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Sounds to me that you just described the format of a BlackBerry!

I could almost envision a clip-on (or magnetic?) keyboard that sits on top of your screen when you need it. Perhaps it could be taken off and stored on the back of your phone, much like a MagSafe battery on an iPhone.

That could work too. A keyboard that you put on top of the screen, the only thing that would need to happen is that the operating system detects this and moves the content to the top, the same way as the software keyboard.

Similar to what @walterbell suggested https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38872674

This existed before a lawsuit https://www.theverge.com/2014/1/20/5325272/typo-keyboard-rev...

This looks awesome, and they even mentioned that they were faster on the physicial keyboard. Although this design also has the problem with balance, but very likely not as much as TFA. I guess this design can't really work today as there is no home key on phones anymore, which they covered with the keyboard so it is not as long as the case in TFA.

I just found this galaxy keyboard cover for the S8 and the phone really adjusted to the keyboard being there, this looks like the perfect solution. Why did they stop manufacturing this for their new phones :/ Someone in the reviews also mentioned that they borked it with a Software Update.

https://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/mobile-accessories/phones/...

I like the magnetically attachable kb idea A LOT. Could also attach to the back of the phone when not in use to not live as a separate part. Seems like it'd be a pain in the ass to spend multiple seconds mounting the kb every time you need to type but I would actually keep it mounted and take it off when watching videos only. So it'd remain there for 95% of the tkme.

Check out the Sony Ericsson P910that had not 1, but 2 keyboards that could be detached. https://gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_p910-pictures-846.php

Woah, this looks so cool!

> the coolest way would be, if the phone display is only as large as the current phones minus the keyboard, and then a physical keyboard beneath it. The phone would be physically as large as the phones today and you would have a superior typing experience.

iOS Reachability, but pinned to top of display?

https://support.apple.com/guide/iphone/use-reachability-iph1...

Yes, and then there could be a keyboard flips around to the black part

Kind of, though in my testing Reachability seems to just hide the bottom anyway rather than having the app resize.

With things like this I just keep thinking about how much more potential we would have for innovation if handheld computers allowed the same kind of extensibility that all computers did 25 years ago. Today, only Apple, Google, or the OEM of an Android phone could enable such a behavior by explicitly providing an API for it (and explicitly blessing the software that uses it), so it just won't happen.

You are describing the BlackBerry passport. Other replies have some great ideas about magnetic keyboard. I was thinking why not Samsung Flip that splits the screen surface and uses rotating hinge so one side of the slab is screen or rotate for keyboard. That would be my ideal mobile. Success would come down to the strength and reliability of the hinge but this should be doable at a small increment in price.

That's a really smart idea, though probably not feasible if you want to have a borderless touchscreen when not using the physical keyboard.

I have a BlackBerry KeyTwo, which is basically that. It's great. If I could buy a new one with the latest Android I would do it in a heartbeat, the hardware is great and I'm sad you can't buy them anymore.

Why have I never heard of all these touchscreen blackberries, they all look something I want. I really wish they'd still manufacture them or release android updates.

Maybe you're luckier with English, but having recently tested a Uniherz Titan Pocket with physical keyboard, I just realized how my "past memories" left aside many details: typing accents and special symbols is slow; the absence of auto-complete on some long words is noticeable; the lack of emojis, the lack of a numeric keypad, having 3 or 4 modifier keys (to handle case, numbers, secondary functions, etc), all of these things I got so used to in virtual keyboards... I actually missed them more than I expected. This, plus the virtually unusable screen due to the lack of remaining real estate, made me rethink my memories.

Granted, part of if is Android's fault, and part is the keyboard itself (the modifier keys in particular), but overall, it made me feel better using a touchscreen keyboard. I no longer have rose-tinted memories that make me complain so much about on-screen keyboards.

Okay, sure, typing accents with this type of keyboard may be worse than what we currently have on smartphones. But as I mostly write English this would not be a huge problem to me, otherwise in German there are only äöü/ÄÖÜ and ß/ẞ which don't get used that much, but have extra keys on the German keyboard layout (I don't expect this to be the case on a keyboard phone). Or can be replaced with ae,oe,ue and ss respectively.

Auto-complete/-correction is something that I don't use often, but this doesn't need to be missing from a keyboard phone, as this could be added on the software side.

Emojis are also something that I don't use often, but I get it that people may miss this, but this could also be added on the software side.

I have something similar to the BlackBerry Key2 in mind [0]. Haven't tried it myself, as I just learned about this through the comments. But the keyboard layout on the Key2 looks way better than the Unihertz, and the numerical keys are even in the same layout as a numeric keypad.

I may as well have too many rose-tinted memories of this era, but I don't think that the things you mentioned would be showstoppers for me, but I definitely can understand that these will be blockers for other people.

[0] https://m.media-amazon.com/images/W/MEDIAX_792452-T2/images/...

I think a sideways one would be most ergonomic, like a Backbone (https://playbackbone.com/products/backbone-one/) but with keyboard keys. Actually iOS supports a split style keyboard as well: https://www.lifewire.com/thmb/gSGW1OzKc1r6QWfVYO7g0rdfXuw=/1...

The new iPad pro’s don’t have that feature sadly

>you would have a superior typing experience

Would you? I don’t think so. All to permanently lose 30%+ of your usual screen space on a device that you likely use to consume 90% of the time and input 10% of the time.

I don't consume anything on my phone that would require that much vertical space, except occasionally a video someone sent me. And the touch keyboard bugs me so much that I really wouldn't care about losing ~1/3 of the screen.

I find it wild they've been mainstream now for 16 years and I still just absolutely hate them. I would gladly sacrifice screen for a good physical keyboard.

Different people use devices in different ways.

My phone is 80% emails, Slack, iMessage, Discord; 15% Google Maps, Uber, or Safari, and 5% YouTube.

To each their own, but I realised content consumption is a seriously net negative on my happiness, productivity, and satisfaction with life, so I stopped.

I had an android phone with a physical keyboard. It was terrible. To avoid bloating the thing to a full on tablet the keys are so small it's practically impossible to not hit a whole cluster of keys, at least with my large-but-not-freakishly so hands. (e.g. average for a 6'ish adult male). To top it off the feel was horribly as the keys have about 0.1mm of travel.

I had the T-mobile G1 with the slide out keyboard. Loved it!!

I thought it was the G2? I had the one with the z-fold keyboard that slid out on the long edge (landscape). I loved that keyboard. I could crank out long emails error free, unlike every other touch screen keyboard, like the one I’m using right now.

G1 was the original Tmo android phone with a slide out keyboard. G2 was the HTC Desire Z with the amazing z-hinge keyboard.

I had an N900, and the keyboard was reasonably good to type on. The keys were shaped in a way that made it easy to hit only the key you wanted, without hitting adjacent keys.

The slide out horizontal form factor is so obviously superior, I’m scratching my head wondering why people are so nostalgic for blackberry keyboards.

Vertical keyboard allows using the phone with one hand.

Also landscape results in either lots of wasted screen space or hard to read text. FOr text you want tall and narrow(ish), not ultra wide.

I had a few slide out phones and a few BlackBerry-style phones (not BB but Nokia) and I had zero issues with either. You could type a novel on any of them.

(I’m typing this on an iPad Mini and it’s really sad how terrible the experience is compared to those tiny phones with tiny keyboards that actually worked)

An iPad seems closer to a laptop than a phone for this sort of thing—Bluetooth keyboard time. The iPad mini is in an odd spot size-wise, though.

You described the BlackBerry Priv.

:o a slide-out keyboard in vertical orientation in 2015, I wish I had that phone

I used my Priv for five years, best phone I've ever had, barring some battery & heat issues. Showing people a normal-looking phone and then sliding out the keyboard was a fun party trick. If there were any modern phone like it I would buy it in a heartbeat.