]

@doubleddav Many thanks for your thorough, if not bleak, overview of the beta progress.

I don't know how that Discord user is generating these better results. The user is in US/Massachusetts, using TMo.

Could you post your country/carrier, and would you say that the beta produces no change in your own 1x calling/.data issues?

[david 929]

I have a Pro1X, but haven't taken it out of the box yet.  I've been using the regular Pro1 for a few years.  

Does the above mean that the Pro1X doesn't work on T-Mobile?

[jakfish 133]

Depends on asking me or @Hook :)  He's close by me in the US/Tmo, and makes successful calls. I can not on TMo. Unfortunately, I think my results are the majority's results.

[david 929]

1 hour ago, jakfish said:

Depends on asking me or @Hook 🙂He's close by me in the US/Tmo, and makes successful calls. I can not on TMo. Unfortunately, I think my results are the majority's results.

Do we think it is a case of which frequency bands are used on the towers near you vs near him?  And a matter of the phone not supporting certain bands?  

I've had that issue with my original Pro1 phone.  I don't remember the exact details, but I think it was that text messages would not be sent reliably if I was connected to a certain band.  It wasn't that the phone didn't support the band.  It was that the phone supported the band, but it just didn't work.  I don't remember if phone calls could be placed when connected to that band.  I also don't remember if an error was received when the text wasn't sent.  I am thinking it silently failed.

@jakfish, does it show bars on the phone, but can't place the call, or does it not show any bars?

Also, does it matter if a person is using the stock Android firmware, LineageOS, or other operating systems available?

If *someone* can make it work, then I may try out my Pro1X to see if I can make/receive calls and texts.  I'll have to read up on any gotchas about setting up the phone for the first time first.  

Thanks,

David

[jakfish 133]

Yes, I have sufficient bars--at times, more than @Hook so that doesn't seem to be the issue. There has been discussion that an inconsistent band lock (bands jumping from 4 to 12 or whatever) may be the culprit, but I don't believe anything is definitive.

And I also don't believe that the OS choice has anything to do with telephony. Further complicating a found solution is that GSM is still available for TMo users (though next April, it's discontinued), so successful calls may hinge on a GSM default. Hook and I played with many scenarios, and other than his continued calling success, and my continued failure, I don't believe we got to the bottom. 

It's interesting, if not disheartening, that you can recall similar issues on your Pro1.

[Hook 3,020]

12 minutes ago, jakfish said:

Yes, I have sufficient bars--at times, more than @Hook so that doesn't seem to be the issue. There has been discussion that an inconsistent band lock (bands jumping from 4 to 12 or whatever) may be the culprit, but I don't believe anything is definitive.

And I also don't believe that the OS choice has anything to do with telephony. Further complicating a found solution is that GSM is still available for TMo) users (though next April, it's discontinued), so successful calls may hinge on a GSM default. Hook and I played with many scenarios, and other than his continued calling success, and my continued failure, I don't believe we got to the bottom. 

It's interesting, if not disheartening, that you can recall similar issues on your Pro1.

Yeah, it's quite odd.  My Pro1x seems  to lock in on Band 4 and genuinely seems to use LTE (VoLTE for calls).  I sometimes have the situation where the other party can't hear me, but toggling speakerphone on and off cures it and it stays cured for even days.  I have no idea why that works.  In general, my Pro1x performance for calls and texts reminds me of my Original Pro1, which was also far from perfect and that's when I de-converged using a moto slab on Verizon for a super-reliable phone and my Pro 1 as a pocket computer that could use a T-mobile sim if it was needed.  That is now what I do with my Pro1x and a Ting Mobile SIM.  My Pro1 now is on Droidian as i feel free to experiment with the Pro1 in ways I wouldn't have when it was my only pocket computer.

There has been some anecdotal correlations that suggest the Pro1x may struggle more with lower frequency bands. 

[EskeRahn 5,460]

5 hours ago, david said:

I have a Pro1X, but haven't taken it out of the box yet.  I've been using the regular Pro1 for a few years.  

Does the above mean that the Pro1X doesn't work on T-Mobile?

There are different aspects of this. In principle the Pro1X and Pro1 ought to work roughly equally well/bad. But that unfortunately is not the case all see.

First of there are the general issue on what bands TMo uses, versus what the Pro1(x) is supposed to support. And also what the carriers allow into their networks in the US.

That long story (that are more general) put aside, quite a number have reported network issues on the Pro1x also where the Pro1 works. But AFAIK, there are no conclusion on why it work for some, and for others not. We are not even sure f it is bound to specimens of the Pro1x, or particular combinations of available cell towers, or specific hardware at these.

My personal theory is that it has to do with band switching. That it under some conditions tries to change to a different band but fails to actually do it, and at best jumps back, after a drop-out in the communication. But I emphasize it is just my theory deduced from the various reports in here, and could be completely wrong,

[doubleddav 34]

7 hours ago, jakfish said:

@doubleddav Many thanks for your thorough, if not bleak, overview of the beta progress.

I don't know how that Discord user is generating these better results. The user is in US/Massachusetts, using TMo.

Could you post your country/carrier, and would you say that the beta produces no change in your own 1x calling/.data issues?

Based on what I've seen in the group, the latest firmware has no effect the lte issue. The latest firmware on the group include various Qualcomm tools, and is for recoding the issue and sending the logs to Fxtec

I'm in Australia, using Telstra's network for third party carriers

[david 929]

14 hours ago, EskeRahn said:

My personal theory is that it has to do with band switching. That it under some conditions tries to change to a different band but fails to actually do it, and at best jumps back, after a drop-out in the communication. But I emphasize it is just my theory deduced from the various reports in here, and could be completely wrong,

My regular Pro1 has always had issues when driving when on a call.  It doesn't like to switch between towers/cells.  I've never tried to figure out if that was due to band switching or just the cell switch.  It often drops calls when driving.  But it does allow calling back after the drop.

I guess I'll open my pro1X and see what it can do.  I read something about some not working if the battery drained when in the box.  Is this due to that default setting, like on the pro1, where it won't charge when off (craziest setting I've ever heard of)?

[EskeRahn 5,460]

6 hours ago, david said:

I read something about some not working if the battery drained when in the box.  Is this due to that default setting, like on the pro1, where it won't charge when off (craziest setting I've ever heard of)?

Well that is part of it, yes. But as other have said in a thread on the battery issue, it should have some protection-mechanism doing an auto-shutdown, before it gets so discharged, that it can not be charged.

[david 929]

I unboxed my Pro1X, put in my T-Mobile SIM from my Pro1, and did the initial set-up.  I disabled wifi and placed a call to my voicemail (it worked until the cell signal got too weak, which is normal at my house).  I then sent a text message and it was received.

Obviously, this is a very small test, but it does show that my Pro1X does work on at least one tower/band here.  I'm in Minnesota, NE of the Twin Cities.

My phone was at about 50% battery when I took it out of the box.  I have it plugged in.  I'll have to look around for how to enable charging when powered off, how to root it, how to move my files over, etc.  But before I do all that, I'll try it on T-Mobile at some regular, non-home locations to see how it behaves.

[david 929]

A few more tests to share...

On a drive to a restaurant, I called my voicemail.  It connected fine, but it could only understand 1 or 2 digits of my 4 digit code.  I tried repeatedly.  I finally hung up. 

Once at the restaurant, I tried several calls to my voicemail.  It did connect every time and it did understand all digits of my code.  However, it took several seconds to connect each time.  I noticed that it would be on LTE before I'd call, but when I would call, it would try LTE for a while and then give up and try some other protocol and work.  

Oh, and I tried speed tests both when in the car and at the restaurant and got fast results over LTE.

I tried the same calling test at home, and here, even though I've got poor LTE signal strength, it will connect the call over LTE, very fast.  

I also tried wifi calling at home for the first time on the Pro1X.  On my Pro1, it doesn't do what it is supposed to do with wifi calling.  Even though I have it set to favor wifi, it will often make a call over the cell.  And if there is no signal, it won't make a call at all.  I have to have just a tiny bit of cell signal for it to do a wifi call.  With the Pro1X, it works as it should.  It used wifi every single time I tested it.  I can disable wifi in the middle of the call and it will switch to the cell without dropping the call.  If I enable wifi again, it switches back to wifi.  I can have it in airplane mode, but with wifi enabled, and it will make a wifi call.  I can also receive texts when it is in airplane mode, with wifi on.

There are a bajillion options for calling protocols to use, and what order to use them in.  I wonder if changing any of those settings would help anyone else?  I didn't mess with them for my testing yet.  These are under Settings->Network & internet->Mobile network->Preferred network type.  Mine is set to the one with the most protocols:

NR/LTE/TDSCDMA/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA

 

 

Edited May 28, 2023 by david

[Hook 3,020]

23 minutes ago, david said:

A few more tests to share...

On a drive to a restaurant, I called my voicemail.  It connected fine, but it could only understand 1 or 2 digits of my 4 digit code.  I tried repeatedly.  I finally hung up. 

Once at the restaurant, I tried several calls to my voicemail.  It did connect every time and it did understand all digits of my code.  However, it took several seconds to connect each time.  I noticed that it would be on LTE before I'd call, but when I would call, it would try LTE for a while and then give up and try some other protocol and work.  

Oh, and I tried speed tests both when in the car and at the restaurant and got fast results over LTE.

I tried the same calling test at home, and here, even though I've got poor LTE signal strength, it will connect the call over LTE, very fast.  

I also tried wifi calling at home for the first time on the Pro1X.  On my Pro1, it doesn't do what it is supposed to do with wifi calling.  Even though I have it set to favor wifi, it will often make a call over the cell.  And if there is no signal, it won't make a call at all.  I have to have just a tiny bit of cell signal for it to do a wifi call.  With the Pro1X, it works as it should.  It used wifi every single time I tested it.  I can disable wifi in the middle of the call and it will switch to the cell without dropping the call.  If I enable wifi again, it switches back to wifi.  I can have it in airplane mode, but with wifi enabled, and it will make a wifi call.  I can also receive texts when it is in airplane mode, with wifi on.

There are a bajillion options for calling protocols to use, and what order to use them in.  I wonder if changing any of those settings would help anyone else?  I didn't mess with them for my testing yet.  These are under Settings->Network & internet->Mobile network->Preferred network type.  Mine is set to the one with the most protocols:

NR/LTE/TDSCDMA/CDMA/EvDo/GSM/WCDMA

 

 

For what it's worth, I dropped NR (which is 5G) and used the one with the rest of them in the same order (LTE listed first).  I've tested with LTE only and it seemed to work... I honestly don't think we have those other networks here, but I leave them just in case.

[david 929]

39 minutes ago, Hook said:

For what it's worth, I dropped NR (which is 5G) and used the one with the rest of them in the same order (LTE listed first).  I've tested with LTE only and it seemed to work... I honestly don't think we have those other networks here, but I leave them just in case.

It may be as simple as the tower I was connected to at the restaurant may support LTE for data, but not VoLTE for voice.  In other words, it may not be a Pro1X issue at all.  In that case, it had to have fallen back to one of the others, but it didn't have any symbols to tell me which one.  Once I get the phone all decked out with my various apps, I should be able to use some of the cell diagnostics apps to see what it is using when on a call.

I thought about doing what you did, since the phones don't support 5G, but I left it at the full list.

Edited May 29, 2023 by david

[david 929]

@jakfish - what do you have your Preferred network type set to?