XDA releases F (x) tec phone with LineageOS and physical keyboard

Modding platform XDA has made its own phone for the first time. It is a device from F (x) tec that runs on LineageOS and optionally comes with Ubuntu Touch or Android. The phone has a physical slide-out keyboard.

XDA says it wanted to create the Pro1-X to give users a choice in the operating system they use. The phone therefore runs standard on LineageOS, which was developed by XDA as a successor to CyanogenMod, but the device is also available with Ubuntu Touch OS and Android. According to the makers, the device is mainly focused on privacy. This can be seen in Privacy Guard, the function in LineageOS that allows users to control permissions and determine which data they share with. The phone ships with LineageOS 16, but an upgrade to LineageOS 17 is coming soon, replacing Privacy Guard with the Android Open Source Project’s Permissions Hub. XDA is still working on versions that run on other operating systems, including Sailfish OS and Fedora.

The phone is based on the F (x) tec Pro1, which came out last year. The model has a slide-out keyboard with 66 keys and has been adjusted on a number of points under the hood. For example, it runs on a Snapdragon 835 processor. This makes it the first Ubuntu Touch phone on a Qualcomm CPU. The memory and storage have also increased to 8GB ram and 256GB storage. There are also models available with 6GB and 128GB. The phone also has dual sim support, a specific camera button on the side and an HDMI connection. The device has a 6 “-Amoled screen with a resolution of 2160×1080 pixels and two cameras of 12 and 5 megapixels respectively.

The phone is not out yet, but can be pre-ordered through crowdfunding platform IndieGoGo. There, the 6GB / 128GB version in the early bird package costs 552 euros and the 8GB / 256GB version 611 euros. XDA says the phones will not be sold separately after crowdfunding and can therefore only be purchased through IndieGoGo.