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Comment by neither_color | Hacker News Reader

Sounds like high school me buying a zen creative and a zune because they were "better than iPods" and hating iPhones when they came out because physical keyboards would always be superior.

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Frankly I hate on-screen keyboards. Wish phones were a little smaller but fatter with physical keyboards.

Are you really willing to trade all that screen real estate?

I loved my Motorola Droid. Tiny phone (3.7" screen took up the whole body !) with a slide out full qwerty keyboard. If someone was crazy enough to make it today with a snapdragon I'd be all over it. Choice quote from this review to show how 2009 it was:

> The Motorola Droid on Verizon is the first device to feature Google Maps Navigation. It’s a completely free service that offers 3D maps with voice guided turn-by-turn directions. The VZ Navigator available on most Verizon Wireless phones costs an additional $10 a month for use. A decent turn-by-turn direction App on the iPhone sells for a one time fee of nearly $80-$100. On the other hand Google Maps Navigation is entire free and is offers a lot more.

https://skatter.com/2009/11/motorola-droid-verizon-review/

Astro Slide? https://store.planetcom.co.uk/products/astro-slide

Just in case anyone reading this is considering purchasing the Astro Slide... be very wary. I backed the Indiegogo campaign over 2 years ago, still nothing. The wait isn't the issue here (COVOD and the related supply chain issues are real, I get that), but the major lack of transparency from PlanetCom is abysmal. A quick read of a few pages of the comments on the Indiegogo campaign page gives you a pretty clear picture of how many of the backers feel...

Peculiar device, I like it! Reminds me more of my Vaio C1 I had back in 2001, great laptop, got itself in the movies :)

http://www.starringthecomputer.com/computer.html?c=64

I'd buy a iPhone with a slide-out keyboard—a la the HTC Dream/G1 [1]—in a heartbeat. I'm happy with the onscreen keyboard for simple things like a quick search or message, but I also really want the option for a proper, physical keyboard any time I need to dig in and write something in depth. Bonus points for slider style devices like the G1 because you still got the "full size" screen, without having to sacrifice on keyboard size either; it really was the best of both worlds, and it's still my favorite device form factor I've ever used.

1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Dream

That article brings back memories - I had a HTC Desire Z which had a sick slide out mechanism. That was also my first smartphone!

I remember it was great for emulation of SNES and GBA games because of its physical keyboard.

You might be interested in this https://www.fxtec.com/pro1x

They are shipping soon after many delays.

> physical keyboards would always be superior.

And they still are. I hate virtual keyboards, it's just a terrible experience. It requires a lot of attention, has low accuracy and features like swipe are too unreliable that I find them useful in the long run.

Multi lingual swipe works just fine on my iPhone with Google keyboard. If it is not it's just because I get too comfy and lazy, not actually "spelling" the words properly. With the dawn of on device language models I believe the typing experience will get even better in the upcoming years.

Language models and dictionaries will always be incomplete and out of date.

I just don't like being slowed down by a clever feature not working as expected and so for me a physical keyboard simply cannot be replaced. It always feels like a fragile crutch otherwise.

The only claim which I am making is that the p(word|swiped pattern) is inferior to p(word|swiped pattern, previous words).

Speaking of reliability, I suspect that screen keyboards are much more reliable than physical ones for a pocket device such as a phone or tablet. Much worse in usability and feel (if we ignore their ability to easily reconfigure to the task, such as a dedicated numpad where it makes sense), but likely more reliable as long as you don't break your screen, as there's less mechanical parts to break.

Based on my experience with a Blackberry phone I'd say the average physical keyboard lasts significantly longer than the phone's update support.

Sure it's got mechanical parts but reliable switches are not rocket science. Now analog sticks are a different story apparently.

> hating iPhones when they came out because physical keyboards would always be superior.

I mean you're not wrong. They're just sl8ghtly more expensive

I still agree with your high school inner child. I never made a single apple purchase in my life and I'm glad I never fell for the marketing.

Marketing and peer pressure! See how punished you've been here for expressing a dissenting opinion!

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