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I still consider my old Nokia E70[0] my favorite phone of all time, so I am definitely in the target demographic for this, as I'm 100% sold on the usefulness of
by Sodman 6y ago
I still consider my old Nokia E70[0] my favorite phone of all time, so I am definitely in the target demographic for this, as I'm 100% sold on the usefulness of a physical keyboard on a phone... However the CPU just doesn't match the "pro" branding, or the price range. I'd personally rather throw an extra $200-300 on top to get a flagship CPU and then it would be close to a perfect phone for me! As it currently is, the Snapdragon 662 shipped in the pro-1x gets blown away by my current Pixel 5's Snapdragon 765G - and Pixel phones recently have been generally characterized as having "above-average hardware specs but not enough to justify flagship prices".
Separately, I am also curious for a phone like this that could run Android, LineageOS, and Ubuntu Touch - are there "dual boot" options in the mobile space? With 256GB storage it seems like it should be possible. I'd like to have old reliable Android as a daily driver, but maybe periodically drop into a less stable but more flexible environment like ubuntu.
[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E70
- yjftsjthsd-h 6y agoI have a Gemini that can triple boot ex. between Android, Debian, and Sailfish, so it's been done, but that was designed in by the manufacturer. There used to be some Android multiboot hack (multirom or something?), but I don't know details or if it's still around.
- megous 6y agoThere's "dual boot" in mobile space https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GjXQFnMHGY :)
- k_ 6y agoSeems like we're looking for similar things. I am currently waiting for delivery of my Astro Slide [0] [0]: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transforme... which has android / linux dual boot. Not sure if performance are what you are looking for.
- Sodman 6y agoThis looks much more like what I'm looking for alright! Doing some background research it looks like they had some issues with their chipset supplier and had to downgrade the chip a little, but performance benchmarks put it ~around the same place as my Pixel 5's current CPU, which I'd say is much more acceptable (if not totally cutting edge flagship-tier) for a phone in 2021! At $576 (Edit: now $621, looks like the early bird just sold out!) this also seems like a much better deal than the pro-1x at $800! I'm always worried though when the "pledge store" for these things says things like "Ships March 2021!" but their most recent update says they've just finalized their PCB and are just starting testing...
- arpa 6y agoAugust is likely target date for astro.
- undecisive 6y agoYeah, there was some weirdness on that - they tried to change it and things went wrong. If you have a look at the updates, specifically the Week 42 Update, they have a revised timeline: Final Astro - PCB March 2021 Production Master - March 2021 Final Testing and Debugging - May 2021 Device Certifications - May 2021 Mass Production Start – June 2021 First shipping - June 2021 They're more or less on track, it seems...
- k_ 6y agoNot sure if that's still true, but a few months ago when I ordered mine early bird had always 0~3 in stock and they added some back the day after it sold out, every time. Check again tomorrow if you're interested but only at a discount.
- Sodman 6y agoWow you're entirely correct, I just checked again 3 days later and there's now magically 3 in stock again :) Thanks for the tip!
- minimalist 6y ago
- stevecat 6y agoThe Nokia E72 was my favourite phone form-factor. I really wanted to try Android but was so resistive to keyboardless-phones that I bought a HTC ChaCha, regretted it immediately, and finally relented. I still miss a keyboard.
- xbeta 6y agoI still think the best keyboard smartphone were my BlackBerries, and I still miss typing on a HW keyboards.