Phones with Physical Keyboards

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Colin62

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OK, here goes - I do not like typing on a touchscreen phone, I am much, much happier on a physical keyboard. Unfortunately it seems that all the decent hardware out there is all pure touchscreen, with the exception of a couple of Blackberries.

So, ignoring the Blackberries, does anyone have any advice on what to look at for a decent smart phone that has a physical keyboard (preferably qwerty).
 
Galaxy Chat far from decent
You could try swift key if you on Android
 
Nothing good available in SA. The Q10 is doing so well because it is the only quality option in most markets. There is just not a demand for physical keyboard phones in SA outside of the BlackBerry domain. The Q10 is the best you will get. I also prefer a physical keyboard.
 
See this search that mostly specifies 'droid/keyboard/bar (had to leave RAM/ROM alone as it killed the results!) for rather slim pickings. Going for a slider gives you rather more to look at. Having JUST done this search this week for my gf, she rather likes the look of the Samsung i927 Captivate Glide which, while US market only, can still be found on eBay ..caveat/YMMV/GFL! :)
 
Chevron said:
Op needs to try SwiftKey.
Click to expand...

No, you need to read the post. I didn't ask to be converted to the latest fancy swipe gadget with predictive whatever, I asked if anyone knew of a decent phone with a physical keyboard.

And yes, I've tried SwiftKey. Did you see on the ratings that there are over 4000 people who bought the paid version and still rated it as a 1 star? Well, not everyone is cut from the same cookie cutter that you were made from.

If you're happy with your touchscreen, then that's just wonderful. But you'll notice that I'm not trying to tell you to fit in with my preferences, and I don't appreciate you assuming that I'll fit in with yours.
 
After getting increasingly frustrated with trying to type with my thick fingers on my old LG Optimus One with its small screen, I also started going down this route. I borrowed an older Verizon Motorola Druid 2 from my BiL, and quite frankly, it was just too thick and clunky, not to mention 3G-unsuportive on CellC's 900 MhZ network. I came away with the idea that you can have at best two of the following three on a smartphone: large display, thin, physical keyboard. You can't have all three. I resolved the issue by getting a Nexus 4, which has sufficient display acreage to allow for a useable on-screen keyboard. FWIW, LG seems to have some decent feature phones with slide-out keyboards, and as others have pointed out, feature phones sometimes have some worthwhile advantages over smartphones, such as decent battery life!
 
I used to have an HTC Touch Pro2. The OS was really slow but the keyboard was fantastic. I'm using an iPhone 5 now and its excellent but the keyboard on that Touch Pro2 makes my iPhone's onscreen keyboard feel really unresponsive. For me, there's no substitute for tactile feedback.
 
We still have a Sony Ericsson Mini Pro in the house.Physical Keyboard is such a bonus to have.
 
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