Waiting for a physical keyboard?

[asherN]

The upcoming BlackBerry Priv will be interesting. A slider at 5", 16:9 slab with a physical keyboard.

 

[guygardner73]

I think that physical keyboard it is a relic of the past.

The benefits are numerous and they have no bad points, particularly in the case of a slider. The pkb does not take up any screen real estate. Writing a really long email or letter on anything other than a physical keyboard or at the very least the awesome BlackBerry Virtual keyboard is just a pain. Ios and the various Android offerings are sub par for lengthy interlocution. The Priv will have a capacitive physical keyboard and the BlackBerry Virtual keyboard. Personally, as someone who uses his phone mainly for email and document manipulation, this thing is awesome. Not to mention the legendary BlackBerry security and privacy. It works for me. Others may have a different opinion but sadly, not many others have tried the capacitive keyboard of the Passport or the virtual keyboard of a Z30.

 

[Geodude074]

The upcoming BlackBerry Priv will be interesting. A slider at 5", 16:9 slab with a physical keyboard.

While I commend BlackBerry for making an Android phone with a QWERTY keyboard, there are several things I don't like about it:

1) The keyboard slides out from the bottom, not the side. This means the keyboard is small, cramped, and hard to text on.
2) No dedicated 5th row for numbers.
3) No staggered keys layout, which is the standard for keyboards.
4) No backlit keys.
5) Missing many keys, such as arrows, Tab, Caps Lock, etc.

If BlackBerry were to release an Android QWERTY which resolved all of these shortcomings, then I'd be impressed.

If you think I'm being unrealistic with my complaints, below is the Motorola Photon Q's keyboard in comparison to the BlackBerry Priv's keyboard.

 

[guygardner73]

The keyboard is backlit. A swipe down or two on the physical keyboard reveals numbers. Tap the physical keyboard twice to bring up cursor control and then use the trackpad functionality of the capacitive physical keyboard to place it where you want and caps lock is just a long press of the shift key. Staggered keys mean nothing. Been using BlackBerry for years and it's all muscle memory. I transitioned from the staggered key layout without even noticing it really. Also, if you want to delete a whole word, just swipe backwards on the physical keyboard (or the VKB if you happen to be using it closed) for text selection just double tap the physical keyboard and hold shift and use your finger on the screen to highlight text or use the physical keyboard as a mouse to highlight text for copy paste etc.

 

[guygardner73]

I have expiriense with physical keyboard for android. I think it's usefull for tablets, but not for mobile phone, because the phone should be mobile. )

You are so right! I just realised I can't carry my Priv! It's not mobile at all lol. And all those old BlackBerrys that people couldn't move simply because they had a pkb. Rofl!

 

[bitek]

Hi folks,

I have a Motorola DROID 4 with a full physical QWERTY keyboard. Since the D4 came out, only two keyboard smartphones have been released to Verizon, and both were entry-level.

I am losing patience for my D4; it's slowed down a lot, and the USB port doesn't work so I have to use inductive chargers.

At what point should I give up waiting for a keyboard phone (at least a midrange and preferably top of the line specs) and move to a standard phone like the Galaxy or HTC One? I was thinking my last best hope is the fall/Christmas season, if my phone lasts that long.

What do you think?

I think you should take blackberry priv for test drive. If you phone with physical keyboard priv is THE phone to try it out