From the very first moment I touched Flame I was impressed with FirefoxOS v2.0 and I decided to give it try. My regular phone is a LG Nexus 4 with Cyanogenmod Android v4.3.1 and I was able to switch right away from it to Flame without getting a second-class user experience.
I used it for two weeks as my regular and only phone, making calls, location lookups, basic Tweeter use, music playing, phone and video taking and of course web surfing. For reference I only lasted a couple of hours on Geeksphone Keon with FirefoxOS v1.x
Here are my impressions so far using Flame with FirefoxOS Nightly User Build updating regularly to the latest build:
Hardware
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Device: Feels great in your hands. You can hold it firmly and operate it with one hand.
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Screen: I like the size of the screen, the colors and the brightness. IPS screen would have been even better but that’s no a big issue given the overall quality of the screen.
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Volume buttons are located on the right side of the device and I find them difficult to use during a call. I strongly prefer the left sided version of Nexus 4.
Responsiveness
The phone is very responsive in every day use.
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App switching is fast.
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Phone doesn’t feel to get slower as you open more apps.
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I would pay special attention to the critical Phone app, which can be a bit laggy especially when switching between Call log, Key pad and Contacts list.
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Some times it’s slow to return from suspend mode. You press the power button and the screen remains black for enough moments for you to believe the it has crashed (maybe it actually does and restarts?).
Hardware compatibility
I’m a heavy Bluetooth user. I use it for both calls and music and in all cases FxOS worked just fine.
I connected the flame to:
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Normal headphones, worked fine
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Bluetooth Sena SHM-10, worked fine for both calls and music.
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Bluetooth Beikin D7 worked fine
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OEM car bluetooth, worked fine
Contacts
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I was able to export my contacts from Android and import them into FxOS using vcards.
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I keep my contact list in ownCloud, therefore I’m waiting for CardDav support to land to keep FxOS and ownCloud in sync. [1]
Apps Used
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Email: I have two accounts, and it works nicely. Can be polished more but overall does the job.
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Phone: Works fine. I should be more snappy given the importance and the use of the app.
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Messages: Works fine. Tried both SMS and MMS
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Contacts: Works fine and lately is more responsive. The index on the left includes only latin characters and therefore is unusable for my mostly-greek contact list.
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Browser: Renders fine but it can use some polishing. Latest builds are working towards this direction with promising results.
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Clock: Used it for alarms. The default sound used to be terrifying but that’s now fixed
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Twitter: Works OK but far from perfect. Sometimes doesn’t update the stream.
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Here Maps: Great app! I think it should be used as reference for other apps. The only thing missing is turn-by-turn navigation.
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Dial.Radio: Neat little radio streaming app. Works nicely, interesting UI.
Other
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I used the password protected lock-screen. Works like a charm and allows camera use without unlocking the phone, yay!
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Connected to and used “Find my device” service.
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I tried several times to use the “adaptive phone” interface by using the search bar but I wasn’t impressed by the results or I’m too used to searching in the browser.
Problems faced and Wishlist
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It’s too easy to take screenshots.
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Turn by turn navigation is missing.
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Not all supported keyboards are included in test builds, making it hard to test input with other languages like Greek.
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Automatically screen brightness is not stable.
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Automatic time setting is not always working.
Overall I have to say that Flame but most importantly FirefoxOS 2.x is amazing and gives the impression of a proper smartphone even to users of the latest Androids on high end devices. Big thank you and congrats to all involved! I can’t wait for more!
