Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Fnoord 1906 days ago
See [1], source: FTA.

This is the spiritual successor of the Nokia N900, and it isn't a very good keyboard (but a better layout than N900). Its pretty much a rebrand of the same device with the same name from 2019 without the 'X'. Difference is it has better OS support (thanks to XDA, I guess), different SOC (recent SD600 series instead of SD835), and a different colour (blue instead of grey).

If you want a very good hardware keyboard use whatever BT or USB (such as HHKB) or try one of the Planet devices (Gemini/Cosmo/Astro). I own a Cosmo, the keyboard is superb. They all have the very same keyboard. Right now, I'd opt for an Astro instead of Cosmo. Also slider instead of candybar + horizontal flip, and a more recent SOC (D800), with a proven track record of keyboard.

[1] https://www.fxtec.com/images/pro1x-landscape.jpg
3 comments
antattack 1906 days ago
Astro Slide 5G Transformer seems like a really good phone, one that I actually might get once it's past the Indiegogo stage.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme...

EDIT: and it has a backlight keyboard!

link
Fnoord 1906 days ago
I bought it on IGG because I want to support these guys while getting it early with discount (though less warranty), plus I like the Cosmo, but YMMV. They regularly got deals with discounts, not only limited to something like BF. Just bit of a bummer the downgrade from D1000 to D800, but its still a huge up from Cosmo. Plus, slide is more practical, I believe.

PS: Re, backlight: aye, it does (at least Cosmo/Astro, not sure Gemini), and you can put it lower/higher/off (I pref to have it on as low as possible). Even on Linux (Gemian / Debian for Cosmo). There's some minor bleeding, esp on side, but IMO not annoying.

link
rasjani 1906 days ago
> This is the spiritual successor of the Nokia N900

There was next iteration called N950 which resembles this device even more. Sadly, it never shipped but I think Nokia shipped 100-200 prototypes to app devs before whole burning platform happened.

link
Mediterraneo10 1906 days ago
It can't really be called the spiritual successor of the Nokia N900 if it runs Android. What made the N900 special wasn't just the hardware, it was also that it was running a traditional Linux environment, which means you could use that physical keyboard for all the hacking you can do on your desktop computer.
link
Fnoord 1905 days ago
Termux. Also, all of these devices (F(x)tec Pro1 X, Planet Gemini/Cosmo/Astro, ...) run a myriad of OSes, so if you don't want to run Android you got alternatives (including AOSP-based). As does Nokia N900, just not out of the box back in the days.
link