Language Selection

English French German Italian Portuguese Spanish

This 5G smartphone comes with Android, Linux - and a keyboard. Back to the future with the Astro Slide

Filed under
Android
Linux

London-based Planet Computers is on a mission to reinvent the iconic Psion Series 5 PDA for the smartphone age. Although mobile professionals -- especially those old enough to remember the 1997 Series 5 with affection -- are often open to the idea, the company's previous efforts, the Gemini PDA and Cosmo Communicator, have had their drawbacks.

The Gemini PDA, for example, is a landscape-mode clamshell device that, despite a great keyboard, is difficult to make and take calls on and only has one camera -- a front-facing unit for video calling. The Cosmo Communicator adds a small external touch screen for notifications and some basic functions plus a rear-facing camera, but you still have to open the clamshell to do anything productive.

Read more

Astro Slide 5G Transformer Smartphone Comes with a Slide-out Key

  • Astro Slide 5G Transformer Smartphone Comes with a Slide-out Keyboard, MediaTek Dimensity 1000 SoC (Crowdfunding)

    Planet Computers has introduced several smartphones with physical keyboards over the last few years including Gemini PDA and Cosmo Communicator with the later recently received its promised Debian Linux images besides just running Android 9.0.

    The company is now back with the new model. Powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1000 processor, Astro Slide 5G Transformer supports 5G connectivity and comes with a slide-out keyboard following on the steps of the company’s previous smartphones.

Planet Computers' Astro Slide features a physical keyboard...

The Astro Slide is a 5G PDA that runs Android 10 and Linux

  • The Astro Slide is a 5G PDA that runs Android 10 and Linux

    First of all, the new Pocket Computers device rocks 5G out of the box, thanks to MediaTek’s latest flagship processor, the Dimensity 1000. The Astro Slide also comes with Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.1, and NFC connectivity.

    Secondly, the full QWERTY keyboard has a novel “RockUp” hinge mechanism. You slide-out the backlit-keyboard entirely from underneath the screen to create a tiny laptop. If you’re into adding physical keyboards to smartphones, this is possibly the best compromise.

Astro Slide is Part Smartphone, Part PDA with Support for Linux

  • Astro Slide is Part Smartphone, Part PDA with Support for Linux

    Now, i’m generally wary of mentioning anything that is crowdfunded — and that goes double when it’s hawked on the oasis of overpromise that is IndieGoGo.

    But Planet Computers, the company angling to animate this ode to early 00s technology, have a track record in this area. Not only have they run successful crowdfunding campaigns before, but they’ve also nailed the hard bit: actually shipping products to backers.

This 5G Phone Runs Linux and Doubles as a Tiny Laptop

  • This 5G Phone Runs Linux and Doubles as a Tiny Laptop with a Physical Keyboard

    The so-called Astro Slide looks retro but feels modern. Despite the PDA-like appearance, the device is essentially a 5G smartphone that can double as a laptop thanks to a small physical keyboard.

    In terms of hardware, the Astro Slide comes with the essential feature package to let you stay productive on the go. It’s powered by a MediaTek Dimensity 1000 octa-core SoC and obviously comes with a 5G chip specifically optimized for what the parent company says improved signal with reduced power consumption.

Is it a Smartphone? Is it a PDA? It’s Bot

  • Is it a Smartphone? Is it a PDA? It’s Both – and It Supports Linux

    The Astro Slide is an Android-based smartphone with sliding physical keyboard currently crowdfunding its way into existence — but with the added lure of Linux support.

    Now, i’m generally wary of mentioning anything that is crowdfunded. That goes double when it’s a) technology being hawked on Cool the oasis of overpromise that is IndieGoGo.

    But Planet Computers, the company angling to animate this ode to early 00s technology, has a track record in this area. Not only have they run successful crowdfunding campaigns before but they’ve also nailed the hard bit: actually shipping products to backers.

Astro Slide is a Smartphone/Pocket-Computer that Support...

  • Astro Slide is a Smartphone/Pocket-Computer that Supports Android and Linux

    Back in CES 2018, Planet Computers took us back to the ’90s with the Planet Gemini PDA. Now, the company is back with another unique device – the Astro Slide 5G Transformer. The “transformer” part in the name represents the pocket-computer form-factor of the device as the screen of the device slides out to reveal a physical backlit keyboard.

Astro Slide is a Smartphone/Pocket-Computer...

  • Astro Slide is a Smartphone/Pocket-Computer that Supports Android and Linux

    Unlike the clamshell design of the Gemini PDA, the Astro Slide uses a slide-out mechanism to reveal the company’s signature keyboard. This keyboard is present in their previous devices like the aforementioned Gemini PDA and the Cosmo Communicator. These keyboards reflect the design of Psion devices from the 1990s and it is not surprising as Planet Computers has some Psion designers working with them.

    Now, the slide-out mechanism is unlike any mechanism out there in the market right now. When the 6.53-inch FHD+ screen slides out horizontally, the hinge forms a tilted stand-like structure to support the screen at an optimal viewing angle. The company is calling the hinge the “Rock-up” design that “transforms” your smartphone into a pocket computer.

Planet Computers' Astro Slide features a physical keyboard, 5G

  • Planet Computers' Astro Slide features a physical keyboard, 5G, Android, and Linux

    Something to look forward to: Are you tired of modern flagship smartphones that follow a similar design? Nostalgic for the days of BlackBerry PDAs? Then Planet Computers’ Astro Slide could be for you. The device is a 5G phone that runs Android 10, but it also features a sliding physical keyboard and will support Linux in the future.

    According to its Indiegogo campaign page, the Astro Slide is the first 5G phone with a keyboard, and the fastest 5G device announced to date. It uses the company’s RockUp slider hinge to turn the 6.5-inch smartphone into a PDA. The screen flips up so the Astro Slide can be used as a tiny laptop.

    [...]

    Like its previous devices, the Astro Slide is being crowdfunded. At the time of writing, it’s almost reached $179,000—89 percent of $200,242 target—with 40 days left, so it appears funding won’t be a problem. There are still early bird specials available for $546, while the full retail price will be “anything between $799 and $999.” The devices are expected to be shown off at CES next year, with delivery scheduled for March 2021.

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

More in Tux Machines

digiKam 7.7.0 is released

After three months of active maintenance and another bug triage, the digiKam team is proud to present version 7.7.0 of its open source digital photo manager. See below the list of most important features coming with this release. Read more

Dilution and Misuse of the "Linux" Brand

Samsung, Red Hat to Work on Linux Drivers for Future Tech

The metaverse is expected to uproot system design as we know it, and Samsung is one of many hardware vendors re-imagining data center infrastructure in preparation for a parallel 3D world. Samsung is working on new memory technologies that provide faster bandwidth inside hardware for data to travel between CPUs, storage and other computing resources. The company also announced it was partnering with Red Hat to ensure these technologies have Linux compatibility. Read more

today's howtos

  • How to install go1.19beta on Ubuntu 22.04 – NextGenTips

    In this tutorial, we are going to explore how to install go on Ubuntu 22.04 Golang is an open-source programming language that is easy to learn and use. It is built-in concurrency and has a robust standard library. It is reliable, builds fast, and efficient software that scales fast. Its concurrency mechanisms make it easy to write programs that get the most out of multicore and networked machines, while its novel-type systems enable flexible and modular program constructions. Go compiles quickly to machine code and has the convenience of garbage collection and the power of run-time reflection. In this guide, we are going to learn how to install golang 1.19beta on Ubuntu 22.04. Go 1.19beta1 is not yet released. There is so much work in progress with all the documentation.

  • molecule test: failed to connect to bus in systemd container - openQA bites

    Ansible Molecule is a project to help you test your ansible roles. I’m using molecule for automatically testing the ansible roles of geekoops.

  • How To Install MongoDB on AlmaLinux 9 - idroot

    In this tutorial, we will show you how to install MongoDB on AlmaLinux 9. For those of you who didn’t know, MongoDB is a high-performance, highly scalable document-oriented NoSQL database. Unlike in SQL databases where data is stored in rows and columns inside tables, in MongoDB, data is structured in JSON-like format inside records which are referred to as documents. The open-source attribute of MongoDB as a database software makes it an ideal candidate for almost any database-related project. This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the MongoDB NoSQL database on AlmaLinux 9. You can follow the same instructions for CentOS and Rocky Linux.

  • An introduction (and how-to) to Plugin Loader for the Steam Deck. - Invidious
  • Self-host a Ghost Blog With Traefik

    Ghost is a very popular open-source content management system. Started as an alternative to WordPress and it went on to become an alternative to Substack by focusing on membership and newsletter. The creators of Ghost offer managed Pro hosting but it may not fit everyone's budget. Alternatively, you can self-host it on your own cloud servers. On Linux handbook, we already have a guide on deploying Ghost with Docker in a reverse proxy setup. Instead of Ngnix reverse proxy, you can also use another software called Traefik with Docker. It is a popular open-source cloud-native application proxy, API Gateway, Edge-router, and more. I use Traefik to secure my websites using an SSL certificate obtained from Let's Encrypt. Once deployed, Traefik can automatically manage your certificates and their renewals. In this tutorial, I'll share the necessary steps for deploying a Ghost blog with Docker and Traefik.