To Choose A Mobile Phone With Qwerty Keyboard

[triffid]

I'm soliciting suggestions for a mob ile that can give me the following features - or get near enough.

1

Qwerty keyboard.

If touch-screen only, how good is it vs. actual keyboard (eg a slide-out type).

If actual keyboard, is it possible to find one without the thai alphabet on the keys (alongside the english)?

2.

As much compatibility/synch as possible with a mac; particularly for addressbook and podcasts.

3.

A good built-in camera.

Is an iphone my only option?

I'm prepared to wait a few months if something just right is on the horizon.

[steppenwolf108]

I find the Nokia E75 one of the best in the market: it's less than 15k, full qwerty keyboard, pretty decent camera and plenty of power and apps

I have also a Blackberry Storm 2 and I had iphones in the past: if you are really into typing, then touch is not the way...too easy to make mistakes!

[smint]

I have a G1 (HTC Dream) - Slide out qwerty keyboard, no problems with mac, decent (not excellent) camera. It is excellent and allows me to customize my phone the way I want it. Syncing with mac is also not too much of a problem if you are just fairly decent with computers as it syncs through google contacts, and has a removable sd card. Unfortunately, not sold in Thailand, but can get it online, ebay, etc.

By the way, it runs on android, so its open source, you can get as many apps as you want for almost free, do tethering, and more. When I bought it, it cost about 10,000B, but I had to sign on for a 2 year contract. Should be much cheaper now with all the HTC heroes and the nexus.

Edited January 24, 2010 by smint

[filingaccount]

http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchpro2/overview.html

+

http://mac.eltima.com/sync-mac.html

Fits what you describe.

[Spoonman]

Ive got an N97, the keyboard is pretty nifty, dont know about connectivity to a mac as i dont have one....the camera is 5 megapoodle thing, it takes real nice photos.

Edited January 25, 2010 by Spoonman

[Archimedes]

Touch screens with slide out keyboard and ok camera (HTC Touch Pro2 has the weakest camera of the lot, while Xperia 2 has the best).

Motorola Millstone

Nokia N97

Nokia N97 Mini

Nokia N900

HTC Touch Pro2

Sony Ericsson Xperia X2

Samsung B7610 Omnia Pro

[triffid]

Thanks a lot for those very useful replies. May I press a few supplementaries which may help me to refine my decision.

- My instinct is that a qwerty touch screen never matches the ease and accuracy of a keyboard. Is that still true - even for the best, eg an iPhone?

- I don't want thai letters on the keyboard; for this apparently I must buy abroad. How best to do this (on the web) safely and avoiding customs duty?

- fillingaccount's reference to a mac sync site presumably works for other makes too (I haven't read it yet).

- Is anyone aware of something on the horizon from HTC or Nokia that's worth waiting for a few months?

- Nobody commented on comparative negative of the iPhone which may have drawn them to their alternative choice, eg the Nokia or the HTC

These were some points. But thanks again for the suggestions I already have.

[Archimedes]

My instinct is that a qwerty touch screen never matches the ease and accuracy of a keyboard. Is that still true - even for the best, eg an iPhone?

The best touch screen ones are very easy to type on and its more that the "on-screen" keyboard steals screen space than the typing itself that can seem a bit "awkward" at times.

HTC Touch HD2 is a nice choice for a touch screen without keyboard, due to its large 4.3" screen size, 800X480 resolution and capacitive touch screen.

Up-and coming:

Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 should also be a treat.

As well as Motorola MotoRoi

I don't want thai letters on the keyboard; for this apparently I must buy abroad. How best to do this (on the web) safely and avoiding customs duty?

There are plenty of reputable webshops to buy from, but difficult to avoid taxes.

Maybe getting a friend to buy it and then send it to you as a gift would work?

Nobody commented on comparative negative of the iPhone which may have drawn them to their alternative choice, eg the Nokia or the HTC

Will not go into the positives, since there are so many singing its praises already

Some of its negative side:

- Very limited multi-tasking. (No support for 3 party apps multi-tasking.)

- Music/video/media transfer via Itunes and also can only be done via 1 computer. So connecting up at a friends home with his pc to get a song or 2 is a no go.

- Low quality pictures/camera. (And without flash)

++++++

Iphone is a nice enough phone, but it has some drawbacks ... you can read some more here >>>

Edited January 26, 2010 by Archimedes

[coalminer]

I just bought a few weeks ago a Nokia 5730 XpressMusic.

Nice slide phone with QWERTY keyboard and standard phone keyboard.

Plenty of free applications for the Nokia available (Java and S60) to customize the phone.

As with most Nokia phones. cover and keyboards can be exchanged.

Decent (double) camera with flash.

I paid 10,000 Baht for it in the Nokia shop (new).

I still have my external Nokia Bluetooth keyboard which I carry with me in (as big as a wallet) and which I can unfold at any time to type like on my home keyboard.

Plenty of other features as well.

[Digitalbanana]

- My instinct is that a qwerty touch screen never matches the ease and accuracy of a keyboard. Is that still true - even for the best, eg an iPhone?

I'd say your instincts are spot on. I bought an HTC TP2 with the choice of on screen keyboard or slide out QWERTY. The onscreen touch pad is not bad and I use it often for short inputs, but for long emails and ease of use the slide out QWERTY wins every time for me.

[coalminer]

- My instinct is that a qwerty touch screen never matches the ease and accuracy of a keyboard. Is that still true - even for the best, eg an iPhone?

I'd say your instincts are spot on. I bought an HTC TP2 with the choice of on screen keyboard or slide out QWERTY. The onscreen touch pad is not bad and I use it often for short inputs, but for long emails and ease of use the slide out QWERTY wins every time for me.

I have a phone with a slide out QWERTY keyboard.

Very handy to write short SMS or short emails.

But to write longer emails or to work on important files, the use of REAL keyboard, the Bluetooth Keyboard has proved to me to be unbeaten.

It's as big as a thin wallet, and unfold and connected in seconds.

[mezzoninny]

My personal experience is this: I have a phone with a full qwerty keyboard (xperia x1), but once I've had enough time to get used to the general placement of the keys, I can now easily type just as fast (or faster!) on the iPhone's virtual keyboard, while exerting my fingers a whole lot less. I have no problem typing longer items at all, and I wouldn't bother with an external bluetooth keyboard, because it's meaningless extra bulk for a setup where weight and size is paramount.

The hardware keyboard on my x1 also happens to be faulty, it would easily overshoot or miss a lot of letters. The problem is easily replicable but Sony insists there are no issues, so it unfortunately proves the point of Apple and other pundits who think the less moving parts, the better.

I think the iphone probably has the best virtual keyboard right now, but there are other phones that come pretty close. I think you should be fine on any system with cutting edge processing power (eg. the 1GHz snapdragon). Anything less could still do fine but there's a bit more uncertainty. The HTC HD2 is quite nice to type on, with 1GHz to go around and a 4.3" screen for larger hands.

YMMV on this, of course, but I'll always despise myself for listening to everyone who said a hardware keyboard is the way to go. Yeah excuse me, I'm a bit passionate about this because of all sorts of difficult issues with my x1

As for what's in the pipeline ... HTC might have an Android phone with a 4.3" screen coming out, and a version of the nexus one sold under their own brand.

Edited February 2, 2010 by mezzoninny