Help - thinking of getting this phone

[dts317]

I'm thinking of getting this phone. I'd be upgrading from a Samsung Rogue so it's a significant upgrade.

I'm not in a 4G market, and likely won't be in the near future (save for the odd travel here and there). Personally, I like the slide out keys, but none of the new phones have that. I'm a moderately heavy texter. Only use a few hundred minutes a month on actual calls. Data wise, I probably would use it everyday, multiple uses.

I need your advice. Looks like with a renewed contract at VZW the cost is $209.99. I'm reticent to drop $200+ if I won't like this phone. Is this a good phone for me?

Thanks for your help!!!

 

[dajogejr]

IMO...no.
If I had to text and send a TON of emails...I still prefer a physical keyboard.
I am growing used to the virtual keyboard, it's pretty good actually.
I still misspell more words with it than I ever did with my Blackberry.

If you were in 4G....that would change my answer.

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

I'm thinking of getting this phone. I'd be upgrading from a Samsung Rogue so it's a significant upgrade.

I'm not in a 4G market, and likely won't be in the near future (save for the odd travel here and there). Personally, I like the slide out keys, but none of the new phones have that. I'm a moderately heavy texter. Only use a few hundred minutes a month on actual calls. Data wise, I probably would use it everyday, multiple uses.

I need your advice. Looks like with a renewed contract at VZW the cost is $209.99. I'm reticent to drop $200+ if I won't like this phone. Is this a good phone for me?

Thanks for your help!!!

It really depends on how reliant you think you are on the keyboard. My wife used to think she was extremely reliant on the keyboard and thought she couldn't get used to a pure touchscreen phone because she had the enV2 and then the Samsung Reality (the refresh of the Rogue), but she never had a hard touchscreen so we got her a Droid 1 (since it still has the keyboard) off of Craigslist and she said that she's using the keyboard less and less and she's tried out the iPhone and my phone and she said that she could get used to those.

However then there is my friend who said he would never get a phone without a keyboard from now on (he has a Droid 1). So it really depends on how reliant you think you are on the keyboard. Like I said my wife thought she was, but is contemplating the next iPhone and my friend who is usually a tech junkie like me is contemplating going from a Droid 1 to a R2D2 simply because he can't get over not having a keyboard.

I would say go to a store and try it out first at the very least and if you don't believe you can get over not having a keyboard, wait for the Merge (or whatever the name of the Verizon HTC with the keyboard is).

 

[zshazz]

The Droid 3 is supposed to come out this year... it'll have a slide out keyboard. There's also the HTC Merge which might come out sometime, maybe.

I use Google's Voice-to-text any time I'm not going to be disturbing anyone. I find it to be extremely accurate and much faster than inputting by hand... so, if that sounds like something that often will work for you, then this phone is for you.

I ended up using the on-screen keyboard on my Droid about the same amount as I used the hardware keyboard, which prompted me to give a keyboardless phone a try... it's worked really well and I really don't miss the hardware keyboard at all anymore.

 

[dajogejr]

z, fine point indeed.
After I typed my response, I just remembered the voice to text.
It gets a little tricky, like saying period at the end of a sentence.
I still don't know how to capitalize the first letter of a sentence, etc.

But it is MUCH faster as long as you're not gonna bother someone as said.

I use it more when driving (on the car dock) and need to search or navigate somewhere.

 

[dts317]

Thanks for all of the info. The big issue is, I need to upgrade now as my old phone is dead. Waiting for a Droid 3 etc seems optimal, but I don't want to be without a phone until then (whenever that may be - "mid 2011").

I'm willing to try the virtual keys I guess. Lots of people get used to it, so I probably will too. I'm heading into the store to give one a try.

 

[Treknologist]

Before I moved to Android (which I did with the TBolt), I had a Windows Mobile phone with a physical keyboard (an HTC Touch Pro). To be honest, I hardly ever used the physical keyboard as I got used (and very adept) at using the virtual keyboard. One thing that you need to do when you get a phone like the TBolt is calibrate the keyboard as that will increase the accuracy. The TBolt is a great device and since 4G isn't costing more than 3G right now, you may be fine getting it and just turning off the 4G antenna with a widget.

 

[dts317]

IMO...no.
If I had to text and send a TON of emails...I still prefer a physical keyboard.
I am growing used to the virtual keyboard, it's pretty good actually.
I still misspell more words with it than I ever did with my Blackberry.

If you were in 4G....that would change my answer.

What are good physical keyboard alternatives?

 

[VideoEngineerAJS]

What are good physical keyboard alternatives?

That's really the problem right now. If you can't wait until the Droid 3 or the Merge come out, there really aren't many alternatives. The Droid 2 Global is really the only one currently out.

 

[dajogejr]

As of now...no LTE keyboard devices.
I still prefer a blackberry physical keyboard to the OG droid or 2 keyboard.
They just make better sense....

Play with a virtual keyboard. You'll spend more time getting used to the habits, training, etc of your keyboard than the actual typing on it.

 

[GoldLeader]

When you try out the keyboard, make sure to try it in landscape (held sideways) mode.
That drastically improved my accuracy with the on-screen keyboard.
I really enjoy using the Bolt keyboard (using it right now.)
Glad I don't need to slide a keyboard out, and only need to tap the screen.

Lovin my Bolt.

 

[trjnberry]

That's really the problem right now. If you can't wait until the Droid 3 or the Merge come out, there really aren't many alternatives. The Droid 2 Global is really the only one currently out.

No Droid Pro love, eh? That keyboard is most like a Blackberry. A little too cramped for my tastes, but I briefly considered it when I was shopping for a Droid to replace my Blackberry Tour. I fell in love with the HTC weather/clock widget, liked the big screen of the Droid X, so I got a Thunderbolt. I don't miss the physical keyboard much. I keep the haptic vibration on, so the keyboard feels like a real keyboard. Helps alot with accuracy. Also love voice to text, but as a former BB user, I still like to type.

OP, I played around with a bunch of Droid models as they came out, while waiting for my NE2 to kick in. I quickly found the hard keyboards to be in the way. None of them are as good as a Blackberry keyboard. To each his own, but I think with predictive text, voice to text, and the vibrating feedback, you may find the touchscreen keyboard on the TB to meet your needs.