The F(x)tec Pro 1 is an upcoming cellphone with a 6 inch AMOLED touchscreen display and something that’s a long way extra uncommon these days — a bodily keyboard that slides out from behind the show and makes the telephone look nearly like a tiny pc.
But that won’t be the simplest uncommon issue about this smartphone. While it’ll ship with Google Android software and a custom launcher app, it looks as if the developers at F(x)tec also are working to make sure it can run Sailfish OS, an open source, Linux-primarily based working system actively advanced via the parents at Finnish corporation Jolla.
F(x)tec unveiled the Pro 1 phone in advance this year and plans to start to transport the slider to customers in July. It’s currently up for pre-order for $649.
The keyboard is honestly the cellphone’s stand-out feature, providing 64 backlit keys. That method you don’t have a digital, on-display keyboard overlaying a part of the show as your kind, and it additionally approaches you to get tactile feedback when you hit a key, something that’s tough to recreate with a digital keyboard.
When the keyboard slides out, the show additionally tilts to a hundred and fifty-five-degree perspective, making it easy to see what you’re typing. But while you don’t need the keyboard, you may slide it at the back of the display screen.
While I’ve grown quite relaxed using on-screen keyboards, I recognize that is a design that appeals to die-difficult physical keyboard fanatics who can kind faster on real keys. But on account that Android is designed and optimized for touchscreen devices, I suspect for the maximum part there are now not many maximum customers might do with a physical keyboard that they couldn’t already do with a virtual one.
The ability to run exchange working structures like Sailfish opens up different possibilities though. While Sailfish is likewise optimized for touchscreen displays (the consumer interface is based heavily on gestures), the working system is built on top of Mer… a software program distribution that has its roots within the Maemo, MeeGo, and Moblin initiatives (which have been all GNU/Linux tasks aimed at smartphones, netbooks, and other cell devices).
In different phrases, it stocks lots of DNA with desktop working systems, and I can consider a scenario in which strolling an OS like Sailfish at the F(x)Tech Pro 1 makes the cellphone not most effective seem like a tiny laptop, but additionally characteristic like one.
That stated it’s not precisely the most powerful telephone round. The F(x)Tec Pro 1 features a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor, so one can be a nearly 2-yr-vintage chip by the time the telephone hits the streets.
Other functions don’t appear so horrific. The Pro 1 will feature a 2160 x 1080 pixel display, 6GB of RAM, and 128GB of a garage.
It has a three,200 mAh battery, 12MP + 5MP rear cameras, an 8MP front-dealing with the digicam, stereo speakers, a USB Type-C port, and matters that set it apart from many current telephones: a microSD card reader and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
The Pro 1 also isn’t the only pocket-sized, smartphone/pc-like pc able to run Android and Sailfish OS.
The Gemini PDA from Planet Computer officially delivered support for the running system final yr, and the imminent Planet Computer Cosmo Communicator is predicted so as to run Android, Sailfish, and different GNU/Linux running systems including Debian.
