Livermorium to make a slider phone after failing at a Moto Mod

Some dreams live, some dreams die. And some dreams get killed off when supposed investors and supporter pull the rug from under them. That's how many third-party Moto Mods died even before they could see the light of day. So what's a small startup like Livermorium to do after being unable to deliver the much-awaited QWERTY slider Moto Mod? Why, make their own slider phone, of course! Good thing, then, that sliders are making a comeback.

This probably shouldn't be news for you if you've been following the Moto Mods story since last year. Livermorium did promise to make their own phone with a built-in slider rather than an accessory. But they also said they'd deliver in late 2018, which has now come and again.

Believe it or not, however, the dream isn't dead yet. Now Livermorium is called "F(x) Technology" and has just shared some details of their upcoming slider phone in a series of emails. As far as hardware goes, much of the pieces are still unknown but the startup reveals that they will be using a 6-inch notch-less but bezel-less screen.

As for the slider part, they will employ a mechanism that will put the display at an angle when opened. The keys will be laid out to be optimized for thumb typing, with the letters more or less clustered in the middle and Ctrl keys on both sides. The keys will also be backlit so night-time typing shouldn't be a concern.

F(x) Technology seems to be taking a similar approach as Planet Computing with its Gemini PDA and is aiming for compatibility with both Android and Jolla's Sailfish OS. Lineage OS, the successor of the popular CyanogenMod ROM, is being targeted as the incarnation of vanilla Android to be used on the device. Availability has now been pushed to Q1 2019, which gives them a little over two months to wrap things up in a nice package.