Which Two for a Mobile Phone?

I saw that Planet Computers is releasing a new device called the "Astro Slide". Looks pretty beefy both in specs and size. I'm a huge Nokia Communicator fan and when I saw the Planet Computers Gemini and subsequent Cosmo Communicator I fell in love. With that in mind, I like the clamshell design of the Cosmo Communicator but it looks like the Astro will definitely destroy it in terms of both a phone and powerhouse.

What do you guys think?

Communicator: https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/cosmo-communicator
Astro: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/astro-slide-5g-transformer#/

And on a totally off topic note, anyone else get a little Ridley Scott Alien by the Planet Gemini's web page? Just need a Weyland Yutani logo and the slogan "Building Better Worlds" to make it complete.

Those are beautiful designs. From a design point of view I think the Cosmo is prettier, it looks like a small laptop, the Astro looks like those old J2ME phones with a slide keyboard (which isn't bad but also not my preferred format). The Astro comes with Android 10, Cosmo comes with 9, can it be upgraded? If not that's a will be a big disadvantage in the future. Both can boot to Linux, it seems that installing a Linux distro is easy. The Astro will support 5G and WiFi 6, the hardware seems a little more future-proof than the Cosmo's if you are planning to keep it for many years.

The clamshell design is my favorite, one reason I fell in love with the old Nokia Communicators. The new Astro reminds me of the unofficial end of the Communicator line, the Nokia E7. As for future proof, the only thing that's on my mind is when will 5G completely take over leaving the older networks out in the dust? I'm sure it won't be for a few years, and by then the Cosmo may be pretty outdated anyway depending on what software it can run.

The Astro looks like a safe bet, but I just don't care much for the slab with a keyboard under it.

Funny, somewhat, to see this thread, as just an hour ago, my Cosmo gave up the audio ghost. As with numerous other users, the Cosmo will suddenly shut down the audio--the user can't be heard unless on Speaker. Factory reset did not solve issue.

Having jumped both the Gemini and Cosmo bandwagon, I'm getting off both. Their stuff is just too expensive, their company is too small for true quality control, and their customer support is spotty at best. Even they don't seem particularly wedded to their hardware, since every new device is a complete revamp, which means your Planet phone lives in permanent beta.

I just unearthed my Blackberry Priv and while the Priv's pkb isn't as nice as the Cosmo's (though the Cosmo kb has ghosting issues, among others), at least the darn thing works like a real phone. Five years old and counting

So buyers beware, especially if you're looking for a daily driver.

Jake

Jake try putting an audio cable in the audio jack and pull it out a couple times. The same thing would happen to my BlackBerry Passport when the audio jack got dirty. Maybe electrical cleaner might help too?

I ordered the astro slide and am waiting to see how good or bad it is. They are going to load android 11 on it. I'm hoping linux support is better than it has been for the other two devices.

Edited by jorel101 2021-01-01 8:29 PM

That's a little disheartening to hear Jake. But I've been using my old Blackberry KeyOne and am looking at potential upgrades for the next 6 or so months.

I hear Blackberry is surprisingly looking to release a new phone as well. Not by the same company that made the KeyOne's and Two's though. I'd love to see them release a clamshell. It'd be like a mini old school IBM.

@jorel101, I'll give that a whirl, but as you can see:

https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?topic=36383.msg297148#msg297148

this is a serious issue.

Having gone through two Planet phones, there's always some significant drawback like this. Even the Gemini's keyboard would bounce the screen when you typed. Very annoying, poorly designed hinge. And PC pulls the plug very quickly on their devices, always moving on to the next, so updates for actually-released phones are either months late or don't arrive at all.

And yeah, the Linux support is aspirational only. Poor Adam Boardman--he was the only guy in the world that was trying to get Gem Linux working. ArchiMark says Cosmo Linux is better, but neither Linuxes are finger-friendly and the second screen of the Cosmo (which acts as a Linux mouse) is just dreadful and hugely buggy in any OS.

jorel101's on the right track, go for the Astro--it can't be worse than its predecessors, though it may indeed try to be, since yet again, it's beta.

I'll keep an eye for the new Blackberry (supposed to be 5G).

The Fxtec Pro1, another one I considered as a replacement, gets pretty trashed here:

https://www.androidauthority.com/fxtec-pro1-review-960653/

It must be really hard to make these things right...

Jake



Jake

If only Nokia would rerelease the E7 with Android, and a bigger screen I'd be good.

These phones are all made in China with horrible quality control. It is really hard to make a nice phone with good quality control and be price-competitive with flagship devices like Apple, Samsung, Google, etc.

That being said, being a Gemini owner I’m pretty happy with my device. It has its faults, and I bought it knowing about the possible problems. Just like Jake said, it looks like an unfinished device, especially software-wise. I took that as a challenge and decided to work around the issues on mine, especially on the Linux side of things. In fact, the main reason why I bought this device was to use it as a portable Linux machine. The official PC Linux distro is extremely buggy. I manage to tweak a few things here and there (I have a full post about a perfect Linux install on OESF - I can provide the link latter if you guys want), but even then it is not what I would call “trustworthy” for important things. In the end, I realized that the best way to use Linux on the device is to root Android and then chroot to a Linux flavor of your choice - like Ubuntu Mate for example. Android drivers for the Gemini are a lot more developed than Linux drivers. If you use Android as a base to chroot then everything just works, including external hdmi displays, keyboards and mice! Not to mention that you can multitask Android apps at the same time you’re running Ubuntu, which is quite handy. That’s my actual setup on the Gemini now, and I’m pretty happy with it.

Funny how we evolve individually. While I always enjoyed the Jornada 680 years ago…it, like my Mobilepro 400 never was a proper fit for me. This is because I prefer the keyboard size of the larger Mobilepros.

When the PPC size phones came out I was again disappointed with the input method…either tiny tiny buttons or onscreen keyboard that required a stylus.

Years have passed. I can now thumbtype in a blur of motion…fingers moving faster than a 15 year old masturbating. I like my custom designed and sized on-screen Android keyboard.

While both of those phone hold nostalgic appeal…using it with 1 hand doesn't seem productive. Touch typing appears impossible using 10 fingers. I don't think thumb typing would work either.

I'll stick with what I have…

@ntware--well done! That must've taken a lot of work. So at the end, would it be correct to assume that rooting the Gem and using a Linux flavor on top of Android trumps an actual Linux install?

Long ago, I had multiple-boot on my Gem (including the ill-fated Sailfish) and found the Linux's lack of finger-friendliness to be a show-stopper. Using a passive, inaccurate pointer seemed silly, no disrespect intended toward the indefatigable Adam Boardman.

Is a chrooted Linux still anti-finger?

Jake

Haha

But yeah, stylus pecking was never fun. The tiny keyboards weren't great, either. But there's been one device that always stood out that I've mentioned probably ten times already. I've head every version of the Nokia Communicator, and I've gone back a couple of times to both the E7 and the E90. Despite the E7 coming out in 2012, it's worse off than the older Communicators because the E7 relied on now defunct Nokia servers for simple things. The E90 didn't and still functions like it did when new in 2007.

Currently, I'm using the Blackberry KeyOne. I can type about as fast as Rich there with his colorful analogy with the Android on screen keyboard. But I prefer hardware keyboards. I'm just as fast if not faster on the BB's keyboard.

I guess we'll just have to see what new devices come out. It's not like I'm in any hurry.

@HPC:Fan--re: the Nokia E7. I ALMOST dragged that out of the drawer as well. Keyboard-wise, my all-time favorite phone. The developers of HanDBase were kind enough to slip me their Symbian beta, which worked flawlessly.

Great ROM hacking, too.

(I'm having a better time with my Priv than I expected, if only because it makes functional phone calls)

Edit: Re: the E90, which I also have somewhere. I found that kb difficult, very stiff. But last of the IR, baby

Jake

Edited by Jake 2021-01-02 3:58 PM

Yeah, the E90 was pretty stiff. But I got used to it. How's the Priv working out for you? Any custom ROM? I've been considering dropping BB's rom and going with another but enjoy some of the bb apps.