Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I didn't talk much about this since I could feel it, however it seem to be mainly just paint. Chen had the phone from an earlier production and it was like night and day. I was surprised at how well it actually gripped.

One fellow that had the BB passport kinda of wanted a rubberized back. His BB was holding up very well given it age and him dropping it and using it everyday. In my experience though, I'm not a fan of rubberized things ... since the texture will change over time, it will wear off or because sticky and/or discolored.

I would add that I feel like its more grippy than the n900 with out any protective covers.

x

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I just discovered this thread. Was also surprised to discover that I was registered on this forum and my browser actually rememberd my credentials. Lol. Turned out I joined in 2009 and have one post somewhere. Glad to see this thread is here with all the problems with the F(X) Tec forum. ;)

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Of course!

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

This guy was pretty awesome uber fan geek! He has the gemini and many other keyboard devices.

Sadly his n900 has a broken usb, so he has moved on a long while ago. But mosen if you reach out to him and get some kind of contact in my pm inbox. I'll would offer to him my okay soldering skills to try to get it working again :)

x

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I'm very happy they added some grip. That will help this device handle better and make it ergonomic. I'm a huge fan of soft touch finishes. I would say the most durable and grippy phone I ever had was the Kevlar coating on the back of my old Droid Razr M. Premium feeling, looks amazing and provided lots of grip.
I'm sure if you need more grip, you can Plasti dip or wrap it. Hopefully someone steps up to make skins for our phone

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

No problem. I mean it was mostly all your questions heh.

x

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Very kind offer, very cool!
I forwarded and he considers.

Maybe only puny me but, i sincerely hope the soft-touch thingy has advanced over the last 10 years, because this is what my "premium" Audi soft-touch buttons age like :eek:
(symbolic picture but exact)

https://www.audiworld.com/forums/att...ps6b588b94.jpg

Looks like i finally found sth. to argue...
The surface i felt in Düsseldorf was not "change worthy" imo. Also all nokia phones with soft touch applications i own developed a greasy sticky awkward uncomfortable mess. ughh.
Fingers crossed they got it right. Please, convince me.
Any better experience with aging soft-touch on your side?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Galaxy s relay, desire Z and Nexus one. All soft touch phones I've owned personally and never had an issue with any of them.
Honestly I won't mind what the coating is as long I can wrap it myself. I hope someone makes a wrap.

I requested the team to possibly provide a skin instead of a case for preorders but I don't think the topic got enough traction when I brought it up.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Good News. Never had those.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I also have similar experience as mosen. In long run, rubber coating wiill wear and become cloddy on the surface. Also breach of the surface makes it feel sticky and ugly. This happened to my Desire Z in few years.

But I'd still say that rubber coating is better than glass surface. For example my Oneplus X (w/ Sailfish), both sides of the phone feel like glass. You can use the phone as a spirit level; if the surface isn't completely even, the phone will slide and fall down :D The phone is way too slippery and only usable with rubber covers.


However I wouldn't be too excited about any covers on Pro1, because it's difficult or impossible to make proper wrapping to a slider phone. I mean, if you just need grip you can use a rubber backcover that covers only the keyboard part of the slider, but then it gives no protection if you drop the phone accidentally. And if you make a protecting cover like Otterbox for n900, it will greatly increase the thickness of the device so it won't fit to any pocket anymore...

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Yes that is the light leak issue Elephone have. Or more precisely, the screen module's problem.

It doesn't affect any basic use, the light appears on the edge of the glass not the screen. So the display bit of the screen isn't affected. And the "leak" mostly visible when ambient light is dark and screen is bright (like having some white content)

Perhaps for some manufacturer it's not an issue as it doesn't affect use at all and only can see under certain circumstances.

But we decided to try to fix it. The process is not the easiest as we are not involved in the manufacturing of the screen module but we managed to make it to the way it should look like. And then a series of verification and reliability test needs to be performed again.

A lot of extra costs but this is our determination and promise to the customers.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

My OPX is my favorite SFOS compatible phone. I really like the look of it. Too bad it only partially supports US frequencies resulting in spotty and crappy service here. I deal with the super-slippery aspect using a Poetic case. It looks really nice on the phone and has grippy nubbins.

Re: an otterbox style case for the Pro1. Even with the extra bulk, I think I'd like to have something that protective. It saved my N900 several times. And I had the jeans with an N900 shaped wear patch to show for it.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Here my aggregation of the info coming out of NYC event: http://matland.be/fxqa/

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I forgot to add this earlier. Feel free to add it to this info page. Its the setting menu for the slider for locking the orientation and the backlighting.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

You should try using a black permanent marker to paint the edges of the protector to black. You know, the same way, which invented decades ago for CD''s? To prevent laser light from escaping from the surface of the CD and this way improve sound quality :D
(It doesen't work.)

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Normal paint will fall off and liquid damage the display under hot or humid or both circumstances. This is where tests are needed.

If using special paint which can hold high temp and humid, the process itself needs high temp and can damage the display. It's certainly not as easy as that.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Hey Chen!
Could you disclose the name of the technique used to make the new back surface more grippy?

I have clearly generalized too much yesterday when i stumbled over the term soft-grip used by NY attendees.
.
Now after a night of research i realize there are gazillions of material combinations and techniques to give a surface more grip and just the public/marketing reduces all to one term.

My gripe seems to be with bad and/or cheap mixtures of Styrene Ethylene Butylene Styrene SEBS used in the early days and in low end products nowadays.

Only the name would be enough so i can research further for myself. Thank you!

EDIT, Is there any image where we can see the new back? The NY attendees understandably concentrated on the front and i did not see a picture of the new back surface.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Hi,

I'm an little concerned about this "Light leaking issue": It does not affect useability or longevitiy in any way, but you invested time and money to modify a component, that could have been bought and used off the shelf?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Again: don't buy, if you don't like it.

It's not your decision what is part of development of the product. Yours is only to decide if you can agree with the contract offered.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Ha! shaihkritzer, you're back :) I was wondering when we would see your negative input again. I guess all the positivity about the Pro1 and the NYC event in the last couple of pages drove you off, but Chen's remark finally gave you something to bite into. With your assumptions of course totally disregarding and disrespecting all of the hard work Chen's team is delivering.

Well, as Amboss said, no one is forcing you to do or buy anything. If you don't like it, just walk away. Certainly, no one here will miss you, since you don't actually ever deliver any constructive criticism, but always negative assumptions, doom-thinking, and repeating for very selective topics how 'it was better during the "old days"'. I think we are fully capable of doing that without you, thanks ;)

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Reducing price by any means does not mean release a faulty product. The first and only one for the company.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Even so I also dislike all the negativity in his contributions in this thread, I think it's horribly wrong to tell good old members of this forum, that they shall leave. We are few enough and just because my opinion is a different one on one thing it's ridiculous to try to push people away.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Could you tell us something about your childhood?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I disagree, because IMO there never was a substantial or constructive statement by @shaihkritzer, plus "at least Dave was funny" (partially).
Just wild chains of "jumping to conclusions" arguments and the best knowledge of "how markets work" ever ( ;) ).
This is a special kind of spamming for me (and I perceived that similarly with Dave's postings long ago, but he did improve before he vanished), cluttering over relevant content.

Even more importantly, I never had the impression that the postings were intended to contain anything constructive.

But his reaction was as expected, underpinning that the reasons for his postings likely not primarily lie in the technical or marketing realm.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Maybe he has mixed up things:
"Elephone U Pro and the F(x)tec Pro share the same display, which is why the Elephone U Pro screen protectors are compatible with the F(x).)"

As far as I have understood, Chen's optimization of display installation has nothing to do with screen protectors.

Shaihkritzer can use any screen protectors he may find to fit for F(x)tec Pro without needing any further optimization of the installation of the display module.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

There are possibly more people out there sharing shaihkritzers opinion and maybe even lurking.
Personal ridicule is a counter productive measure.

Just have faith that if you express your counter opinion, readers will make up their mind themselves.

Fixing the screen bleed was a must to not taint the overall very worthy appearance of the Pro1.
Sophisticated and demanding buyers might consider it as a fault and cause more cost with warranty/return claims then the fix of the cause.
They aim at premium quality at lowest price.
Not lowest possible price after all.


Welcome to TMO Holter!
Thanks for participating, the more the merrier.

The screen actually is an off the shelf part and the same as in Elephant U phone. Are you asking why FXtec did not swap the whole display unit for another one instead of fixing the current one?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Yes! This! Maybe Shaithkritzer english is as bad as mine. But he can write and I can read...

So we can be pair as Finnish police officers? ( i know, bad joke, but have to do something to clean air... )

Sorry OT

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

It seems to be 699$ now if viewed from american VPN exit. Netman and Noir over at discord made me aware.
For Germany it only changed by 0,2€ to 649,20€.

The rumor was price change was to be expected today.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...831-193141.png

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I have only checked from germany.
Maybe participate and check if FX loves poland too?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

If you scroll up to the top of this page (216) you can find the posting from @Heik which nicely explains that there has been no talk of any "optimizing for screen protector".

You mixed up 2 things;

• 1. There was mentioning that the screen is same as Elephant phone which means people who want screen protector can use such meant for that phone
• 2. There is a light leak problem with the Elephant phone, and this is to be corrected to the screen module so there will be no leaks in fxpro.

See, no optimizing is being done for screen protectors :)

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I'm curious. I thought you already have a pre-order correct? So you won't be effected by any change.

While I can appreciate the concern for others possible being charge more than what was originally stated.

I do wonder and maybe this has been said already. But how much would you consider a fair price increase? Or maybe a better question is how much do you think this price increase will be?

Cheers

x

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Thanks for that very informative answer!

I completely understand your concerns, and it sounds like you have already taken the right steps to stay with in your budget and buying requirements.

It is unfortunate that this project doesn't have a clear and set price, delivery date, and most of the spec we all want. But this is also part of the issue, many of us have different need/wants. Looking at the iPhones, pixel, even the new Note 10 ... they all leave something off that someone wanted ... and those are large companies. It's tough but I've find that fx has been very forward with most of their info (as far as I can tell), and in speaking to both Chen and Adrian they both seem to genuinely want to get devices out that are both well built and taking in as many of the concerns of the community (like putting the usb-c on a daughter board, amazing).

Who wants to spend lots of money ... I don't :D. But I have when a product or service meets or supersedes my expectations. For me that was the newton many years ago ... close too 1k! But the build, functionality made it last a longtime ... Steve Jobs killed it :(.

I really hope you find a device that fits your need and for the price you can afford/ fits your budget. Maybe this device or the next from fx :D.

We all here love these unique devices. And I sure many also hope for a future where they enjoy a stable market share even if small.

Cheers!

x

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I have also checked it and now I see €649.20 plus €24.00 shipping fee to Hungary. I think the price is similar in the EU, not only Germany has "lower price".

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Shaihkritzer, could you please acknowledge that you have read and understood that the screen improvements Chenliangchen has mentioned have nothing to do with screen protectors? He has mentioned improving the screen because of the light bleed observed on another phone using the same screen. I mean, he didn't even mention screen protectors in his post, I don't understand how you got that wrong.

Light bleed is not some insignificant detail that can be overlooked, people care about it and reviews mentioning light bleeds really can have a hit on sale numbers. You are waiting for reviews before perhaps committing for a purchase, so you know exactly what this kind of quality control means.

We are now multiple pages after this nonsense about the screen protector was started, and you kept talking about the uselessness of screen protectors (and thereby the uselessness of F(x)tec improvements on the display, go figure) even after someone already disambiguated this.

About the price, we seem to observe a 0.20€ increase in European countries (at least Hungary, France and Germany) due to unforeseeable reasons that may be out of F(x)tec's control, let alone your control. Yet, after all the fuzz in the past few weeks about the future increase, possibly a steep increase that you claimed was commercially silly and unjustified, you are now complaining because they did not make another announcement for those twenty cents, and you assume this small increase is limited to Germany and therefore is unequal?

I mean, come on. It is your right to disagree about F(x)tec's choices for their product, even though you seem interested enough about what they have to offer, but at least show a little respect and make sure there is ground for your anger, instead of accusing them of things without checking yourself first, ultimately spreading misinformation.

And no one uses screen protectors to protect their glass screens from breaking. Those who use screen protectors use them to prevent/delay scratches, and they change their screen protector when it is damaged.

The price change is so low I am actually not sure this is the increase that was announced earlier. Brace yourselves and get ready for another shitstorm in the next pages if it is not.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

So I guess you won't acknowledge about the confusion.

$699 US is 636€, at today's rates. The price was 649€ in EU before, it is 649.2€ now. Also, the initial announcement said that the increase would be for non-EU customers (I guess it is a matter of taxes and regulations), so I do not really see why it would be outrageous if, indeed, reality did reflect the announcement with a steeper increase in non-EU countries.

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Are you serious? It works like that for pretty much all manufacturers. Nothing makes EU customers special, they just happen to live in countries with common commercial agreements. Go in Norway and VAT is different, go in the US and there is no VAT. This reflects on retail prices.

Every time you see a price being exactly the same worldwide, that is because the manufacturer's margin is adjusted up or down to make for the variations in taxes and regulations. More often than not, it is adjusted upwards, meaning the manufacturer takes advantage of lower taxes to get more money from customers despite the same production cost. In many cases, the display price is the same but the currency is not, which means again that not all customers are paying the same, and this is not fair because the actual worth difference is arbitrary, with customers paying more or less depending on their official currency, instead of being set by taxes where they live.

If you are a European citizen and you buy something online out of the UE at the non-UE price, you usually pay less because you save VAT, until your parcel is intercepted at the customs and they ask you to pay what you owe your country. Aliexpress plays this game: they don't charge you at the EU price because VAT is not included in their price, and they know very well that your parcel is not likely to be intercepted at customs. So do you. Your purchase is not properly imported, which is not legal, but you save money and of course, you didn't pay Chinese taxes because you purchase never was subjected to them. F(x)tec is a European company (so far), they sell with VAT included unless you purchase from outside EU, and even in that case there may be other taxes or other costs associated with different logistics.

If F(x)tec sells the Pro1 at different rates in the US and in EU, it is most likely because their margin is fixed, which is as fair as it gets to the customer.

Also, again, $699 US is 636€ at today's rates. It might be 639€ tomorrow, 636€ in a week, or 650€ in a month. As of today, it's a 13€ difference. How close do you want it to be despite currency conversion rates changing every day?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

The price change so far is so insignificant I'm not even sure what we see is the increase they announced. But I have no information, please do not conclude based on my post that another increase is waiting.

In any case, my point is there is not much to complain about at the moment, so I regret that you keep trying to see the bad sides in every circumstances. They initially didn't tell the pre-order price would be cheaper until a future price change has been announced; you complained about it and about the future price change. Now, you are going from "Oh noes an increase!" to "This increase was a joke!" to prove how bad their marketing strategy is.

I mean, if complaints can be flipped 180° like that, and in the end we might be talking about a few euros on a ~650 bill, then there really is nothing F(x)tec can do to earn your satisfaction. That is totally your right, but then there isn't much to discuss about, your opinion is already set and whatever they do will feed it.

At this stage, can we not just be happy that they're soon shipping a good HWKB device with an open bootloader (and commitment to help porting alternative OSes) that so far only collected very positive comments from those who tried it, at a price lower than an Apple or Android flagship?

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I don't like him either, but he's entitled to an opinion just like the rest of us
It takes all kinds I suppose...
Just ignore his posts if they're that caustic

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

Legendary post here with pretty much everything in one place.
Can op add this link to the first post? Contains a lot of up to date information

Re: Are you Ready? F(x)tec Pro 1 HW Keyboard Phone
 

I can confirm price is now 699. 10pm local time on 8/31. I thought they were going to change price on 9/1 but it looks like the flipped the switch early. Hopefully you got in if you wanted the lower price

Kinda bummed Chen didn't answer how many units in the first batch. I was one of the first preorders and paid within the first few hours, but I wonder who will have to wait and how long.
Site says shipping mid September which seems a bit misleading especially if you placed an order now and it doesn't ship the same time. Would like some clarity around all that.

And also, still waiting on a ship date...