HIGHLIGHTS
Can't think of a life without your ancient QWERTY phone? Do not mourn for here we come to your rescue with five new QWERTY phones that you should consider.
If you can’t live without a QWERTY keyboard on your smartphone, this must be an awful time for you. From what was once the leading form factor for smartphones, QWERTY phones have more or less disappeared from the face of the earth with only a couple of brands still taking the time out to make modern phones with a dedicated, full-sized keyboard.
Nevertheless, if you’re on the look out for a new QWERTY phone after your old one has begun to fall to pieces, here are the five best options you should consider.
1. BlackBerry Q10
Price: Rs. 35,999
The flagship QWERTY smartphone from BlackBerry, the Q10 is one of the better smartphones in the market irrespective of form factor or OS. The Q10 benefits from great build quality and surprisingly well-tuned software in the new BB10 OS. Of course, if you’ve been using older BlackBerry phones, BB10 may take some time to get used to along with the absence of a trackpad of any sort. Instead, the Q10 makes use of a touchscreen for navigating the UI and there’s a very good hardware QWERTY keypad for all your emails and messages.
The Q10 has a 3.1-inch 720×720 Super AMOLED display and an 8MP rear camera along with a 2MP front one. The Q10 runs on a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Krait processor and 2GB of RAM. It comes with 16GB internal storage and accepts microSD cards up to 64GB.
If you don’t mind the touch based interface and the high price, then the BlackBerry Q10 is a good buy.
2. BlackBerry Q5
Price: Rs. 22,999
The Q10’s younger sibling, the BlackBerry Q5 is designed and priced for those who’d love to buy a new BlackBerry 10 OS smartphone but can’t afford the Q10. The Q5 comes into its own thanks to decent design and build quality and a fantastic keyboard. The Q5’s 3.1-in IPS display is also very good irrespective of its small size.
The Q5 is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Snapdragon 4 processor and 2GB of RAM. It offers 8GB of internal storage and supports microSD cards up to 32GB. Like the Q10, the Q5 also sports a touchscreen that’s used to navigate the interface.
3. BlackBerry 9720
Price: Rs. 15,740
Yes, here’s another BlackBerry for you. The fact that most of the quality QWERTY phones are being made by a single manufacturer says something about the segment as a whole. Anyway, the 9720 will suit you if you’re on the lookout for a relatively inexpensive QWERTY smartphone and if you’re also more attuned to the traditional BlackBerry interface rather than the modern BB10 one. The 9720 also has a touchscreen but its use is completely optional since there’s also an optical trackpad in the mix. As a result, the 9720 is quite suited for old-school BlackBerry fans.
In terms of specs, the 9720 has a 2.9-inch display and is powered by an 806MHz processor and 512MB of RAM. It also has a single 5MP camera.
4. Samsung Galaxy Chat
Price: Rs. 10,490
The Galaxy Chat is the only Android phone in this list because there just aren’t too many Android phones out there with QWERTY keypads. Apart from that, the Galaxy Chat is not a very impressive smartphone but rather something that has been built keeping in mind the budget segment. On any other day, the Galaxy Chat would not be worth recommending but if you’re absolutely hell-bent on a QWERTY keypad, then you might as well consider the only Android option worth considering.
The Galaxy Chat has a 3-inch display with a resolution of 320×240 pixels. It’s powered by an 850MHz processor and comes with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich). Imaging is handled by a 2MP primary camera.
5. Nokia Asha 210
Price: Rs. 4,790
One look at the Nokia Asha 210 and you can figure out its target user. The Asha 210 comes in a variety of colours including yellow and magenta (to be fair, also black and white) and focuses on WhatsApp and image sharing, making it the perfect device for folks in school and college who don’t have a lot of cash to spend on a phone but would still like something that looks good and does what it says it will. Of course, don’t look at this phone for top-notch hardware.
Apart from its full-fledged QWERTY keypad, the Asha 210 also has a 2.4-inch screen and a 2MP camera. It supports dual-SIM and external storage up to 32GB.
Have I missed out on a QWERTY phone? Let me know in the comments below or on Twitter @postwar