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

I think we should remember that this forum is not an official fx support channel, so I like to hear about issue as much as the next person ... but perhaps we should keep the tone umm less dramatic :).

I wouldn't want chen to leave this place again. Now with that said we should help them figure out issue that crop up on there first production device. Since there is likely to be more than a few that may need replacement.

Also the n900 has play too when in between open and close state.

Keep the feed back coming guys, we are living through you early adopters!

Thanks Wasmach... for your reporting. Also keep in mind this is just my view point, not a demand or even directed at anyone.

x

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

Maybe it would be good if Wasmachinemann-NL had someone close enough who also bought a Pro1 (or has an E7 which may be much easier to find) and compare them just because I think it can be a normal behaviour and also may be an abnormal behaviour which can not be really seen in the video.

As of my N900 units, they can be rotated a bit when not fully open / closed state and a little bit in opened state but that is normal - however, their mechanics are absolutely different.

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

I'd rather have people be more open about possible faults, even if they're not actually faults but to be expected "features". Not saying anything posted here is or isn't a fault by the way. This all so people can build a better expectation of what the phone actually is. I'm sure a lot of people here have hyped it up to the point of it being perfect, which no device can be.

But yeah, the tone doesn't have to be blameful or negative either. Again, not classifying anything here as that necessarily.

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

And N97, I still remember :)

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

I got my device this morning. It was a nice surprise though; The delivery time UPS told me was much later today, so I was sleeping when the delivery guy rang my doorbell :D The only issue is that I ordered QWERTZ device and got QWERTY. Already contacted to Fxtec, but got no response yet. Being so impatient, I decided to begin using the device I got anyway. I was thinkin if I should just keep the device I got and live with QWERTY. The keyboard remapping made by FinQwerty works nicely and brings Scandinavian letters (ö, ä, å) to the hwkb and it's neat. The real problem is the layout; I hate having extra row of special characters between qaz row and tab/caps/shift row. Because of this, I already hit \ when trying to hit a and so on. So unbearable that I believe I wont't ever get used to it. But I believe that in this situation, where all the phones produced are sent to customers, there won't be a spare QWERTZ model for me very soon. So I guess I have to wait and live with QWERTY now.

Otherwise I'm very happy with the phone. Great build quality and all. Opening the keyboard feels very difficult for the first ten tries, but you'll learn it quickly. Keyboard typing is comfortable, or it would be with the correct layout :D Haven't had Android phone for 8 years or so and still don't like Android, but I believe I'll get used to it too. I'm looking forward on having alternative OS's on Pro1, but I'd prefer dualboot, and if I have understood correctly, It will be a tough task to achieve.

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

You said it yourself, you lost a decade of evolution. And at that age we went from stone age to modern day, hahaha!
Enjoy!

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

Yep, HAHAHA! :DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

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

My experience with this phone/company is somewhat unique, never was invited to company HQ in order to play with prototype, I’m feeling obligated to make a short review of the device. I’ll try to be as much unbiased as possible.

The shipping delays were stressful, after giving up my main phone in June, I left with liquid damaged iPhone SE with dead spots on digitizer and some issue with charging - I wasn’t able to use the phone while I was plugged in. The phone condition was so bad, that I’ve started to think about canceling my order .. and then things started to move forward..

Got tracking notification from Fedex that the package is at distribution center that’s few bus stops away from my workplace. After few phone calls, I’ve intercepted the distribution track and got the package(nothing illegal, payed the taxes =))

Unboxing was done at the office(my BD cake got less attention than this phone). The whole package looks super premium with accessories following the company branding. In the box we got headphones, screen protector, leather-like sleeve, fast-charger with different outlet plugs(perfect for travel) and **gollum voice** the phone.


https://i.postimg.cc/G4PxLtRc/00-Unboxing.jpg


This thing is built like tank, build quality is superb, it’s large and little bit on heavy side(comfortable heavy side). Phone feels good both in a hand and in a jeans pocket. Screen is awesome, it’s color accurate to my eye(maybe little on over-saturated side), bright and can easily be used in direct sunlight.

Typing on the keyboard is a pleasure, clicky, tactile, almost perfect, little bit wider than I would consider as a perfect size, but I’ve seen the prototype, knew it, and I still like it. Backlight is even, got some light bleeding at “TAB” key, but we can call it a feature. If we compare with Nokia N900, the old legend loses in every aspect, both the tactility and the backlight, are much, much better on the Pro1. Using it to connect to remote servers it’s a bless, finally you can work on the go without laptop. Also it’s good for gaming, keyboard gives you better feel for console emulation, tried some GBC roms - it is fun.

Multitasking with physical keyboard is awesome - its now possible, when Galaxy Note came out, it was unusable if you wanted to work with keyboard - now you can =)

Funny thing, I’m really using the hardware keyboard less than I’ve expected, probably i’m still stuck with some fruit(not berry) mindset.

I wasn’t been able to test screen mirroring, tried two cables, one DP->Type-C, other HDMI->Type-C, neither worked. Reported at community forums.

Since the phone supports Level 3 Camera2 API, i’ve downloaded Google Camera port took RX100 and iPhone 7 and went for photo hunting. Some of the known spots are closed for renovation(We are just like every tourist spot in Europe, but not in Europe)
For every scene I took 4 Pictures - Qualcomm Camera, Google Camera, iPhone Camera and Sony Camera =)


https://i.postimg.cc/HcvtqNgX/00-Camera-APi.png


All of the photos are non edited, you even can see my finger at one of them and horizon angle on many of them.

Photo Sample 1 - Cannon

iPhone 7

https://i.postimg.cc/MfjrdwQv/01-Cannon-i-Phone.jpg

Pro1 - Qualcomm Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/TyzbnXfk/01-Cannon-QCam.jpg

Pro1 - Google Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/FdYPHvGD/01-Cannon-GCam.jpg

RX100

https://i.postimg.cc/ppz6j2vS/01-Cannon-RX100.jpg

Photo Sample 2- Edge of the wall (used this spot for Photo competition)

iPhone 7

https://i.postimg.cc/R6h7LTHF/02-Edg...ll-i-Phone.jpg

Pro1 - Qualcomm Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/gx03WDgK/02-Edg...-Wall-QCam.jpg

Pro1 - Google Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/McWNxghF/02-Edg...-Wall-GCam.jpg

RX100

https://i.postimg.cc/CdZtFGQS/02-Edg...Wall-RX100.jpg

Photo Sample 3 - The Port

iPhone 7

https://i.postimg.cc/zbYj8hbX/03-Port-i-Phone.jpg

Pro1 - Qualcomm Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/mtpyhJzn/03-Port-QCam.jpg

Pro1 - Google Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/JstKqMCm/03-Port-GCam.jpg

RX100

https://i.postimg.cc/7JfbRsHC/03-Port-RX100.jpg

Photo Sample 4 - Silence

iPhone 7

https://i.postimg.cc/jC5WC5Hs/04-Silence-i-Phone.jpg

Pro1 - Qualcomm Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/0z3nXF9S/04-Silence-QCam.jpg

Pro1 - Google Camera

https://i.postimg.cc/TyMmD6Rt/04-Silence-GCam.jpg

RX100

https://i.postimg.cc/bdWvJRYT/04-Silence-RX100.jpg

I liked the Qualcomm camera better than Google Camera, but vignetting on Pro1 is.. I don't like it. I would use it, but such heavy vignetting making it unsuitable for some situatons. I liked the colors and contrast balance, usually I’m upping on post-processing to same or similar levels. Also currently there is no indication that photo was taken on Qualcomm Camera, shutter sound doesn’t work - I’ve already reported it on community forums.


EDIT: Got confirmation that vignette effect is actually a software issue, that will be fixed later, I’ll do another photoshoot when it’s fixed



EDIT 2: Got two images from the same spots after the OTA

https://i.postimg.cc/7JhBx7hj/IMG-20191130-092436.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/FkkjWx7F/IMG-20191130-093606.jpg



Speakers are loud and clear, call quality is good and the phone speaker is loud. DAC/Jack produces a good sound, comparing to iPad 6, I can hear the difference, but I can’t tell if I like it or not. Definitely better than Surface Pro 3, but probably anything is better than that =)

Fingerprint position is non-convenient in any orientation, it’s too far in landscape/keyboard orientation and too low for portrait one. No physical indication for the position, you can’t feel it. Usually my finger is 5mm above or below. It also reacts when you’re taking the phone with your other hand. But it’s fast and accurate, and probably I’ll get used to use it this way.
Edit Day 2: Starting to get used to this position.
Edit Day 3: It’s really okay.

Bluetooth worked as expected multiple devices, always connected smartwatch, aside from issue that I’ve reported on FxTec community forums no complaints.

Performance wise the device feels fast, faster than iDevices that I got nearby. I won’t do any benchmarks, since we already know it’s not going to beat $devicename.

Battery life can easily last you a day and a half of moderate use. Fast charging is faster than on iPhone X, and led indicator is conveniently changing colours when phone is charged.

Dual Sim works as expected - DSDS mode. Can’t really add anything here.

Software-wise we are getting clean android build with ability to disable Google services. There are some minor things that I’ve mentioned above, but those can be fixed with an OTA update later.

Hardware-wise this phone is really close to being perfect. Screen, SoC, Camera Module, each one of them are known as quality part with specs that are better than competition, and I believe that getting those was not easy. Combining those parts and producing the PCB,case and the keyboard mechanism probably was even harder. The attention to details is on OCD level, no corners were cut here.

This is production-ready device with solid build quality. After one day of toying around, I moved both of my SIM cards to Pro1, and it just works, my whole workflow was transfered to this phone quite easily and got no major issues so far.

Big thanks to Chen, Adrian, Leon, Erik and other F(x)tec team members that made it.
And I would like to see next F(x)tec branded devices, with this level of attention to details, I’ll probably buy it.

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

Great analysis/review! I haven't tested the camera yet, but I have to say that vignetting looks quite awful.. Although some of it can be easily edited out, it'd be too boring to edit every pic you take.

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

If you lazy and edit every pic, you’ll start to shoot only the good ones :)

My guess that this vignette is due to camera module Being super thin, we got no camera bump and half of the phone went to display part.

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

But isn't it the same module used in some other, more-known device and without vignetting? Too lazy to google which device it would be though. But, being a quite hi-tec module with dual censor & such, I'd say it's more like software issue than hardware. Which means it can be fixed, I hope.

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

EskeRahn on community.fxtec sent an invert example of vignette from one of the preproduction units, so it more seems like an software issue.

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

By definition, vignetting is either mechanical (light is blocked by external objects), optical (rear lens elements are shaded by elements in front of them) or natural and in digital photography also pixel vignetting (related to angle dependency of sensor pixels).
So it can be compensated either by pre settings to obtain image or by post-processing. :)

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

Software issue :) My guess that any modern phone is doing some sort of compensation for that.

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

Yeah, modern phones tend to do a lot of post processing to the images. Big amount of it is a good thing, but there's also features I don't like, for example that stupid fake-bokeh and some skin enhancement stuff... But as proven, vignetting is often, if not always caused by the lens, but it is compensated by post processing in devices. And our Pro1 is missing something in the processing..

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

I have to say that at the moment I am jealous to all of you with a new device. But I have just found this N900 couple of years ago and fell in love with this little creature so now I just hope so much of Leste. I don't need a better camera, I don't need a faster processor, I don't need a better keyboard, I don't need more ram. All I need is updated system with possibility to get updated programs and a well working browser. So for me Leste will probably be enough and I stay on this island. Probably have to start to learn coding.

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

Same.
I would like sooo much but don't need it really.
My n900s are still so brave and capable.

By the way, do Pro1 allow raw image to be used?
I love this feature on the n900. It makes editing much wider.

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

Since it has Camera2 API, it definitely should :).

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

IMHO That's the way cameras should be compared.
As software treatment can be changed over time, the real thing is the raw result.
This is the base from where the image is built. Better base probably means better result.

edit: I mean: raw, by definition cannot be displayed.
But raw images should be compared after a neutral and identical interpretation/treatment.

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

This is very true, and some really important things can be learned. Some types of noise are inherently easier to filter out than others etc... If I don't forget and nobody does yet I'll upload some RAW files when my Pro1 comes :).

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

Brutal raw images without any censoring. The vignette comes from the emotion one looking.

Sorry still suffering panic disorder at the moment and had a rough waking up.

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

I wrote my first impressions with sailfish on the Pro1 on the F(x)tec Forum:
https://community.fxtec.com/topic/24...2-on-the-pro1/

Here is what i wrote:
Ok, here are my first Impressions from Sailfish (Alpha state) on Pro1:

The Porting-Team did a great job so far!!! Anyway it's still Alpha and you can feel that still on some missing features and some rough edges. I always used official Sailfish devices in the past, so this is my first community port.

• Boot time is the first thing which is something which made me somewhat nervous on the install process. The first boot takes ages but also the following ones take more than 3 times longer than that on my XperiaX.
• SIM Card is detected and I can make phone calls. But I can't access mobile data, I get the mesage SIM is inactive. Connection over WIfi is possible and works fine.
• After installation I set up my Jolla account and entered Jolla store. I could install the Jolla standard apps, and some further apps are shown, but not very many. Doing pkcon refresh shows up "Failed to obtain authentication"
• Keyboard works, but the mapping is wrong on my qwertz device. I have offered my help on Github for that.
• Onscreen keyboard sometimes doesn't show up. After opening the hardware keyboard and closing it, it shows up again.
• The sensors quite often do not work after boot. On next boot these problems are usually gone. Relevant here are nearly all sensors including multitouch. When they work, they work. So no erratic failures. But after a boot the chance is high that they are not working.
• Camera works including the hardware button for it.
• GPS doesn't work. (Already on Github as a known bug)
• The same applies to FM Radio
• Bluetooth is working. I connected to my Sony SRS-X11 without problems, did no further tests.
• Sound is working through Speakers, when I connect my headphones Sailfish crashes immediately.
• Graphics are fluid, anyway I have the feeling, that not all cores are fully used.
• Adjusting display brightness works, but the slider is reacting somewhat strange. I would call it nervous 😉
• Double tap to wake phone works, but not always. Found no pattern yet, maybe it's me: I often grab the phone in a way that on the edges my fingers touching the screen. (Bigger bezels would have been better, even so it doesn't look that nice. I already made that experience on Android)
• Can't say to much about battery yet. Doesn't look to bad at the moment, but I had the impression on Android Battery life was a little bit better. On the other hand, I haven't tested that intensively on Android. I simply don't like Android. The first thing I wanted to test there, was the keyboard. So I opened the notes app and was immediately asked for my google account. For taking notes? Really? I have no Google account and I definitely won't have in future.
• That's my first impressions. If these sound bad, you got me wrong. All in all Sailfish feels great on this device, even so it's still an alpha. I hope the team makes rapid progress, so I can switch to the Pro1 as my main device.

To the developers:
I am no coder. But I'm willing to help in any way I can. Testing, simple works like translations or whatever and of course with sponsoring some beers. Just let me know!
Keep on your great work!

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

Thanks a lot for your impressions on the SFOS port. I was looking exactly for that.

I'm surprised about the mobile connection. Wasn't the corresponding issue on Github (#15) closed because it was specific to prototypes with no IMEI?

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

Vignette effect is a software issue that will be fixed with updates. Updated the review post accordingly

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

Is it a software issue or a hardware issue which may be repaired in software? I bet the latter anyway, so it may need some post processing.

I hope they can do that without loosing details, otherwise, it would be good if it could be switched on/off by user.

Anyway, I find these images quite good.
Maybe if you could shoot some macro photos - like a PCB to see how well texts can be seen on ICs and how solder joints look like... or just about something small, that would be also good. :)

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

If you have things which i should look for and report, let me know.

I don't think the problem with mobile data i am struggling with, is the same one, that was reported on Github: No quick changing of connecting/connected status...

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

I could disassemble a PCB of one of my appliances and take a pic?

EDIT:
https://i.imgur.com/PsFi8js.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/27sdL6Q.jpg

Wow the camera quality is dogshit, it's on the level of my N900 if not only slightly better. The camera's software being garbage doesn't help either. (no shutter sound? wtf?!)

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

Low camera quality, display, performance and issues here and there where expected.
The selling point of the device is the hwkb and the sailfish support.

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

From other photos I've seen I feel like it should do better though... Any settings changed? How much light does it have?

Edit: also opencamera is worth a try perhaps :).

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

The old hardware engineer's motto is "If a hardware bug can be fixed in software, it was never a hardware bug to begin with."

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

This is strange.

You are not the only person got the unit.

There is some software problems that can be improved with stock camera but I still think the camera is better than "dogshit"

I don't know what to say but you seem to got a different unit.

I can provide you full refund if needed to get back your dogshit product.

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

The Pro1 itself is awesome, but the software leaves much to be desired, especially coming from a old (and tweaked/modded to high holy hell!) device as the N900. I guess the fact that I have been using nothing but N900's since 2011 and knowing everything inside out doesn't help either. Sigh, back to my broken as fuarrrk and slow N900 it is.

Keep the money Chen, you deserve it. The Pro1 isn't for everyone and I guess i'm one of them. Don't let my harsh criticsm put you off.

EDIT: Maemo Leste would make this phone far better, if it ever comes out of beta/gets ported at all.

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

All stock settings, room light (two LED halogen replacements) on.

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

On any phone I'd either put on the phones flash or (preferably) get some diffuse lighting nearby the subject in such situation... Phones can only do so much with the tiny sensors that can fit them and I've not seen halogen replacements so far that provide really much light to speak of.

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

To be honest, in the end ALL phone cameras are physically crap. The difference makes the software. Good cameras have a large sensor, Fullstop! (and a optic with more than one element)
Anyway I also own a N900. And the camera is definetely and without ANY doubt worse than the camera of the Pro1 (Even withe the Sailfish camera app). And I don't know any possibility to tune the camera of the N900. So it doesn't matter if the N900 is heavily modded, which mine is as well.

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

I gave up on the Pro1 for now, boxed it up and placed it in my drawer. Maybe later when I don't feel like absolute **** (rl stuff) and the software has had some updates i'll take a look again.

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

Send it to me and accept full refund from Chen... I'll pay to Chen this, what You called dogshit, later... (maybe You are not worth it)

You know how to PM works...
--

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

I don't understand how camera (talking hardware) quality can be evaluated from a pcb picture where pcb is not perpendicular to camera axis, in low and warm light and mostly white background around it.

Light
The first crap to avoid to make/test pictures is LED. The color rendering is terrible, (exception to professional models).
Il misses wavelengths and exesses in other ones.

Camera
There are several distinct things we can test in a camera:
-luminosity (loss of light into the lens)
-sensibility (sensor asa)
-sharpness
-exposre measurement
-color rendering
-vignetting (in color, contrast, brightness)
-deformation
-sensibility to flairs
...

So what are we evaluating with these pcb pics?

First picture:
It looks to me that the first one is quiet sharp on the lower part but seems overall unsharp for two possible reasons:
-moved because the exposure time had to be long because of the miss of light, so a tiny move makes it unsharp.
-Out of focus as the focus seems to be near of the camera, the rest of the subject going out of the depth of field because more far from the cam. The more you are close, the less depth of field (sharpness zone size) you have.

Second picture:
Totally moved or out of focus.

Both:
Both seem a bit underexposed. Depending of how exposure is calculated, a big piece of white in the picture tends to make the camera underexpose to compensate the big amount of white. Resulting in an underexposition of the rest of the subject.
Color balance is strange. The depron foam should look white but it seems white-orange. Maybe the leds or wb on "day".

A camera quality must be evaluated on a whole bunch of several different and widely variated tests. Not only (but why not also) fast fast fast under a bad, a trap, light condition.

I'm not saying the camera is good or bad but I think it'd deserve a more deep test before concluding anything.
It's new, give it a chance!
The crew behind the camera also deserve patience, rigorous tests and understanding of their choices.

Also, what do we want? Honest rendering or totally fake-and-always-beautyfull-more-than-real standardized rendering like most devices seem to do nowadays?

About the n900 cam:
I use it a lot and "developped" pics into darktable. Most of the time starting from raw format. I love it, but it almost doesn't deserve the name of camera.
Is is a real... hmm.. not so perfect piece of hardware. Just look at the huge awfull vignetting almost uncorrectable because not only brightness changes but also big color and contrast shift, the more you go to the broders of pic.

Once again. Until I'll see raw neutral interpretation of the images, compared to the same scene with another cam in raw, I'll not make my mind on this cam.

I'd love dogs to leave rather that kind of things in my street! :D

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

Same as @catbus, I'll be happy to get your "dogshit" Pro1 and arrange us with Chen for refunding you, especially since it looks like I'll not receive mine before the end of december.

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

Not related with the comments, I spent this afternoon in Seville Spain. And this is such a beautiful place. Especially it's been a raining season in London.

Just wanted to share the photos I took with Pro1 this afternoon. All unedited.

I do see many points needs to be improved, and hopefully get better with time...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/sWzaVNDjLPpesB2f9

PS: Please forgive me using Google photos to share... 8-)