Oh, I like this already. A phone created by a startup in London, with a strange name, with brackets in it… and it’s a phone with a sliding QWERTY keyboard too. What’s not to like eh?
They say that they want to deliver “niche mobile devices” but hey, there should be more phones like this in my opinion. I used to write lots of emails, articles and posts with an sliding QWERTY, and this ticks a lot of boxes for me. It’s got that sliding and angled landscape QWERTY keyboard, a 5.99″ 2160×1080 Full HD+ AMOLED screen with curved edges (and Gorilla Glass 3), 6GB RAM, 128GB storage (plus a microSD slot for another 2TB) and is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 MSM8998 CPU.
Powered by Android 9.0 Pie, it’s 13.98mm thick and will set you back £649 / US$699* / €649 when it comes out in October. You can pre-order now on fxtec.com.
Other details include dual-band WiFi, Bluetooth 5.0, NFC, USB-C charging, a double rear camera setup (a Sony 12 megaxpixel lens and a 5 megapixel one alongside) plus an 8 megapixel selfie shooter.
That keyboard is a full 5-row, 64 key device which is backlit and staggered.
Adrian Li Mow Ching, founder and director of F(x)tec, tells us..
We are delighted to unveil the final version of F(x)tec Pro1. Our vision of the ideal smartphone blends a modern handset with the very best features and functionality we loved and miss, to create a perfectly balanced package that is delightful and unique. Our goal is to be the best at niche functional devices, re-creating them in a better and more modern way – that’s technology refined.
The keyboard provides responsive, tactile feedback with each keystroke. The Android operating system comes with an unlocked bootloader enabling users to load a different OS, e.g. Sailfish.