Volla Phone X23 about to ship
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The latest from Hello Welt is good news:
The major part of the Volla Phone X23 are now delivered [from Gigaset to Hello Welt], so we could start with the packing and sealing of the devices. The delivery will start NEXT WEEK.I'm fairly optimistic there will be X23's in the wild by this time next week. I'll post further updates soon.
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Vollaphone X23's being packaged up for dispatch from Hello Welt today (Friday)
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An X23 has cleared customs and is flying over Western Europe right now, due to land in Manchester UK in a few hours time. With luck it may reach me mid morning Friday. I'll post an update when it arrives
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@treebeard I wish you a good discovery of user experience.
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I now have a working Volla Phone X23 in the UK
I'm very pleased how smoothly everything went, and its now my daily driver phone (apart from not installing waydroid - see below). Here are some comments on the ordering and set-up and a few technical gremlins I will look into.
- I had an Indiegogo contribution since March which was Ok as I didn't need the phone till June (birthday)
- The Indiegogo world perk doesn't make clear whether duty is covered. As it stands the buyer must pay approx £98 duty to the UK (mostly VAT) but the world perk is approx £50 cheaper than buying the 'normal' Germn perk. I've emailed volla asking for this to be clarified as shipping was 60EUR so I convined myself there would be no duty to pay.
- There is what appears to be a firmware bug rather than a hardware fault. When charging the phone while switched off everything is fine while the volla logo or battery %age graphic is visible, but when the screen is completely black it begins to rapidly flicker but randomly. So it looks like a disconcerting hardware problem but behaves like a software fault, only flickering when the display is sleeping.
- Installing apps and updates went fine. A few of the apps on my list are not yet available for this version of UBPorts (the 'Home' tiled desktop, WhatsWeb, Instagraph, OnionSurf (Tor)). I'll be patient.
- I'm hesitant to install Waydroid (i installed the helper and freezer so far) because of the dire warnings combined with only the original Volla X being officially supported. If anyone knows if it has been shown to work on the X23 please comment.
- The phone has a notch and curved corners. i need to investigate whether the notch hack is safe to install on the X23. Currently the time is obscured by the corner and one of the icons. pulling the top bar down allows access so not a showstopper.
That's my issues list. The phone looks great and is very responsive. The sound is rich and the display excellent. There's a programmable button on the left side which I don't believe Ubuntu Touch supports yet, being very non-standard.
It looks a large phone but is only 5mm taller and wider than my original Vollaphone. its noticeably weighty but the battery indicator has barely moved all afternoon despite constant use.
I'm considering buying a Gigaset GX4 Case. The phone materials are different to the GX4 but the dimensions are the same. There is a wide range of GX4 cases online in the UK.
So the only pressing issue is whether to risk installing WayDroid. I believe its not compatible yet but if anyone has more infomation please comment.
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@treebeard thanks for the report, i hit a major road blocker on my side, do the headphones work for you?
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@tera Headphones don't work. I can hear the electrical noise of them being inserted but no audio gets through.
I also tried using an aux cable to a powered speaker but no luck there either.
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@tera FYI bluetooth audio works fine.
Maybe you can work around the issue for now with a headphone bluetooth dongle?
From what I recall headphone/aux output has been an issue for Ubuntu Touch on a number of phone models.
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@treebeard thanks, i've been against bluetooth/more radio waves emissions so far, i'll wait a bit for an update
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@treebeard Please do check the duty payment. I have had two instances where, (not even taking into account what the paper work stated) the courier automatically charged duty which did not require to be taken.. You can get VAT/duty back yourself from HMRC but they will not refund the courier handling charge, if there is one.
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I am still waiting for mine. I ordered in march and the homepage indicates that march preorders have been shipped.
Did you get any individual notice or mail that your device has been shipped or did it just arrive one day?
Thanks!
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@Lakotaubp Thanks, I agree. I've asked Hello Welt if the figures are what they expect. I think when i bought my original Volla the world perk was reduced by approximately the same amount as the duty. I suppose HW can't easily keep track of what each country's duty is going to be. Its one size fits all.
I'm hoping to hear back soon since i inquired on Friday. The shipping note does say 'recipient will pay any duty owed' or words to that effect.
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@jojumaxx I pre-ordered through Indiegogo on 25th March, and received a shipping email from Indiegogo on 22nd June. It arrived 2 days later by DHL very fast shipment from Dusseldorf I think via Koln)
Contribution ID
278
Contribution Date
March 25, 2023 -
@treebeard Keep an eye on it my issue was with the same delivery company.
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FYI The current issues I'm aware of for the X23 are:
- X23 Not in flashing tool yet, which makes trying out fixes risky as it can't easily be reflashed.
- Requires Notch hack (see separate thread) which makes time visible in rounded corner but requires further adjustment as icons still obscured by notch.
- Headphone socket - no sound
- Waydroid Helper unable to install Waydroid.
- Some apps not available for Focal Yet
All but '3' are basically due to the phone being a brand new model and tools/apps needing to catch up.
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@treebeard Oh really. I pre-ordered through Volla's website on March 4, and I still haven't heard a word. Nothing has been shipped.
Also my order was was for the Volla OS, since ordering with Ubuntu means no multiboot feature.
Why did you order through Indiegogo when it was available through the official webshop? And why apparently are Indiegogo orders prioritized?
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@Bocephus I'm pretty sure I went through indiegogo becase 1) that's what i did last time i bought a volla. On indegogo you are not preordering you are kind of providing seed funds and treated as investing in the young company. You supply the money up front. If all goes well you are rewarded once production starts by being first in the queue to get a 'free' phone 'perk' (worth the same as your original donation) to thank you for donating money month before. So I'm kind of an investor rather than a customer 2) there was a world perk about 50EUR cheaper than the European perk, and a 17% discount.
I assume I was taking more financial risk than pre-ordering (e.g. losing all my money if production never started) but I have to confess I didn't read all the small print! There was some information on refunds which satisfied me at the time.
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@treebeard What a weird response. When pre-order is available - which it was from Volla mid-february, obviously funds have already long ago been secured and production started. Availability was already at that point said to be late May. If you pre-order a month and a half later, you are not "investing" in a possible future product, you're simply pre-ordering from another site. And when I pre-ordered from Volla, I also "supplied the money up front" (with the same €50 rebate, by the way). They have my money since March 4, so why you have the phone before me because you selected another website with a stupid name is a mystery.
I don't need a lesson on how Indiegogo works, by the way. I ordered the Fxtec Pro1 X years ago, and I'm still not any closer to getting that one either.
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@Bocephus I think you should contact H W S about your query. You are entitled to understand.
