The experts of Android have made a smartphone: XDA Pro1-X

From the experts of Android comes a smartphone design against the tide, without official Android and with an excellent privacy management

The guys at XDA-Developers, the most "geeky" site on the Web dedicated to Android and the meanders of its code, have made the leap: they have created, in collaboration with F(x)tec, a smartphone of their own, the XDA Pro1-X. Why is it interesting? Because the Android experts have made a peculiar choice: the XDA Pro1-X smartphone has a physical keyboard.

In 2020 it would seem something definitely anachronistic, but for those who love to write lines of code it is obviously not. But this XDA Pro1-X has a second feature, less visible but much more important for everyone: it has an armored privacy, thanks to the adoption of an operating system different from Google's standard Android. To be precise, two operating systems, since you can choose between Lineage OS or Ubuntu Touch. In short, XDA Pro1-X is the nerdiest smartphone in the world and costs about 240 euros.

XDA Pro 1-X: how it's made

The smartphone designed by members of the XDA community and physically built by F(x)tec is a modified version, needless to say, of the F(x)tec Pro1, based on Qualcom Snapdragon 835 processor. Compared to the original model, the RAM memory goes up from 6 to 8 GB, while the ROM goes up from 128 to 256 GB.

The smartphone is dual SIM, has a fingerprint reader, USB-C and HDMI Out ports, an 8 MP front-facing camera (f/2.0) and, at the front, a 12 MP camera (Sony IMX363 sensor, f/1.8) flanked by a second 5 MP sensor (f/2.0).

The physical keyboard, with five rows and 64 keys, pulls out with a slide mechanism and the smartphone can be used even when closed, with the normal touch keyboard on the screen. The screen is 6 inches, curved on the sides, AMOLED technology and resolution 2160×1080 pixels (FHD +) and is protected by a Gorilla Glass 3.

Since the processor used, not very recent, connectivity stops at 4G. The battery, finally, is 3,200 mAh with Quick charge 3.0 (up to 36 theoretical watts).

XDA Pro 1-X: privacy

The second great feature of the XDA Pro 1-X is the protection of privacy. From this point of view, the greatest results are obtained with the LineageOS 17 operating system, which features a powerful "hub" for managing the permissions granted to apps that allows us to share only the data we want, not the data that the app developers would like. Alternatively, the Ubuntu Touch operating system is also available.