Future 4g Phones with Keyboards?

[mkjellgren]

Since I like to game on my phone, and actually type emails and forum posts longer than a few paragraphs, I need a physical keyboard. I'm not the kind of internet user that's satisfied with responding to posts with "LOL!" and sending text messages like "wreU@d00d?".

When it comes to productivity, physical keyboards are a must. Answering exchange emails, texting important people in my life~ I don't find sites like "Damn you Autocorrect" cute or funny, they're the result of people thinking they know what they want when they just take what they get.

I have no problem typing long emails or forum posts quickly and accurately with proper grammar and punctuation on a virtual keyboard. It just takes some practice. I will admit though, the larger screen on the thunderbolt vs my old d1 helps out quite a bit. Basically my point is that its absolutely possible to type fast and accurate on a virtual keyboard without using acronyms and text/internet lingo. It just takes time to get over the learning curve. For me, typing on my thunderbolt in portrait is far more comfortable that the physical keyboard was on my d1. I loved the keyboards on my blackberries back in the day, but since switching to android, I haven't found one physical keyboard I like. The droid pro is close, but the keys are not offset and it feels too short and cramped. Mostly its just because I hate typing in landscape (feels like I have to stretch my thumbs too much and the keys are too far apart). With that said, I would never buy an android phone with a portrait qwerty keyboard as I could not deal with sacrificing screen real estate and I'm not a fan or portrait sliders, so for me, virtual keyboard it is. It's just like anything else, practice makes perfect.

By the way, this was typed on my tbolt very quickly with no issues what-so-ever...

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

 

[boristhebladexx]

me and my brother both use droid 1's. we got the D1 over the eris simply because the D1 had a keyboard. now with our contracts up... we're going keyboard-less with the bionic, which is hope doesn't have a huge learning curve. the sprint epic 4G is practically my dream phone, with a 4in screen AND a keyboard! but alas it doesn't look like we'll be getting anything like that on verizon

 

[dbronstein]

With that said, I would never buy an android phone with a portrait qwerty keyboard as I could not deal with sacrificing screen real estate

That's another reason I don't like virtual keyboards - they cover up half the screen. For texting it doesn't make a difference, but for a lot of things it does.

To each their own. Nobody is saying every phone should have a physical keyboard, it would just be nice for those of us who like them to have that option.

 

[jaycemiskel]

me and my brother both use droid 1's. we got the D1 over the eris simply because the D1 had a keyboard. now with our contracts up... we're going keyboard-less with the bionic, which is hope doesn't have a huge learning curve. the sprint epic 4G is practically my dream phone, with a 4in screen AND a keyboard! but alas it doesn't look like we'll be getting anything like that on verizon

The D3 should be like that. It just won't be 4G though.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[UNC]

The Droid 3 will definitely be 4g. Mark this down.
There is noway verizon will sell their flagship Android phone without LTE....


Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

 

[jaycemiskel]

I'll mark it down, but I find it funny that every rumor has it pegged as 3g. I'm not so sure that Verizon considers it their flagship any longer.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[UNC]

I'll mark it down, but I find it funny that every rumor has it pegged as 3g. I'm not so sure that Verizon considers it their flagship any longer.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

I'm pretty sure it is their flagship android phone... the line is called "droid". Its not the Droid X Incredible or the Droid Incredible X!

Sent from my Droid using DroidForums

 

[xan]

I used to swear up and down that id only get phones with slider KB's. but once i finally got a 4.3 inch screen and learned to swype, im not missing the KB one bit.

 

[race123]

I am using thunderbolt and i am also facing battery problem and i am facing
problem in connecting wifi keyboard...

 

[kimileern]

Since I like to game on my phone, and actually type emails and forum posts longer than a few paragraphs, I need a physical keyboard. I'm not the kind of internet user that's satisfied with responding to posts with "LOL!" and sending text messages like "wreU@d00d?".

When it comes to productivity, physical keyboards are a must. Answering exchange emails, texting important people in my life~ I don't find sites like "Damn you Autocorrect" cute or funny, they're the result of people thinking they know what they want when they just take what they get.

I have no problem typing long emails or forum posts quickly and accurately with proper grammar and punctuation on a virtual keyboard. It just takes some practice. I will admit though, the larger screen on the thunderbolt vs my old d1 helps out quite a bit. Basically my point is that its absolutely possible to type fast and accurate on a virtual keyboard without using acronyms and text/internet lingo. It just takes time to get over the learning curve. For me, typing on my thunderbolt in portrait is far more comfortable that the physical keyboard was on my d1. I loved the keyboards on my blackberries back in the day, but since switching to android, I haven't found one physical keyboard I like. The droid pro is close, but the keys are not offset and it feels too short and cramped. Mostly its just because I hate typing in landscape (feels like I have to stretch my thumbs too much and the keys are too far apart). With that said, I would never buy an android phone with a portrait qwerty keyboard as I could not deal with sacrificing screen real estate and I'm not a fan or portrait sliders, so for me, virtual keyboard it is. It's just like anything else, practice makes perfect.

By the way, this was typed on my tbolt very quickly with no issues what-so-ever...

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

I have a problem with any device needing a "learning curve". I don't have the time, or desire to take a class to learn how to use a virtual keyboard. Why should I? We have these nifty physical keyboards that work so nice. Can't say they add weight or size. My Devour is MUCH more petite than that Droid X brick. The bottom line is this. Some of us demand a real keyboard. Verizon will either cater to us, or lose our business to someone who will.

 

[Hyposprayer]

You know, every time someone types "u" instead of "you," a puppy dies. Do you want to kill puppies?

Wait. I think I may have just killed one.

Either way, I feel that a phone isn't complete with at least SOME physical buttons. Personally, I think there's too much focus on improving the processor and the HD qualities of new phones. To me, the new phones like the Thunderbolt and the Droid X are huge, awkward, and kinda silly looking. Really people, you don't have to have a gargantuan screen to see anything unless your eyesight is going (my mother has an X). If anything, I think the aesthetics of phone design are going backwards since they're getting bigger.

Anyway, the Xperia Pro (the one that's part of the triad headed by the Xperia Play) has a slide-out QWERTY. Since the Play is going to Verizon my guess is that the Pro would be heading there too. No 4g as far as I know though.

On the same token, be patient. 4g phones were only just recently released into the wild.

 

[TC_Mits]

Mr. Greenjeans

I have no problem typing long emails or forum posts quickly and accurately with proper grammar and punctuation on a virtual keyboard. It just takes some practice. I will admit though, the larger screen on the thunderbolt vs my old d1 helps out quite a bit. Basically my point is that its absolutely possible to type fast and accurate on a virtual keyboard without using acronyms and text/internet lingo. It just takes time to get over the learning curve. For me, typing on my thunderbolt in portrait is far more comfortable that the physical keyboard was on my d1. I loved the keyboards on my blackberries back in the day, but since switching to android, I haven't found one physical keyboard I like. The droid pro is close, but the keys are not offset and it feels too short and cramped. Mostly its just because I hate typing in landscape (feels like I have to stretch my thumbs too much and the keys are too far apart). With that said, I would never buy an android phone with a portrait qwerty keyboard as I could not deal with sacrificing screen real estate and I'm not a fan or portrait sliders, so for me, virtual keyboard it is. It's just like anything else, practice makes perfect.

By the way, this was typed on my tbolt very quickly with no issues what-so-ever...

Sent from my ADR6400L using DroidForums

I put a Xoom in the back pocket of my jeans. Maybe that would have a virtual keyboard wide enough for accurate touch typoing... oops, that was a typo (really).

(feels like I have to stretch my thumbs too much and the keys are too far apart)

I loved my old LG V9800, the vzw Flagship "V" of that era. It was wide enough that I could almost touch type and often could use four fingers. I don't key with my thumbs on my phone. To paraphrase: four fingers are better than two thumbs. Typing with my thumbs feels awkward to me, kind of like I'm 'all thumbs', I guess.

I returned my TB mostly because of the dismal battery performance and the bloatware, but also because I was always backspacing. I was waiting for the D3 until it became clear that us keyboard folks are second class customers. UNC:

There is noway verizon will sell their flagship Android phone without LTE

I, too, believed this. "Say it ani't so..." But it is. So,
Now I'm reduced to looking for a used D2 and hoping for "next year" (like the Celtics) when -- maybe -- we'll get a real qwerty (no f-key for numbers) 4G LTE phone with a physical keyboard.

Why can Sprint and Samsung team up and do what Moto and vzw apparently cannot? (Or does vzw just have more and better forum shills to convince us we really want all touch screen phones...?) I agree with the Blade brothers:

the sprint epic 4G is practically my dream phone, with a 4in screen AND a keyboard!

But it's all about profit margin...(I certainly can't argue with that!) Still, the Sprint keyboard phones seem to be selling alright. And... Now Kyocera has the Echo with two displays -- one for the KB and one for everything else? Is a second screen really cheaper to produce than a keyboard? Or are we paying through the nose for our 'razr'-thin phones?

I am a great-grandfather (see post title). Too old to learn thumb-keying techniques. Really though, I think my touch-typing on a hard KB might just be faster than your thumbing around on a virtual one.

 

[Oowoon]

I've always liked physical keyboards over virtual ones, though that's just me. I always mispell stuff on touchscreen keyboards. Though maybe its because I don't use it enough.

Sent from my DROID2 using DroidForums

 

[howzball]

Can Motorola simply make the Og Droid bigger, with a faster processor and add LTE? This is all I want.

Why is new and improved rarely better than the original?

 

[jimmydene84]

The droid 3 will have almost all ur requests....minus the 4g, prolly what u really wanted though

Sent from my Droid