Qwerty Keyboard Smartphones
Nine phones for typing on
Group Test Despite the increased screen sensitivity of large-display smartphones such as the iPhone, many of us still prefer to have a good, solid keyboard with real, tactile keys for texting, firing out emails or composing our memoirs.
While predictive text systems like SureType or T9 can be fast, they can also be a pain, so there's really no substitute for a fully-specced Qwerty keyboard if your messages need to go beyond the Twitter level.
With so many Qwerty smarrtphones doing the rounds at the moment, we thought it was high time we sifted the wheat from the chaff to see what you're actually getting for your money, and what you need to watch out for.
Under consideration today are:
- Blackberry Bold 9700
- HTC Touch Pro 2
- LG InTouch Max GW620
- Motorola Milestone
- Nokia E72
- Nokia N97 Mini
- Palm Pre
- Samsung Omnia Pro
- Sony Ericsson Aspen
We've taken a look at BlackBerry-style candybar handsets and smartphones with stow-away keyboards too. We've got Android, Symbian and Windows Mobile devices, and phones with their own, dedicated OSes.
But before we look at the user experience each of these Qwerty-equipped handsets offers, here's our Buyer's Guide to steer you through the product category's pros and cons...
COMMENTS
GPS + Mapping
The E72 and N97 Mini have GPS with free downloadable maps for life and turn by turn navigation. This has to be worth a few % but dosn't even get a mention!
Like the direction
Even taking on board the point from RealRoland above, this is an interesting comparison and a worthwhile look at the phones. Will you be doing the same for non-hardware keyboard phones? And, while it's very subjective, what are your opinions on the hardware vs on-screen keyboard debate?
For a review about phones that you can type on...
It does not focus a lot on the typing on the phones. Large hands, small hands, keyboard responsiveness, stupid 'smart keys' triggered by accident (AT&T Tilt / Tytn 2 anyone?)
That sort of stuff.
Want to buy a 2nd hand E90?
Much better keyboard than the 9300.
Also comes in handy as a personal defense weapon/emergency window opener.
