By Anyone out there a fan of the physical keyboards on their favorite Android device? Well soon T-Mobile will launch the Mytouch Slide. One of Droid Developer’s Ninjas sent in these photos.
The obvious differences are the spacious keyboard and the lack of the familiar trackball for a new Blackberryesque trackpad that also acts as a push button. Check out some of the other rumored specs:
- 1300mAHr Battery
- MicroSD memory cardslot is accessible without battery removal. It is a push to insert and push to remove design.
- Optical trackpad with an integrated push button.
- Camera with LED flash.
- 3.5 mm Headset Jack
- Slide-out 4 row QWERTY keyboard
- 320×48o screen resolution.
- ARM11 processor.
Personally, I am a fan of physical keyboards but I know some of you are not. So of you out there, anyone interested in the new MyTouch Slide?
[via Droid Developer]
Whyyyy?? Why can’t they make a keyboard with 5 rows like the G1 anymore. I’m hooked on my dedicated number keys. The G1 will never die as long as new keyboards can’t do that.
I like the Keybord layout but the phone specks are dated more to the “Discount Brand” style. Give me a Snapdragon with this keybord, 800+rez, and 512 RAM/ROM haha… I guy can dream…
@G
Android will never survive if it is purely run on up-to-date specced out hardware.
It needs to be diverse. Just because this phone isn’t top of the range doesn’t make it a total loss. It will suit many.
This is much better than the previous version. I have the Moto Cliq and main reason I bought it is due to the qwerty keyboard. Wish the Fender version has the keyboard as well.
The phone looks great, but nowadays HTC should really be making 800×480 standard on their Android smartphones.
wish they implemented the touch pro keyboard onto this!
Gross! What’s with the 4 row keyboard? I hate when the # keys share buttons with letters.
FINALLY a spaced out keyboard! if this has 1.5 or 1.6 (unless it uses Sense), however, i may not be interested.
Ha! finally an android phone where you don’t have to take the battery cover off to get to the sd card… Not that it will change anything, just interesting to note…
@ Webslinger… Yeah you would think they were trying to win the empty space award or something…
Fully agreeing with Webslingr on this one. I mean it looks nice but I would prefer the 5 rows i’m accustomed to or no physical keyboard.
Totally agree on the G1 keyboard. EVERYTHING about the phones has improved since the G1, but the keyboard is still the best out there. Blackberry went through similar pains, IIRC, “improving” their keyboard before eventually going back to what works.
The G1 has a fantastic keyboard (not considering the backlighting issues on any non-black ones). It’s a real pleasure to type on it.
Isn’t that the same processor in the current MyTouch and G1?
Keys look better than most. But why is HTC/T-Mo going with last years phone specs, when they were out of date last year? As far as I’m concerned, if it doesn’t have enough horsepower and memory capacity to run all the coolest apps, then I’m not at all interested. Would have bought the Fender Edition, because I think it’s way cool and I love the music player, but the damn processor is way underpowered and it borders on minimal memory requirements.
So they took the the G1/Dream, added a 3.5 jack and LED flash, but took away 1 row from the keyboard as well as the trackball… basically replacing two things I get a lot of benefit from with 2 things I don’t have much use for. Fail for me.
I seriously had high hopes of upgrading from the G1 to something high end and faster with a physical keyboard. If the N1 would’ve come out with a physical keyboard I’d be jumping all over it but since it didn’t i was hoping for the next best thing on t mobile, what a disappointment. HTC has really been disappointing the physical keyboard lovers.
HTC, listen very carefully, make the nexus one or something with same specs with a 5 row physical keyboard and it’ll sell like pancakes… is it that hard HTC?
This phone does look good and it will sell, but I’m with a lot of people on the keyboard issue. Don’t the phone manufacturers pay people to see what the public wants???? Someone needs to do a poll on what Android fans really want? So far noone is listening to us. What the G1 people want is the same phone layout with a bigger screen(4 inch), a faster processor(snapdragon), a lot of internal storage(16GB or more) and thinner if possible(droid thin?). Come on there has to be someone listening to us. Maybe if we harass HTC about it they will whip something up
Looks nice but put the wrong keyboard on it. Spec is far to low for current android users as we are looking to upgrade not stand still or go backwards in the case of the keyboard.
A good entry level phone for people just moving over to android, but for me its a no go.
Just how long is it going to take to get just three things together on the same phone:
1. A decent keyboard
2. A 800 res+ screen
3. A decent processor.
Is it that difficult? Really? Come on HTC.
The first Android phone that ever came out had a 528mhz processor and an embarrassingly shameful 192mb RAM. This phone is the result of over a FULL YEAR of development. People expect a snappier, smoother UI experience with extended relevance ie enough power to handle some future OTA’s. So for the love of baby jesus please tell me something has improved other than the earphone jack…PLEASE…
I’m happy to say that I’m glad that HTC is still trying to make phones with QWERTY, but I’m disappointed in it missing a dedicated 5th row for numbers. I was happy when the G1 came out and it had all five rows, but I was disappointed in the build quality of the phone. Let’s face it, I’ve been using a SideKick since it was black and white. I’ve been spoiled. I had an MDA for a little while and hated it for not having a number row. It’s a phone, a phone should have dedicated number buttons.
I also agree with everyone who says it should have a little more power. I agree with G8D, in that it doesn’t need to be “up-to-date specs” but they sure as hell could do a hell of a lot better than that! The ARM11 was cool two years ago. I think my LX is faster (don’t quote me on that because I don’t know if it is LOL).
@chris,
i dont have to take off a battery cover to get to my g1’s sd card.
All great comments so far. I’d add the option of either having the numbers be a primary key row or use a number pad to the right side using programmed LED ID’d keys for landscape and portrait modes (to me, it would be alright for the pad to stick out if the keys were sealed). Make sure item has a positive keyboard lock–I’m tired of my dumb-phone calling where-ever from my pocket!
Davis, the biggest improvement will be a better version of Android. I am running Eclair on my myTouch, and it is quite smooth. That 528MHz CPU might surprise you if the software is optimized.
Anyway, I also like QWERTY, and if the LG Eve gets rooted soon, then I would be tempted.
I don’t like the keyboard of this device. I’d rather have some keyboard equivalent to HTC touch pro 2, which is really excellent. This buttons seems too much G1-like for me
spereated keyboard is much better
so the mytouch is becoming the new sidekick for t-mobile. they had the regular sidekick, sidekick 2, sidekick id, sidekick slide, etc. now they have the mytouch3g, mytouch fender edition, mytouch slide. i wonder which one will be next, mytouch flip?
Ugh- I can’t stand it when the chop down a keyboard like that and make you press shift or alt to get a number!
Hey T-Mobile.. me type numbers ALOT yknow..
@Pieter Noted!
this phone looks ok o…but I don’t think its going to sell well
They’re getting a little better at making phones with keyboards and all but I’m still waiting on the one that will knock my socks off. Love the Droid but the keyboard is not user friendly.
Where is our nexus one review? The one that you promised us.
does this look like the htc lancaster to anybody else? the one that got canned by at&t last year
arm 11? are you freakin kidding me? they’re developing something new with the older processor again?
this is the processor used in the htc magic. sheesh.
I’d like to see a cortex phone w/keyboard for tmobile already, or a tmobile snapdragon android phone with keyboard. Either of those would get my money instantly.
a 4 row kybd? come on HTC, you never txt a phone number or address? if this is the next itteration, i think I will stick with ol’ reliable (my rooted G1!).
The track pad is okay, but it really needs:
better graphics (as pointed out numerous times here)
more ram (enough for those who push to the max)
5 row keyboard (this is really a MUST! otherwise its a toy)
minimum 2mha battery (whats the run time on this one?) especially if your having a flash.
A faster processor.
I just cannot see a reason to upgrade to this halfhearted attempt.
(oh, I’m old so a keyboard is a requirement)
i’m reading alot of people are dissatisfied because the phone doesn’t match their exact desires. i can tell you, this will be my mom’s next phone. it’s perfect. android (and all her google stuff like gmail and calendar), a nice hard keyboard in a slider formfactor…the processor won’t be blazing, but for what a certain segment of the market will want or need, this phone is perfect. i’m happy with my Nexus1 (i compromised on availability, processor and keyboard, but i’m happy in the end), but this phone definitely has its use.
when are they gonna sell this on the market??
glad I am not the only one still clinging to my G1 because of the 5-row keyboard. Is there any hope for another phone with one? when? a good keyboard, 800+ screen and a fast CPU in one phone… why is that so hard?
Very reliable Word has it that the Nexus 1 IS coming out w/an “Enterprise” version that has a physical slide out qwerty keyboard. I’ll be waiting for that…now if an Android developer would push a UMA app, I’d be all set!
Maybe the reason high end android phones with physical QWERTY keyboards haven’t come out is because of the cost. Both for the manufacturer and consumer. That’s just my guess.
The G1 is great because it combines a (at the time) powerful phone with a physical keyboard. Since then, Android OS has been expanding like wildfire, catching on left and right and by the end of 2010 will be on all major carriers, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it gets the attention of TracFone. It’s still an uphill climb because it’s got to compete with the Blackberry and iPhone, but as Android expands, it gains a bigger and bigger fan base. I honestly doubt that a new high-end device will come out with a full keyboard for a while. What I’d like to see is more phones with built-in kickstands so you don’t have to be constantly holding your phone while watching YouTube videos. And maybe even a Bluetooth mini-remote that snaps onto the phone, or slides in like an SD card.
The reason they went with the 4 row keyboard was to reduce the size of the phone. The G1 was a huge phone size wise because the the non-sliding keyboard. This is a compromise with what people were complaining about on the G1. Is this a game changing phone? Absolutely not, but what it is a solid phone that will attract more people. Not every phone can be “game changing”.
Were the 5 row keyboard at ? People want basically want a Nexus 1 with 5 row keyboard but a good size not to big. Also good camera and tough graphics
tmobile needs to add wifi-uma to this tmo fone!!!! gee- only bberry does uma-free calls w/ hotspot
Please! ok is simple 5 Rows keyboard..a regular jack..track ball and flash…just up grade g-1 to g-5 man!