Got mine this morning. (UK, order #24xx.) Mixed feelings so far.
There's a lot to be very excited about — but having watched and read everything I could about it for the last several months, most of those are no longer a surprise!
The screen's excellent. The keyboard's pretty similar to my 5mx, though not
quite up to that standard (the action's little lighter and clickier, and the keys a little wobblier, though still very usable and probably much improved from the first batch). The fit and finish is great, the overall design seems well thought out, and it fits well in the pocket. It seems to work well enough as a phone. (I don't make too many mobile calls.)
My mixed feelings are mainly because it'll be a long time before it really becomes
my device, and able to replace the Psion 5mx I still use every day.
I don't want to sign away every single detail of my life to Google, and that seems to severely restrict what the Gemini can do
as delivered. Without entering a Google ID, I can't use most of the limited selection of supplied apps. (They merely direct me to an install screen that needs me to sign in. And the built-in Browser app won't even
start unless I grant it more permissions than I'm willing to!) And from what I've read, I expect I'd find Android too limiting in the long run, anyway.
OTOH, it seems as if no Linux distributions are yet properly suited to either a phone or a small-form-factor PC — not with the integration and simplicity I'm used to. The most promising option sounds like Sailfish OS — but I haven't been able to get hold of an early version, and it probably won't be released until the end of the year.
So I'm in limbo, really. I don't want to spend serious amounts of time and effort finding and setting up replacements for all the Psion apps I use, converting and transferring documents, learning all the OS details, rewriting custom apps, &c &c for Android, only to have to do the same again when Sailfish is released (and if it's worth switching to). But I will at least need to do the minimum to copy my contacts over to it (though I'm not sure how, as even the supplied SSH client needs a Google ID!).
What's clear is that I won't be able to do without my 5mx for a long time yet. Which does rather dull my excitement.
(Also, having some stability issues, as described
here.)
In a couple of weeks, and I'll probably have got more familiar with it, worked out some ways around the initial issues, and be using it to do
some interesting stuff. And by next year I'm sure it'll be my main device and much loved. But right now that's mostly just potential; compared with that, first impressions are unfamiliar, awkward, limited, and bring more questions than answers. Sorry if that seems negative — I guess my expectations were just too high!
Ask me again in a month or two…
