Waiting for a physical keyboard?

[A895]

I'll still say that is a downgrade... Besides the processor the Droid 4 is a better phone imo

Sent from my SM-N900T using Tapatalk

Not really. That's your personal preference.

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[Tsepz_GP]

Hi,

I disagree with this being "chicken or egg" issue. The people buy what it's advertised. Prove: Nobody bought a smartphone before after apple invented one, and that wasn't an impediment for design a smartphone or selling it afterwards.

I have 2 qwerty phones; the HTC TyTNII and the Xperia mini pro 2. Now I have a Samsung S3 from six months and writing on a screen is the worst thing I ever did on a phone. I often come with an irresistible temptation to smash it against the wall. I've tried several keyboards and autocorrector configurations (and no autocorrector) and it's the same. With the qwerty keyboard I was able to write without even looking at the phone; now I have to look, write slower and even looking and slower I make many mistakes. It's so bad that I get here finding info on phones to replace the s3 and I'm think I'm buying a photon q or an enact to replace my s2 thought they're older phones.

I believe the end of qwerty is due to profit. The people will buy what's advertised and on price. And the manufacturers rather to sell the phones with more profit margin. Any qwerty keyboard will add cost to the end user or reduce the profit margin to the manufacturer. And both things will reduce profit.

I see no impediment for making and 4' HD screen with a qwerty sliding keyboard below. Or this things couldn't exist: Add a QWERTY keyboard to your Galaxy S3 | Mobile Fun Blog

Regards,

The Nokia Nseries sold in bucketloads, those were smartphones, people just didn't know.

As for QWERTY, there were a ton of QWERTY smartphones + dumbphones between 2008-2010, people chose with their wallets.

If you want a "highend" QWERTY smartphone now then BB is the best bet, with the Q10 and upcoming Q20/30, don't expect Android type specs though.

 

[leitor79]

Hi,

Ok; whatever the first smartphone was, we're all buying things that once didn't existed. Like everything.

If people always choose with their wallets, the "mini" versions of the smartphones would be more popular than the original ones...

Thank you for your recommendation, I will see to it.

 

[Closingracer]

Not really. That's your personal preference.

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Besides the better CPU/GPU the droid has better Screen , Better camera and oddly enough more Talk time with the battery

 

[A895]

Besides the better CPU/GPU the droid has better Screen , Better camera and oddly enough more Talk time with the battery

The screen is the same qHD resolution, and I'll give you the camera. Battery life is a toss up because I know people who hate the Droid 4s battery life.

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[Closingracer]

The screen is the same qHD resolution, and I'll give you the camera. Battery life is a toss up because I know people who hate the Droid 4s battery life.

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LG: Resolution: 480 X 800 233 Pixels per inch and Droid: Resolution: 540 X 960 with 275 Pixels per inch

 

[Tsepz_GP]

Hi,

Ok; whatever the first smartphone was, we're all buying things that once didn't existed. Like everything.

If people always choose with their wallets, the "mini" versions of the smartphones would be more popular than the original ones...

Thank you for your recommendation, I will see to it.

People choosing with their wallets means to make a purchase decision by putting money on what they want! it's not about how deep their pockets are.


When customers buy a Galaxy S, Galaxy Note, or iPhone over others in large numbers they are making their voice heard with their wallets.

In a time when there were plenty physical keyboard devices and touch only (2008-2010) consumers made the decision in large numbers with their wallets by buying the thinnest touch only devices with the largest displays, that sent a message to manufacturers that consumers aren't that concerned about a physical keyboard if the phone has a good touch one, and thus began even BBs downfall, they continued to make small screened, physical keyboard phones and look at them now, the industry and market really do speak for themselves to be quite honest.

 

[hg1027]

Would you consider using a Bluetooth or USB keyboard for times you need to write longer messages? I agree that the on screen keyboard on a phone will never be my first choice for writing a long detailed email, but a full size physical keyboard would do a lot to make that easier. There are some very small Bluetooth keyboards available.

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[leitor79]

Hi Tsepz, thanks for your answer!

Don't you find odd that most popular phones ara also the most advertised ones? According to a Sprint Manager, the qwerty phones did very well and they have 40% of their market with qwerty phones and people liked them, accordint to polls: I come not to praise QWERTY, but to bury it | The Verge

He also explains that, when one of the latest qwerty phones was launched (droid 4) is was already outspecced by other phones. Would you think the moto x, htc one or some samsung sx would be outspecced at the moment of their launch?

Also; there are only 12 dual core qwerty-slide phones running android (phonearena search results). And how many dual core smarthphones on android? 400. I don't know if people really have chosen or the market saturation has chosen by us.

I believe the blackberry downfall has more to do with the isolation of their ecosystem than for a keyboard. Blackberry has devices without physical keyboards and big screens too (torch, z30, z10)

And, a comment, I think "a good touch keyboard" is an oxymoron itself.


Regards,

 

[leitor79]

Hi HG,

Thanks for your answer.

I've already bought a bluetooth keyboard, I'm waiting for it to be delivered. Too bad I will have to spend battery on this. I'm using wifi keyboard while I'm at home.

Regards!

 

[LeoRex]

Face the fact that physical keyboards are dead/dying... not because the phones that had them weren't advertised enough... they are going the way of the Dodo because not enough people want them anymore.

Soft keyboards have made drastic improvements in speed and usability. Text prediction and auto-correction has improved greatly. I'd chance a guess that most of the people who do not like typing on an on-screen keyboard probably a) use a stock keyboard and b) still 'hunt and peck' like it is an old school physical keyboard. Adapt.... I am quite a good touch typist on a full keyboard, but I used to slog along on the last physical keyboard I used. Even when I went software, it was still a little bit of a struggle. Then I switched things up and loaded Swype. Once I got used to gesture typing (which wasn't all that hard), my typing speed increased by orders of magnitude.

It just took me to stop trying to use the keyboard like it was some old crappy physical keyboard and evolved my usage.

 

[z33dev33l]

Prior to becoming a Nokia fan, this was the best phone I ever owned... Loved this thing.

 

[leitor79]

I use swype too when I'm not at home and I can't use wifi keyboard. I've improved my typing speed (regarding the soft keyboard, not the physical one), but it's not even close to the speed I had on the physical keyboard. With a physical keyboard I can write without even looking at the phone (improve that, swype); I've abandoned the gesture typing after the 100th time I've "lost" many words I've "swyped" because the dictionary didn't recognized one of them and refused to continue in a middle of a sentence without warning and I didn't noticed it because I have to look at the keyboard instead of the screen.

I don't remember a good-advertised android phone with a physical keyboard and, if you do, I could probably think of 10 or 20 without keyboard for each one of those.

Regards,

PS: text prediction and word correction can also be done using a physical keyboard (though I never needed to use those features)

 

[LeoRex]

With a physical keyboard I can write without even looking at the phone (improve that, swype)

With Swype, I can type quickly, accurately, all with a single thumb.... including while not looking at the screen by the way.

See... our experiences are quite different.... Physical keyboards blow... I can't type on the blasted things and they are slow, clunky and a horrendous waste of physical space; they either add bulk or decimate the size of the screen and I am glad that I will hopefully never have to suffer through using another one of the bloody things every again.

 

[z33dev33l]

OP, look into the NEC Terrain.

 

[leitor79]

Well, I can't imagine how could I type without looking if my fingers doesn't have anything to touch but a plain screen. Moreover, I can't write an entire phrase without making mistakes, like hitting the "." or the letter "n" instead of the spacebar, or the "c" for the "v", among the common mistakes. And it's not because I'm adapting because I have this phone for 6 months now (or it has a reeeally slow learning curve).

A physical keyboard doesn't always add to many more physical space. See, for example, my s3 has 0.34 inches tickness, vs the 0.4 inches the htc mytouch 4g (the one I bought and arrived broken -nothing to do with the keyboard-). And it is a 2010 phone! I believe the companies could make a slimmer phone with a physical keyboard if they want to.

I recognize there are very bad physical keyboards that discourage people to use them, but at least the ones I had (xperia mini pro, htc tytn ii) were very pleasant to use.

Regards,

 

[sting7k]

People choosing with their wallets means to make a purchase decision by putting money on what they want! it's not about how deep their pockets are.


When customers buy a Galaxy S, Galaxy Note, or iPhone over others in large numbers they are making their voice heard with their wallets.

In a time when there were plenty physical keyboard devices and touch only (2008-2010) consumers made the decision in large numbers with their wallets by buying the thinnest touch only devices with the largest displays, that sent a message to manufacturers that consumers aren't that concerned about a physical keyboard if the phone has a good touch one, and thus began even BBs downfall, they continued to make small screened, physical keyboard phones and look at them now, the industry and market really do speak for themselves to be quite honest.

Thank you for doing a much better job at articulating what actually happened to physical keyboards on mobile devices than I did earlier in this thread.

 

[FM1977]

as a BB fan i had to comment, i have a few friends who use the high end querty BB Q10 which they can't live without, it also runs most android apps, and i think you'll be surprised just how smooth and fluid the BB10 OS is compared to any android variant.

 

[A895]

as a BB fan i had to comment, i have a few friends who use the high end querty BB Q10 which they can't live without, it also runs most android apps, and i think you'll be surprised just how smooth and fluid the BB10 OS is compared to any android variant.

No. But thanks for the plug. BlackBerry 10 while good lacks Google Services and not all Android apps work. That's a fact. Things may get better with 10.3, but as of right now, no one knows when it goes OTA.

And from BlackBerry themselves, the BB Q10 goes EOL next year spring.

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[z33dev33l]

Review: NEC Terrain for AT&T (Phone Scoop)