Hi Zarhan, I hope you don't mind me adding my first impressions here. Tell me if you do, and I'll be gone. I'm thinking that if we can gather first impressions in one thread, they'll be easier to navigate in the future. I have touched on some things you already mentioned, as I think it can be interesting to look for patterns, if any, in certain phenomena.
My unit booted to simplified Chinese, but I saw no deejoy-dota. I set it to English (I am Swedish, but find it easier to discuss things in English on the internet), leaving the Chinese installed, but when I then used the Planet Keyboard app to pick a Swedish hardware layout, the Chinese vanished. Either the Planet app removes all but the selected UI language or just simplified Chinese, say, if they know it might remain after testing?
At first, my battery drain was a bit high. To me, this seems common after major Android updates, as if it needs time to settle down, so I didn't worry. I saw some lingering Chinese though, so on day two, I took the advice of others here, and started over from a factory reset. Now, I don't need to wonder if a "proper" setup had helped, when something, inevitably, acts up. It seems to draw less power now. Maybe some test stuff was left behind? Anyway, I'd recommend a factory reset to anyone whose Astro booted into simplified Chinese, even if you intend to use that language on your unit.
I have Ö in my muscle memory, so I haven't swapped it with Ä, even though it's (a bit) more common, also in Swedish. The ALT + QWERTY thing sounds clever. Would the remapping app allow, say, ALT-Enter for backspace?
If we're talking about the same strip(s) of plastic, I think you should try to carefully glue it down (but "fatty" plastics often needs special glues). There are two tiny protrusions on the back of the screen that seems designed to slide along them on opening and closing. Mine are intact, and my screen still tends to type p on closing, but I can't imagine it helps, if pieces of the guiding system are loose or missing.
After making sure HDR was off and, by first clicking on the orange icon in the lower left of the viewfinder and then on the cogwheel that appears over to the right, setting the photo resolution to 12MP, which neatly aligns with 2x2 binning of the 48MP sensor, I am initially okay with the camera quality. I may not find the time to test it myself, so I'd like to hear if others can get better quality, in full auto, out of something else than the stock photo app. I may get Open Camera or such anyway, to get more settings, but as most of my photos are point and shoot, I'm interested in full auto in particular.
I notice that the OLED screen briefly flashes to full brightness when it turns on or off. It can be a bit jarring, but I don't really care. If the brightness is set very low, even with auto brightness off, the screen can suddenly go all black. Using the keyboard shortcut to raise the brightness some, brings it back to life, but that seems like something the first update should deal with. Other than that, I really like the screen. Yes, it's oversaturated, but as the screen by necessity is small, I think the color contrast helps bringing out details, and I find bright colors to be pretty, so I like it.
Edit 2022-Dec-26:
The amount of background noise from the electronics, when using headphones though, is a new record for me. It even beats my C64 fron 1983, I think. I have recorded some of it,
so it may soon show up somewhere here on OESF. and uploaded to the
ear phone noise thread.
On Zarhan's Astro, the display apparently comes on if the slider comes out even a millimeter (when putting the device into a case/pocket). FWIW, my Astro does not behave like that. I need to push my display about five millimeters before it wakes up, which I suppose is the intended behaviour. When I had just started my Astro for the first time it would wake up at the slightest nudge. In my case, that was because Settings -> Display -> (Advanced) -> "Lift to wake" was on. That might make sense for a device that mostly sits on a desk, but for me it became annoying, so I turned it off.
Edit 2022-Dec-27: Moved the SIM card. Now, my Astro, on which I'm typing this, is my main phone.
