Best Powerful Android phone with keyboard?

Y

Yul

New member
Hi,

I'm a huge keyboard user and I'm also the kind of guy who could use a very powerful phone. Unfortunately I couldn't seem to find any phone that fit those two, apart from the milestone.

Is there any phone that is released or will be released that I should take a look at? I'm talking something similar to nexus one specs, but with a nice keyboard. This means having a high resolution screen, snapdragon (or similar) processor, around 500MB of RAM, and good graphics performance, as well as the latest Android (2.1 or 2.2) ..

I can't seem to find anything that would fit those specs. Perhaps I missed something?
 
Ok, I'd delete this thread because I found the phone I've been looking for

http://www.engadget.com/2010/05/21/htc-vision-finally-bringing-high-end-qwerty-to-android/

Can't freaking wait
 
The Motorola Droid X should be out in the near future as well:

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/11/motorola-droid-xtreme-stars-in-its-clearest-off-the-cuff-preview/
 
Yeah, but I do see "Ninja Blur"... The only UI add-on I even remotely like from manufacturers is Sense. I'd still rather have the standard Android UI though.

TouchWizz on Samsung phones - OMG how bad is that? Moto Blur and Ninja Blur? Yuck! Why ruin the standard Android UI and make the phones slow to be or never updated?
 
Big fat bump. I'm still using my G1 (with CM2.2). It's practically on life support as I try to use swap to get even the most mundane apps to work.

So the T-Mobile G2/HTC Desire Z/HTC Vision/etc. came out. Earlier in this thread I got excited when it was first announced, but after it was revealed I was slightly disappointed at its smaller-than-normal keyboard, the front touch-sensitive buttons, and the flimsiness of the swiping motion to open the keyboard. Also, I'm concerned over its difficulty to be rooted. Additionally, is the 800MHz CPU slower than the Desire's 1GHz CPU? (yes, I realize that I shouldn't compare CPUs based on clock speeds, but they're both called "Snapdragon" so I think it's a fair comparison). Maybe I'm asking for too much, but it is however a great-looking phone. I just would like more choice.

Has any former G1 owner here got it recently? Are you missing anything from the G1, no matter how small it is?

Any other powerful high-end GSM keyboarded phones to get excited about? I made a search on GSM arena to find the high end keyboarded phones.
http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sName=&idMaker=0&idAvailability=0&YearAnnounced=0&nPriceLow=0&nPriceHigh=0&idCurrency=0&idFormFactor=0&idDualSIM=0&idQwerty=1&HeightMax=0&WidthMax=0&ThicknessMax=0&WeightMax=0&idOS=11&idDisplay=0&idDisplayRes=0&fDisplaySize=0&idDisplayTech=0&idTouchscreen=0&idAccelerometer=0&id35mm=0&idCamera=0&idCameraFlash=0&idVideoRecorder=0&idSecondaryCamera=0&idExpansionCard=0&idGPS=0&bWLAN=0&bEDGE=0&bGPRS=0&idBluetooth=0&bIR=0&bEmail=0&bWAP=0&bJava=0&idRadio=0&bMMS=0&idRingtones=0&sColor=&StandBy=0&TalkTime=0&sFreeText=

From the results, I see:
- Milestone 2: judging from Motorola's previous track record, this is probably very hacker unfriendly.
- Motorola MOTO MT716 .. same specs as the above phone? I can't spot a difference
- Dell Flash: Sweet specs, kinda looks ugly but I dont care about looks or thickness. I'm not sure if this really has a keyboard. All the shots of this phone I've seen so far makes the phone seem really thin making a keyboard unlikely.
- Samsung Galaxy Q: Not really announced.. only Rumored.. but if the specs are true then this could be a sweet phone. I personally am very impressed by the Galaxy S (mainly due to its CPU/GPU and specs) minus its touch sensitive buttons and its iphone-ish style... I just wish it had a keyboard. This could be the phone I'm looking for.

Maybe I'm asking for too much? Perhaps I've been attached too much to my G1?

Either way, if you compare this search of 800x480 (a general requirement for high-end, pretty much) android phones without a keyboard
http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sName=&idMaker=0&idAvailability=0&YearAnnounced=0&nPriceLow=0&nPriceHigh=0&idCurrency=0&idFormFactor=0&idDualSIM=0&idQwerty=2&HeightMax=0&WidthMax=0&ThicknessMax=0&WeightMax=0&idOS=11&idDisplay=0&idDisplayRes=9&fDisplaySize=0&idDisplayTech=0&idTouchscreen=0&idAccelerometer=0&id35mm=0&idCamera=0&idCameraFlash=0&idVideoRecorder=0&idSecondaryCamera=0&idExpansionCard=0&idGPS=0&bWLAN=0&bEDGE=0&bGPRS=0&idBluetooth=0&bIR=0&bEmail=0&bWAP=0&bJava=0&idRadio=0&bMMS=0&idRingtones=0&sColor=&StandBy=0&TalkTime=0&sFreeText=

with this one (which is the same thing, except for a requirement for a keyboard)
http://www.gsmarena.com/results.php3?sName=&idMaker=0&idAvailability=0&YearAnnounced=0&nPriceLow=0&nPriceHigh=0&idCurrency=0&idFormFactor=0&idDualSIM=0&idQwerty=1&HeightMax=0&WidthMax=0&ThicknessMax=0&WeightMax=0&idOS=11&idDisplay=0&idDisplayRes=9&fDisplaySize=0&idDisplayTech=0&idTouchscreen=0&idAccelerometer=0&id35mm=0&idCamera=0&idCameraFlash=0&idVideoRecorder=0&idSecondaryCamera=0&idExpansionCard=0&idGPS=0&bWLAN=0&bEDGE=0&bGPRS=0&idBluetooth=0&bIR=0&bEmail=0&bWAP=0&bJava=0&idRadio=0&bMMS=0&idRingtones=0&sColor=&StandBy=0&TalkTime=0&sFreeText=


you'd see that the current selection of high-end android phones with a keyboard is rather pathetic. 30 touch-only high end android phones compared to 5 or 6 keyboarded phones? I wonder why Android phone manufacturers refuse to cater to this market segment who are interested in high end android phones with keyboards... is it really that insignificant of a market?
 
I assume it's because the touch screen keyboards are being done so well right now. Screens are so big and roomy, plus with word prediction, and swipe technology, it's kinda made the hardware keyboard obsolete. I rarely used the keyboard on my droid. All it did was add extra bulk. I much prefer the onscreen, multi touch keyboard of the Droid X. I just got into swipe. After the learning curve, I'm really enjoying it. You can't out type it with any hardware keyboard that I've seen.

The Epic 4g is a really nice device with a keyboard. That or the G2 are the only real considerations if you ask me. Or forget the keyboard.
 
Seconded. I thought I'd REALLY miss the keyboard on my G1, as I used it all the time and the virtual keyboard on the G1 is crap. But in fact I haven't missed it at all. I'd even go as far as to say I prefer Swype to a physical keyboard.
 
so swype is THAT good eh? It even converts keyboard users to touchscreen-only phones. thats pretty impressive. I personally tried swype and thought it was pretty good for a virtual keyboard, but no replacement to a real keyboard, especially when trying to type in stuff that are not in the dictionary (and i tend to do that a lot)

Personally though, even with swype or whatever, I notice that these virtual keyboards tend to focus too much on prediction. If i wanted to control my linux box from my phone for example using ssh, then a virtual keyboard really wouldnt help (just an example).

but meh, maybe i should be more open to touch-only phones.

The epic 4G looks great, but it's CDMA i come from a GSM-only country.
 
If you type in anything that's not in the dictionary and hit space, then that word is automatically added to the dictionary, so you only hit this problem once for each alternatively spelt words. You can also hit individual keys to type out any word you like just like on a physical keyboard, so in this sense it's just as fast AND it's added to the dictionary so you can type it faster Swype style later.

I use VNC on my Samsung Galaxy S (with Swype) to remote desktop to my main PC and Linux box. I have no problem entering commands into the console. You don't HAVE to Swype your finger at all, you can just type like on a normal keyboard. You can turn the prediction level up or down too.
 
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