It's getting harder and harder for me to get excited about mobile phones these days. Even looking at the latest and greatest from the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung it's more of the same year...
It's getting harder and harder for me to get excited about mobile phones these days. Even looking at the latest and greatest from the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung it's more of the same year after years.
"We made the screen bigger", "it's thinner!", "better camera"
This resulted in probably the most bland year in phones since... forever? Pretty much every phone is turning into a glass sandwich with metal sides and no bezel up front. Nothing really differentiates them anymore.
Now, back in 2016 Lenovo owned Motorola (RIP Project Ara as well) announced the Moto Z, which had a unique twist. An array of pogo pin connectors and magnets on the back, which would allow for modular "moto mods" to be snapped on. And the release of that was hyped up a ton with all the possibilities. But in the end everything fell through, except for a few really boring ones - a powerbank, speaker, camera and different colour shells. No external keyboard (the company that planned to make this actually made this phone) or anything else super interesting.
Which bring me to the device I linked. Sure up front it's the same boring black rectangle, but the inclusion of a landscape slider keyboard feels like a breath of fresh air after breathing in the staleness of 2018 and Q1 of 2019. Sure the specifications aren't super amazing, but even a 2 year old flagship CPU will still fly through 99% of the tasks.
Between new foldies, and the massive Battery Brick with a phone attached from Energizer, it seems like at least MWC is exciting. Not sure how much of that is going to dribble down to the consumer...
Between new foldies, and the massive Battery Brick with a phone attached from Energizer, it seems like at least MWC is exciting. Not sure how much of that is going to dribble down to the consumer level.
The Energizer phone is ridiculous. Thick as a brick and no headphone jack? And I like to imagine that internally they just looked at a power bank and a prototype of a phone and a little light bulb...
The Energizer phone is ridiculous. Thick as a brick and no headphone jack?
And I like to imagine that internally they just looked at a power bank and a prototype of a phone and a little light bulb lit up above their head.
It's blowing my mind that I'm seeing all these fantastic media consuming devices with no headphone jack. The Galaxy Fold, maybe the only use case I can actually see for it is media consumption....
It's blowing my mind that I'm seeing all these fantastic media consuming devices with no headphone jack. The Galaxy Fold, maybe the only use case I can actually see for it is media consumption. Folded, it's a decent enough size width-wise even if it's absurdly tall. But on long trips you unfold it and have a stunning way to watch movies. Or you would, if it didn't rely on Bluetooth headphones which will increase drain on the Fold and won't last through a lengthy trip without making several breaks of their own to charge.
And with the fold at least it's not like Samsung's swearing off the jack. Apparently the S10+ has one? So for some unknowable reason they deliberately decided to omit it from the fold.
The Energizer phone here would be fantastic for powering through extremely long sessions of streaming media, that's one of the most draining things you can do on a phone. And yet no headphone jack.
I just don't get it. Bluetooth headphones aren't good enough to replace the 3.5mm jack. They complement it pretty well, though. Every set of bluetooth headphones I've had has been able to fall back to the jack when it ran out of power or when there was too much interference for it to be worth it.
The main reason I've always wanted a physical keyboard for my smartphone – not the kind that I'd have to buy separately and dangle about in my pocket between uses – is the haptic feedback, which...
The main reason I've always wanted a physical keyboard for my smartphone – not the kind that I'd have to buy separately and dangle about in my pocket between uses – is the haptic feedback, which all virtual keyboards sorely lack. The only reason I can type as quicky as I do on a full-sized keyboard if because of the physicality of it: the position of the keys being kinesthetically-distinguishable, the finger travel and position associated with each key...
Seems absurd to me that I also have to engage vision just to be able to type. Sadly, the last cool QWERTY-smartphone was out of production by the time I was able to afford a smartphone.
This phone looks cheap. It has those stupid smooth corners on its screen, which make no sense to me. The newest Android OS is ugly, much like all of Google's late-2010s design. But it has a physical keyboard.
I'm willing to put aside the strong aesthetic considerations just to give one a shot.
The rounded corners don't bother me, what does bother me are those rounded of sides (like samsung has been doing for the past few years). It looks bad (to me), it introduces glare when you're...
The rounded corners don't bother me, what does bother me are those rounded of sides (like samsung has been doing for the past few years). It looks bad (to me), it introduces glare when you're watching a video and it makes finding a good cheap screen protector an absolute pain.
That's true. Putting a custom OS on a non-flagship smartphone should be an easy ride. Hell, they're even customizing iOS, which is damn near impenetrable compared to the rest of them. If the dev...
That's true. Putting a custom OS on a non-flagship smartphone should be an easy ride. Hell, they're even customizing iOS, which is damn near impenetrable compared to the rest of them. If the dev types – whom I most certainly don't belong to, but thanks for the compliment – pick it up, I reckon it could have a much better UX and system look after all.
Doesn't save it from the "cheap plastic" look, but at least the system might look nice.
They're actively reaching out to developers to get a Lineage OS port (along with possibly Sailfish OS and some others), so it's definitely going to be ROM friendly.
They're actively reaching out to developers to get a Lineage OS port (along with possibly Sailfish OS and some others), so it's definitely going to be ROM friendly.
My first Android phone had a sliding keyboard - loved that thing. When I lost it, I actually cried b/c there weren't any keyboard phones left on the market. And this one ticks off all the boxes -...
My first Android phone had a sliding keyboard - loved that thing. When I lost it, I actually cried b/c there weren't any keyboard phones left on the market. And this one ticks off all the boxes - headphone jack, USB C, dual speakers, microSD card, clean ROM support w/ mod support (rather than the weird proprietary "privacy tweaks" Blackberry has).
This almost makes me glad that my current Pixel is dying (battery issues) cuz now I have an excuse to get this (and not lose a headphone jack like if I got the Pixel 3)! The rather old CPU ain't an issue, and would be an upgrade over the Pixel's one.
Wow, this is great news! But not for me, sadly, I already got a KeyOne. This keyboard looks amazing, and it gives you that software freedom too. If they'll keep it up maybe my next phone would be...
Wow, this is great news! But not for me, sadly, I already got a KeyOne. This keyboard looks amazing, and it gives you that software freedom too. If they'll keep it up maybe my next phone would be from them.
It's getting harder and harder for me to get excited about mobile phones these days. Even looking at the latest and greatest from the likes of Apple, Google and Samsung it's more of the same year after years.
"We made the screen bigger", "it's thinner!", "better camera"
This resulted in probably the most bland year in phones since... forever? Pretty much every phone is turning into a glass sandwich with metal sides and no bezel up front. Nothing really differentiates them anymore.
Now, back in 2016 Lenovo owned Motorola (RIP Project Ara as well) announced the Moto Z, which had a unique twist. An array of pogo pin connectors and magnets on the back, which would allow for modular "moto mods" to be snapped on. And the release of that was hyped up a ton with all the possibilities. But in the end everything fell through, except for a few really boring ones - a powerbank, speaker, camera and different colour shells. No external keyboard (the company that planned to make this actually made this phone) or anything else super interesting.
Which bring me to the device I linked. Sure up front it's the same boring black rectangle, but the inclusion of a landscape slider keyboard feels like a breath of fresh air after breathing in the staleness of 2018 and Q1 of 2019. Sure the specifications aren't super amazing, but even a 2 year old flagship CPU will still fly through 99% of the tasks.
Here's hoping to a more exciting 2019 for phones.
Also, that hinge actions seems super satisfying.
Between new foldies, and the massive Battery Brick with a phone attached from Energizer, it seems like at least MWC is exciting. Not sure how much of that is going to dribble down to the consumer level.
The Energizer phone is ridiculous. Thick as a brick and no headphone jack?
And I like to imagine that internally they just looked at a power bank and a prototype of a phone and a little light bulb lit up above their head.
It's blowing my mind that I'm seeing all these fantastic media consuming devices with no headphone jack. The Galaxy Fold, maybe the only use case I can actually see for it is media consumption. Folded, it's a decent enough size width-wise even if it's absurdly tall. But on long trips you unfold it and have a stunning way to watch movies. Or you would, if it didn't rely on Bluetooth headphones which will increase drain on the Fold and won't last through a lengthy trip without making several breaks of their own to charge.
And with the fold at least it's not like Samsung's swearing off the jack. Apparently the S10+ has one? So for some unknowable reason they deliberately decided to omit it from the fold.
The Energizer phone here would be fantastic for powering through extremely long sessions of streaming media, that's one of the most draining things you can do on a phone. And yet no headphone jack.
I just don't get it. Bluetooth headphones aren't good enough to replace the 3.5mm jack. They complement it pretty well, though. Every set of bluetooth headphones I've had has been able to fall back to the jack when it ran out of power or when there was too much interference for it to be worth it.
Yeah, in Ars comments they brought up it could fit a 1/4 inch jack, let alone a 3.5mm jack.
The main reason I've always wanted a physical keyboard for my smartphone – not the kind that I'd have to buy separately and dangle about in my pocket between uses – is the haptic feedback, which all virtual keyboards sorely lack. The only reason I can type as quicky as I do on a full-sized keyboard if because of the physicality of it: the position of the keys being kinesthetically-distinguishable, the finger travel and position associated with each key...
Seems absurd to me that I also have to engage vision just to be able to type. Sadly, the last cool QWERTY-smartphone was out of production by the time I was able to afford a smartphone.
This phone looks cheap. It has those stupid smooth corners on its screen, which make no sense to me. The newest Android OS is ugly, much like all of Google's late-2010s design. But it has a physical keyboard.
I'm willing to put aside the strong aesthetic considerations just to give one a shot.
The rounded corners don't bother me, what does bother me are those rounded of sides (like samsung has been doing for the past few years). It looks bad (to me), it introduces glare when you're watching a video and it makes finding a good cheap screen protector an absolute pain.
That's what I meant. The lousy wording is on me.
If a lot of your dev types pick it up, it will probably be easy to customize, if not completely rommed up after a couple months.
That's true. Putting a custom OS on a non-flagship smartphone should be an easy ride. Hell, they're even customizing iOS, which is damn near impenetrable compared to the rest of them. If the dev types – whom I most certainly don't belong to, but thanks for the compliment – pick it up, I reckon it could have a much better UX and system look after all.
Doesn't save it from the "cheap plastic" look, but at least the system might look nice.
They're actively reaching out to developers to get a Lineage OS port (along with possibly Sailfish OS and some others), so it's definitely going to be ROM friendly.
My first Android phone had a sliding keyboard - loved that thing. When I lost it, I actually cried b/c there weren't any keyboard phones left on the market. And this one ticks off all the boxes - headphone jack, USB C, dual speakers, microSD card, clean ROM support w/ mod support (rather than the weird proprietary "privacy tweaks" Blackberry has).
This almost makes me glad that my current Pixel is dying (battery issues) cuz now I have an excuse to get this (and not lose a headphone jack like if I got the Pixel 3)! The rather old CPU ain't an issue, and would be an upgrade over the Pixel's one.
Wow, this is great news! But not for me, sadly, I already got a KeyOne. This keyboard looks amazing, and it gives you that software freedom too. If they'll keep it up maybe my next phone would be from them.