The British company F (x) tec, in collaboration with the internet community XDA, I ran a fundraising campaign of funds to support the new version of Pro1 smartphone with physical keyboard.
At the current stage, the company is adapting the prototype for series production. The fundraiser was successful and the project has already attracted 7 times more funds than planned.
The device will come with an unlockable bootloader: the developers promise that "advanced" users can freely flash and change the operating system at your discretion.
For the moment, the possibility of placing orders with and operating system Android pre-installed, Lineage OS and Ubuntu Touch. From the announcement page of the crowdfunding campaign, we can conclude that work is also being done to adapt operating systems such as Sailfish OS, Windows and Debian.
The main features of the phone:
- Dimensions: 154 x 73,6 x 13,98 mm, weight: 243 grams.
- Extendable (angled) 64-key QWERTY keyboard arranged in 5 rows.
- 5,99-inch AMOLED screen with 2160 x 1080 resolution.
- Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 MSM8998.
- RAM: 4 or 6 GB LPDDR8.
- Storage: 128GB or 256GB, expandable up to 2TB via microSD card
- Battery: 3200 mAh with fast charge.
- Support for various cellular standards.
- Two nano SIM cards (the second takes the place of a memory card).
- Network: WiFi over the 802.11ac standard.
- USB Type-C port with HDMI.
- Sound: stereo, 3,5mm jack, FM radio.
- Cameras: 8 MP front, 12 MP rear (Sony IMX363) + 5 MP.
Considering that LineageOS, Android, Ubuntu Touch, and more are ultimately powered by Linux, we felt this was the best foundation to help give back to the FOSS community as a whole. Liangchen Chen, the co-founder of F (x) tec and a charming and versatile guy who is passionate about LineageOS, Ubuntu Touch, Sailfish, and other alternative platforms, provided the following quote to help outline our approach to giving back to the open-community. originally:
We want to make sure we give back to the community for helping us achieve our goal of creating a device made for enthusiasts. We will donate a small amount per device sold to the Linux Foundation once the campaign concludes, to help support free and open source software.
Ubuntu uses the version of the Ubports project. The possibilities offered by Ubuntu Touch OS are an iInterface with gesture support, using the touch screen of the device as a mouse type manipulator, working with several applications at the same time, launching Android applications through AnBox, releasing applications for full Linux distributions through Libertine.
And is that Ubuntu Touch on a smartphone runs through the Halium layer, a hardware abstraction layer designed to be used by Linux distributions on smartphones originally running Android.
It is stated that heThe main feature of this device is compatible with the operating system to choose from: Android 9, Lineage OS 17 or Ubuntu Touch. For the latter, support for "convergence" is declared - the ability to use it as a desktop PC by connecting a monitor, keyboard and mouse.
It is worth mentioning that the price of the equipment will not be cheap, since its usual price will be 899 dollars. However, there is a limited pool for the XDA community that allows you to get the gear for "just $ 639."
The Pro1 X as mentioned can work under the control of Ubuntu Touch, but it is sold with LineageOS pre-installed.
As for those who are interested in being able to obtain the device, they should know that It costs $ 679 with pre-order. The authors claim that the original Pro1 was inspired by the Nokia 950 concept, which was distributed only to developers.
And that the start of the massive sales is expected to begin in March 2021 (if everything is going as it is and some unforeseen events such as those that delayed Librem do not happen).
Finally, if you want to know more about it, you can check the following link.