Ten... Qwerty mobiles
Pushy types
Product round-up As the speedy texter generation grows longer in the Bluetooth and touchscreen technologies improve, the range of Qwerty phones on offer gets smaller by the day. But for many, they wouldn't use anything else. Indeed, for RIM, Qwerty keys have been the hallmark of it BlackBerry handsets.
Sliderphones aside, Qwerty mobiles have smaller screens and typically benefit from a longer battery life. And, apart from the smartest of the smart that suit the suits, they tend to be cheaper too, making them an ideal choice as the call-from-the-campsite blower. Yet even though Qwerty phones are becoming an endangered species, they can still be spotted in the wild – here are ten we found.
Alcatel One Touch 358
Alcatel offers a wide range of budget Qwertys that rarely set the room alight, but will never dent your wallet. And, as I found out many a time with my super girly One Touch 808, Alcatel handsets can be a very handy to have as a backup. The One Touch 358 doesn't compare with the old clamshell OT 808, though. The buttons are squeaky, clicking in a tacky fashion and I often found myself mistyping while quickly tapping out messages. It's fairly unresponsive too, which can be frustrating if you're a frenetic phone user.
Its 220 x 176 dot 2in display, like the VGA camera, is very old school. While there's an FM radio and music player, its 650mAh battery isn't built to keep such tasks running for long periods. It also has a microSD card limit of just 4GB. At 15 quid, the Alcatel OT 358 was always going to have shortcomings. Still, you get what you pay for and this could fill the bill as the bargain blower for emergencies.
BlackBerry Curve 9320
Pitched at the shallow pocketed youth market, RIM's cheapest Curve is packed with social apps with the side Convenience Key defaulting to fire up BlackBerry Messenger. Typing fast on this Qwerty caller isn't an issue, although the more chiclet-style array does feel clacky and unlike most BlackBerry keyboards, its smooth surface design impacts on typing accuracy.
BlackBerry OS 7.1 churns away fluidly powered by a 800MHz processor with 512MB of RAM, but the on-board apps hardly overtax it, although RIM's App World gives some alternative offerings. The 2.4in, 320x240 display is no touchscreen either – its optical trackpad does the navigation duties. RIM's Curve has been its most popular handset range for some time and this model offers an affordable entry into the enduring BlackBerry Messenger mindset.
Next page: BlackBerry Bold 9790
COMMENTS
Re: Never
Why stop there?
You shouldn't use share a computer keyboard or mouse.
Don't take the lift, those buttons will be filthy. But be careful of the hand rail as you take the stairs.
Don't flush the toilet, you know where those hands have been. You can't be sure the last person washed their hands properly before turning off that tap either. Watch out for that door handle on your way out too! In fact, any door handle.
In fact just put on your paper suit and stay out of public places altogether, Mr Hughes.
Or on phones owned by adults who like to text using proper English and not kiddy's abbreviations.
Err.... you seem to have forgotten Nokia. E5? Or the really rather powerful E6?
Can't believe how fast the media has closed ranks against Nokia.... Very sad.
So sliders are off-topic?
Nokia E7 is still ruling that part of the jungle. It is everything the E-Series is about – I am not aware of anything out there that can touch it in terms of build quality, hardware features and overall design. I would love to see this form factor run MeeGo – I shake my fist at Nokia for not releasing the N950 to the general public. Not that Belle wouldn't do. In fact it does quite fine. Especially since it does the little things you simply expect a phone to do but apparently are no longer to be taken for granted.
I nearly keeled over laughing the other day when an aggressively anti-Nokia mate of mine (some people act like Nokia at some point pissed in their pint and made them drink it) sporting both an iPhone and some Android complained that "these days, you cannot turn phones off overnight anymore and still have the alert work in the morning."
I could not resist to ask him "You mean like a Nokia does, right?"
Priceless face, absolutely priceless.
Sliders
Does noone want qwery sliding phones anymore, or is it more of a case of the phone companies and manufacturers not wanting them for some reason.
I have a Nokia N900 and the missus an E7, both great form factors. I would love something like the E7, or slightly bigger with a decent grown up OS - think Maemo meets EPOC32.
There does seem to be Android sliders about, but not in the UK (Samsung Captivate, or Motorola Droid).
And no toys like the ones in the roundup dont count. I have a BB (for work), and absolutley hate the form factor as well as the phone in general, & every other chav around here has one.
