I posted about this phone when I bought it and promised to tell about my experience after some use. So here is my story :)

Background

I needed to buy a new phone and wanted something unusual. Initially, I was looking at the Hisense A9. It’s an e-ink phone and, based on reviews, people love it. But the phone there is no official open source Android distribution available for it (although there is an unofficial LineageOS port). I just don’t like running outdated Android versions. I wish we had broader device support, like we do with GNU/Linux distributions.

A few days later I read news about the LineageOS 22.2 release and went to check out which models were supported from day one (it was December 2024). These phones are usually actively maintained, which means they’re usually good. I was surprised to see the F(x)tec Pro1 X there. Here is a good article from 2022 if you’ve never heard of it. To put it shortly, it’s a crowdfunded phone with a physical keyboard that had a lot of issues at release. I went to the unofficial F(x)tec Discord server and found out that they finally finished shipping the phone to all backers in November 2024! But some people already have more powerful phones and no longer need the shipped F(x)tec. They had a dedicated channel for buying/selling, so I managed to buy one in mint condition for 300 EUR.

Keyboard

The keyboard is awesome. I previously had the Nokia Asha 200, Motorola Droid 4, Motorola Photon Q, and a physical keyboard addon for my PinePhone, so I can compare. The one in the F(x)tec is by far the best. People who designed it clearly had a passion for physical keyboards. The keyboard is full-sized with Ctrl, Shift, and Fn keys on both sides. It’s very important for a slider because it allows you to type while holding it. The keyboard also has home row markers on F and J, and it’s natural to type on it without looking at it. The keys also very responsive - I never miss my inputs.

These days, physical keyboards are not very practical. Glide typing on touch keyboards is quite convenient. But I feel like I can type a bit faster and more accurately with a physical one. Plus, I really like the tactile feeling.

Screen

The screen is also great. Colors are very vibrant. It’s curved on the sides and I saw people reporting accidental touches while holding it, but it might have been fixed on the software side since I never encountered such an issue. And I actually like how the curved screen looks - especially with such a nice OLED panel and the Android dark theme.

Slide mechanism

It feels very robust, but I don’t like how it opens - it’s quite loud. I liked it more in my Motorola sliders. But what I like is that the screen is angled when you open it. It’s a much more natural than when the screen is parallel to the keyboard. Plus, you get a built-in kickstand :)

When closed, it looks like a regular phone. It’s not too bulky - I’d say it’s comparable to a typical phone with a protective case.

Fingerprint sensor

I hate it. It’s the worst place they could have put it. I constantly touched it by accident when gripping the phone. So I ended up disabling it completely.

Connectivity

Some units have issues with the antenna. I asked the seller to test the connectivity before buying, and it looks like my unit is unaffected. Can confirm that calls and mobile internet work fine.

Performance

The specs are quite low. But I don’t game on phones. I use it for calls, web browsing, messaging, and social media. It works smoothly, so it’s good enough for me.

Software

As I mentioned, the phone is officially supported by LineageOS. So I immediately re-flashed the stock Android 11 with it after testing the functionality.

Unfortunately, my favorite FUTO Keyboard doesn’t propagate the defined layouts to the physical keyboard - it’s always English. It works only if I select the default AOSP keyboard as my input method. But since I don’t need the sensor keyboard much, I just use the AOSP keyboard. It hides automatically when I open the physical one.

But even when the touch keyboard is hidden, it still leaves a tiny bar at the bottom of the screen when any input field is active. It takes extra space, and in horizontal layout, you don’t have much space to spare. So I installed the Hide Navbar module for Magisk which removes it.

Also, when the keyboard is open, the previews for running apps behave as if they’re in horizontal mode. But it’s a minor bug.

But there is one major issue I still haven’t figured out. Sometimes the phone just refuses to wake from sleep once every few days. I have to hold the power button to force reboot it. I asked about it in Discord and it looks like only one other person besides me has this issue. Others never encountered anything like this. The only thing I found in common is that they all install Google services, while I use MicroG. Not sure if it’s related. If you have any idea how to debug it, let me know.

Battery

Battery life is okay. I charge it once every few days, but I don’t have a lot of screen time. Also, I think the lack of Play Services improves it.

Camera

I currently can’t leave my house, so I don’t have nice photos to share :) But the camera is okay, even with the built-in LOS camera app.

There’s also a dedicated camera button. I think it’s convenient, but I don’t mind using the on-screen shutter button either.

Weight

It’s 46g heavier than my wife’s Google Pixel 7 (197g vs 243g). It doesn’t bother me - I barely notice the difference.

Headphone jack

I like that this phone has a headphone jack. I know I could just buy a Type-C adapter, but I don’t like to carry it with me. And I just can’t leave it connected to the adapter, since I also share the headphones with my PC.

Conclusion

I like this phone - it fits my use cases perfectly. I’ll continue to daily drive it. But it’s not a great value - you can buy a much more modern phone for the same money. And I wish its launch hadn’t been surrounded by so many issues. We need more niche phones.

Lemmy has a rate limit on uploading photos, so I’ve uploaded more photos in this Imgur post.