A big part of the problem was that the hardware on these was more often than not pretty terrible (slow, bad screens, poor antennae, physical construction was janky) and, if the hardware was okay, the software almost always sucked.
Windows Mobile was unpleasant to use up to WP7. Symbian was a pain in the ass to use that was only eclipsed by how much of a pain it was to develop for. RIM’s classic pre-BB10 OS was at least nice to use, but it, too, was hard to write for and wasn’t all that stable and, this is the important part, required a huge and costly server-side ecosystem to work well.
The genius of the iPhone wasn’t the components or the capabilities, it was having a total package that wasn’t utterly frustrating for everyone involved. BlackBerry 10 was close, and offered good physical keyboards, an OS that was nice to use and develop for, and hardware that was good, but by that point it was waaaaaay too late.
The HP pre 3 was excellent in every aspect, at the time. build quality was great. Still a great fidget toy. WebOS was really something. It’s a shame HP dropped it.
Lol I’m gonna get bashed for this, but y’all sound like boomers who have only ever used a smartphone on occasion. Or like people did back in the early 2010s before touchscreen phones got good.
You’re all gonna sit there and tell me with a straight face those tiny ass buttons allow you to type faster than on a touchscreen smartphone? Maybe you’re more accurate but there’s no way you’re faster, even then I’d still doubt the accuracy part because of the extremely small buttons placed so closely together.
Smartphone typers can write over a hundred words per minute and much much more with other keyboard input entry methods like swipe/swype.
I bet if we were to ask Gen Z or Gen Alpha to try those phones with keyboards they’d probably say they were trash and ask how we used them. Once you get used to using a touchscreen to type it really is better. I’m assuming most of y’all are light phone users that only use their phone for the occasional texting and app usage, not power users.
You’re getting downvotes for your tone, but you’re mostly right. My thumbs used to hurt from texting too much when I had a physical keyboard. Now I use swype and my single thumb is doing totally fine.
I didn’t type faster. But the experience of pressing on physical keys was more satisfying somehow. Like with computers, how some people swear by mechanical keyboards from the feeling alone, even though those same people can type fast on regular keyboard too.
I desperately yearn for them to come back, but because fucking apple never made them and won’t ever make them, it’ll remain a “niche” for “uncool” people
Hell, even typing on a tiny Xperia Mini was a better experience for me than typing on any stupid glass screen. I also have a Blackberry 9800, fucker looks amazing and typing on it is great. A real shame it’s “useless” for communication for me, no whatsapp, telegram or anything to bridge with them, afaik.
Looks really interesting and something I’d want to give a try, my phone is only ever used for messaging and writing notes, but I don’t think it’d work with local cell frequencies here (Brazil), plus that price is a bit beyond my range.
side note: half the site being literally just the logo zooming in is the antithesis to being minimal and… well, just imagine an angry person cursing design choices.
My first phone was this “dual flip” Samsung U740 (I don’t remember the model number, I just looked up “dual flip”). It could be used like a normal phone when talking, but you could also open it sideways to text and use a QWERTY keyboard. I could easily text without looking, I loved it.
Samsung Alias! Pretty cool idea. Not sure how great the execution was though. The Alias 2 that came after it had the same form factor but with e-ink keys
I would totally buy a modern version as long as I could use a browser, some bank and finance apps, and rideshare. And maps. And I’d probably need a touch screen. (Obviously a modem cell radio, and GPS if the original didn’t have it)
I’m sure the small screen would occasionally be difficult and maybe require custom UIs like how Android/iOS apps do for watches. But I think I could live with it. I want to use my smart phone less anyway.
I had the original Motorola Droid and Droid 3, along with a couple BlackBerrys for work. Sometimes I still miss those keyboards, although I’m probably faster with swiping keyboards now.
Original LG EnV was a boss. Stick phone that resembled a sleeker OG Nokia, but then clamshelled open to a 2nd screen flanked by speakers and a full keyboard on the other half. Loved that phone.
I liked my EnV2. Happened to line up with a great phase in my life as well. Took some of the best photos I’ve ever taken on its crappy little camera (singular) and it was a texting machine. No doom scrolling, that hadn’t been invented yet.
Add comment