Post: #1

I am thinking about upgrading my phone from a shoddy flip phone to a qwerty physical keyboard. My current phone is a Kyocera Kona. The good thing about these old flip phones was they could get beat up on a daily use and never worry about the spider web of death.


As you can tell, it is a bit of a relic. It has served me well as a cheap phone to keep in contact with people until I paid some of my debts. But one of my debts are about to be paid off and open up my money to a few other areas to spend it on.

One of the major features I want in my new phone is a qwerty physical keyboard. After using touchscreen keyboards, I still miss the tactile feel of using a keyboard.

Anybody is who is older than 25 can agree how much better that feeling of pressing buttons on a keyboard is. However, these types of phones are niche. Finding a decent Android phone with this feature is pretty hard (And I not interested in getting a blackberry). A fair amount of them use android 2.3(Gingerbread). I have to keep my options open for my niche phone.

I know I could always get bluetooth add-ons but I want my device to be completed integrated together as a harmonized unit, not a frankenstein mess. Here are my questions.

1) Do you find yourself wanting to upgrade to Android 4.0 or 5.0 for any reason?

2) Do you find yourself able to use the same apps as other would be able to use on an android 4.0 or a 5.0?

Post: #2

You'll be miserable on 2.3. The apps will barely run. I could barely run 5.0 on my LG g2. Had to upgrade to the nexus 6. Might as well stick with the flip phones.

Post: #3

Post: #4

Please no! I am a tech fan and my phone broke yesterday, I have a burner phone using android 2.3 and put my SIM on it -- no whatsapp, Uber, Waze, no new apps work on it, is just good for texting and calling and even that is rudimentary.

I know that not every guy needs to check mails, browse, whatsapp or everything; I need it for business purposes and this phone is killing me.

Post: #5

(01-13-2016 11:48 AM)Gunner Wrote:  Please no! I am a tech fan and my phone broke yesterday, I have a burner phone using android 2.3 and put my SIM on it -- no whatsapp, Uber, Waze, no new apps work on it, is just good for texting and calling and even that is rudimentary.

I know that not every guy needs to check mails, browse, whatsapp or everything; I need it for business purposes and this phone is killing me.

Are there any mobile hotspot features found? I could always tether an ipod touch or my computer or tether another android phone. A huge advantage to android 2.3 is that it uses a lot less power and will last a lot longer.

Post: #6

(01-14-2016 05:29 PM)PolymathGuru Wrote:  

(01-13-2016 11:48 AM)Gunner Wrote:  Please no! I am a tech fan and my phone broke yesterday, I have a burner phone using android 2.3 and put my SIM on it -- no whatsapp, Uber, Waze, no new apps work on it, is just good for texting and calling and even that is rudimentary.

I know that not every guy needs to check mails, browse, whatsapp or everything; I need it for business purposes and this phone is killing me.

Are there any mobile hotspot features found? I could always tether an ipod touch or my computer or tether another android phone. A huge advantage to android 2.3 is that it uses a lot less power and will last a lot longer.

Yes, these were first introduced in android 2.2. Tether up to 8 devices through the mobile hot spot.

However..... Some carriers with unlimited data allowances don't allow you to tether, but there are ways to circumnavigate their rules!!

My data plan allows it & my note3 tethers 10 devices at once but think I'm running android 5.0 at the moment

Post: #7

(01-13-2016 12:29 AM)PolymathGuru Wrote:  ...

Anybody is who is older than 25 can agree how much better that feeling of pressing buttons on a keyboard is...

I'm a fair bit older than 25 and while I might agree in theory (which is why I do all lengthy typing on my laptop instead) there's no way in hell I'd ever trade in a 5" or larger touch screen and a modern version of a phone OS for the convenience of slightly less annoying typing.

A good touch screen keyboard (I've preferred SwiftKey for the last several years, though I've tried others that were really about just as good) makes it bearable and acceptably fast to type even multiple sentences. In fact with auto completion and other fast typing aids I imagine it might actually be quicker to type on a touch screen keyboard than a phone with a full hardware keyboard? Even if it isn't I'd still pick the modern smartphone for the reasons stated above.

Post: #8

I have a HTC Desire Z with Android 2.3.3 running on it. It's six years old, so will be looking to upgrade it soon enough. The physical keyboard is a nightmare, and I hardly ever use it. Plus it considerably increases the weight of the phone. I wouldn't get another phone with a physical keyboard.

To be fair though, it has been a good phone over the years, and HTC's customer service was top notch when it needed repairing (under warranty). The battery has only just started acting up too, and it is the original from when I purchased it in 2010. It's no longer able to connect to WiFi either.

Most apps still run on it (Whatsapp etc), but those that require certain security features such as banking apps no longer are supported.

Post: #9

I have a couple of 2.3 phones that I use for testing purposes in mobile app development.

As others mentioned, nothing will run on it, plus any phone that came with 2.3 will be stone age technology compared to what's offered even by the budget Android phones of last year.

Touchscreen keyboards are not that bad, get a phone with at least a 4.5" screen and you'll be golden.

One of my closest friends is the most hardcore flip phone advocate I've ever came across. Even he made peace with his Galaxy S4 after a while.

Post: #10

OP, you're going to be in for a world of pain. For a long time there weren't any new QWERTY phones being released. The last good QWERTY phone was the Droid 4 which in my honest opinion was one of the best phones I have ever owned.

The Droid 4 can be had for pretty cheap. It was decently fast, but you'll run into software compatibility issues with the old OS. If you're inclined you can update the ROM via a few now archived sites. Good luck if you go down this route.

I switched over to Blackberry because I was unwilling to use a touchscreen phone. I've had a lot of good times with the Q10 and Q20 (classic model). Blackberry 10 will run android apps as well, but it lacks Google Play services which are required for a bunch of apps. Crackberry.com has instructions on how to bypass this.

Blackberry's latest phone Priv is actually Blackberry's first Android phone. I'm waiting for the price to drop on the GSM version. The phone looks really sleek. For the first time i'm actually excited for a new phone. The keyboard slides out from the bottom of the phone in a portrait view. I'm not too happy about this as i'd rather type it in landscape. The features though make up for it.

Post: #11

Post: #12

Touchscreen keyboards are a step backwards in terms of phone progression.

I respond to a lot of emails in the field and tried using an iPhone keyboard a few times. The experience sucked hard core.

Keyboard user for life!

Post: #13

(01-16-2016 05:20 AM)The Beast1 Wrote:  Touchscreen keyboards are a step backwards in terms of phone progression.

I respond to a lot of emails in the field and tried using an iPhone keyboard a few times. The experience sucked hard core.

Keyboard user for life!

Post: #14

I had a Nokia C5 Symbian "bar-phone" until 2014 as I hesitated moving to modern touch-screen era, I thought the T9 keyboard was more convenient. But touch-screen isn't too bad, I got used to it pretty quickly.

There are however some clear benefits in a physical keyboard (T9 in particular), namely texting while driving... You can actually keep your eyes on the road while texting, which is pretty much impossible with a touch-screen keyboard. Of course texting while driving is a naughty thing to do in general and even illegal in many countries, but it's especially dangerous with a touch-screen smartphone. On my old phone I could generate many sentences with only a few quick glimpses on the screen...

Post: #15

Buy a BlackBerry. If you absolutely need lots of Apps and games and don't mind being data-mined by Google then buy the Priv which is a slider phone running Android.

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bb...D.70448700

If apps and games aren't so important to you look at a proper BlackBerry like the Passport or the Classic. They both run BlackBerry's proprietary BB10 OS which is far more productive and more intuitive to use than IOS. They'll also run android apps in addition to BB10 specific Apps.

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bb...0ascending

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bb...0ascending

The only real problem is that BlackBerrys aren't readily available on most US Carriers, but then again if you buy direct from BlackBerry or Amazon you'll have an unlocked phone that means you aren't tied to any particular carrier and which you can swap SIMs in if you go travelling overseas.

Post: #16

(01-22-2016 07:14 AM)the_zebedee Wrote:  Buy a BlackBerry. If you absolutely need lots of Apps and games and don't mind being data-mined by Google then buy the Priv which is a slider phone running Android.

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bb...D.70448700

If apps and games aren't so important to you look at a proper BlackBerry like the Passport or the Classic. They both run BlackBerry's proprietary BB10 OS which is far more productive and more intuitive to use than IOS. They'll also run android apps in addition to BB10 specific Apps.

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bb...0ascending

http://store.shopblackberry.com/store/bb...0ascending

The only real problem is that BlackBerrys aren't readily available on most US Carriers, but then again if you buy direct from BlackBerry or Amazon you'll have an unlocked phone that means you aren't tied to any particular carrier and which you can swap SIMs in if you go travelling overseas.

The only Blackberry that isn't available for the CDMA carriers yet is the Priv. You can still get a Classic and Passport for Verizon, Sprint, and ATT.

Source: Blackberry fan boy