The rumour mill is quite often spinning rather quickly and last night I spotted something that could be great but could also just be another nail in the coffin.
What on earth am I on about? Well the other day T-Mobile US leaked a document that mentioned some new phones for later on in the year. On the list was a Blackberry and something called the HTC Era 42. That probably doesn’t mean much at the moment. But it doesn’t stop minds working overtime. In this case adding 2+2 and getting 14.
Well cast your minds back to the days of the T-Mobile G1, the original codename for the G1 was Era G1. So by all accounts an Era 42 has to be a nice new qwerty with a 4.2″ screen coming out in the US soon. Below is the leaked info from TMO News.
Obviously this is a bit of a vague lead, what my question is though, is whether or not people would still be interested in a HTC Desire Z successor? I know I would buy one but would the masses get it? The MyTouch 4g Slide which was basically a HTC Sensation with a slide out keyboard never made it to these shores, so whether or not this made up device would ever appear in the UK is another matter.
The other issue is with really clever soft keyboards like Swiftkey making typing so easy on a screen. Having a real keyboard almost seems like a step backwards.
Let us know below if you would get one.
Source – TMO News
Via – Android Community
My favourite phone ever was my Nokia 6800. Lovely, till I dropped it. A slide-out qwerty has the wonderful advantage of being able to fiddle with it in your pocket. Not like that! I’d get one of these.
No. No never. Keyboards, stone tablets, smoke signaling device, manufacturers should let it go. Give me more usable scree.
Yes – I currently use an HTC Chacha for it’s hardware keyboard. I would love a more modern higher spec QWERTY device – although a slide out is not my first choice, I couldn’t get on with the Experia Mini Pro.
I have large hands and cannot operate a touchscreen keyboard with any usable accuracy – even with Swiftkey (which also works well with hardware keyboards).
In fact, I struggle with capacitive screens generally as my fingers are obviously not conductive enough !
I’d like a 4.3″ portrait device with a “Blackberryesque” form factor – and I could live with the consequent large size. We don’t all want or need small devices. For a starters it could have an immense battery :-).
Terry
Some of the Motorola ones are like that. But let down by awful software. Maybe one day we get something like Dell Venue Pro with android that would be ideal for me.
i too have a htc chacha and the keyboard is great! i wish htc would release another newer model
Dunno, in this day and age it is all about mahoosive screens but ultra, ultra thin. Thin doesn’t really work with a physical slide out keyboard.
Unless of course Apple came out with one, then everyone would say why didn’t anyone else think of this!
I found the xperia mini pro a bit too fiddly, but the xperia pro is very nice to use. Probably showing my age but i can type much faster on the phyical keyboard than on a touch screen. Mainly because i can’t get on with swype etc…
Hate swype so much. I could type pretty fast on my Desire Z.
Had a HTC Tytn a while back – nothing since has ever let me type emails as quickly and accurately.
I would definitely buy a, not too fat, quad-core qwerty smartphone.
What is the best qwerty smartphone out there?
I had HTC tytn 2 long time ago, at time it was the best phone I have ever use, of course these days the new phone runs faster, I had HTC Touch pro after, then blackberry and now Sony Mini pro, was thinking of upgrade so hope HTC come out with the new slide keyboard phone
Yes! I had an HTC Touch Pro 2 and were it not for It being Windows Mobile would still be on it. I have a Motorola Milestone 2 (the UK not blessed with the Droid/Milestone 4) but it has it’s faults. release a 5 row sliding Qwerty Android in Blighty please.
Keyboards – easier to type and I have a few emulators, for which the keyboard is ideal.
I have the refreshed Sony Xperia SK17i (Mini Pro) and I really love the keyboard on it. It’s showing it’s age despite only being a year old and I want to upgrade to already. But, I only want one with decent physical keyboard coupled with some more up-to-date specs. Unfortunately, I don’t find any suitable ones for my liking so I’m really holding out for a Desire Z successor. Would probably import mytouch 4g slide but even that’s a bit old as well. 🙁
This topic is giving me deja vu
Android 1.6 LG GW620!
I would buy another if I could!
Dislike touch-screen input intensely!
Netbooks rather than Tablets also.
YES! Hunting down a Moto Photon Q 4G..