Smartphone QWERTY Keyboard Cases???

Anyone have experience with these?

I've got the latest slider QWERTY keyboard Android phone AT&T offered that was worth a crap, circa 2011 Samsung Captivate Glide. It's similar to a Galaxy S2 with a built in real physical keyboard. My phone has gotten slower, and slower, freezes a couple times a week, and actually using it for, ya know, a phone, is annoying there's 70% chance a 30 second or longer delay between physically entering a number, and it actually dialing it.

I'm fed up to the point of looking for a replacement. The catch is, I need a real keyboard, my fingers and touch screens don't jive for texting/typing.

AT&T doesn't offer any slide out keyboard phones anymore, the only Android option with a real keyboard is a NEC Terrain, but it's reminiscent of the old brick phones/Blackberries and isn't much of, if any upgrade spec wise over what I've got now.

I'm not 100% against unlocked hardware from other service providers, but really don't want to deal with issues that might come from a hacked phone. Some of the Droids from T-mobile have real keyboards, and an unlocked version might work.

Seems like the easy button would be a phone case with built in keyboard, there's a few options for the Galaxy S4, S5, and others. Down side is that the keyboard cases I've seen are Bluetooth, and have their own battery that needs charged. So you've got two devices to charge, phone and keyboard, and phone's battery life shorter with Bluetooth always own. I don't know if the phone's Bluetooth is connected to the keyboard, will it still be able to connect to the car's hands free?

First world problems I know

When texting, do you swipe?

Physical keyboards are almost extinct...although I also wouldn't want to own a phone without one. Here are some recent ones, but half of them are Blackberries:

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/best-qwerty-phones/

I wouldn't use a BT keyboard for anything but occasional use just because of the battery and bulk problems. Any remotely modern phone should be able to handle multiple BT connections.

JamesMcD wrote: When texting, do you swipe?

I've gotten so used to swype, I've accidentally tried to do it on my laptop.

I expect that you are not going to like the answers that you find for add-on keyboards.
I too liked my BlackBerry keyboard and resisted change away from it (this was likely in 2005 or nearly 10 years ago.)

You will however find that touch keyboards (and touch screens) have greatly improved.
If you do not like the keyboard that comes with the touch screen phone, the keyboard layout, function and more is a downloadable app. That is to say that if you do not like what the handset comes with, download a few different, free, keyboard software (apps) and try those.
On my Motorola Android phone I run the aftermarket app of SwiftKey
This is more than just different colors.

PS: I do not use the swype capability of Swiftkey. I actually type but it does good word predictability which really cuts down on writing out whole worlds.

Swype seems awesome, but i have control issues and can't brain around how it can possibly be so accurate, so it must be witchcraft.

And i prefer to not dabble in the occult.

Swipe is only slightly better. I need a real keyboard.

I wouldn't worry too much about having Bluetooth on all the time with new phones. The latest version/s of Android have really optimized Bluetooth power consumption and new phones have huge batteries. You'll have something extra to charge, but that's what you get for being a Troglodyte

If money is not an object, the Blackberry Passport and some kind of awesome Bluetooth headset would be my solution of choice, but phone + some kind of case (for this much money I'd definitely get a case to protect it) and a good headset is about $600 without a contract.

If you're on AT&T any unlocked GSM phone would work just fine if you wanted to go that route. They're not "hacked" phones in the same way that putting a new ROM on the phone would be thus voiding the warranty. They're just setup in away that they aren't locked to a specific set of frequencies utilized by that carrier. That means that you could port the phone from AT&T to T-Mobile to Straight Talk (all GSM carriers) just by changing the SIM card out rather than needing to buy a new phone or go through the hassle of having the carrier unlock it.

As for the bluetooth, I'm not a big fan of leaving it on simply due to the security concerns associated with it.

But they do exist for the Iphone 6

As well as the S5 Which you can buy used contract free for less than 4 bills.

In reply to pres589:

The Passport has some neat features, and while I'm not afraid of toting around a bulky phone again, having previously owned an HTC 8125, and HTC Fuze, before the Samsung Captivate Glide, I have no interest in the Blackberry OS. I'd go back to Windows, but there's even fewer QWERTY options for them.

The LG Optimus F3Q has my attention, but it's a T-mobile phone. I know nothing about unlocking a phone, but some folks on XDA Developers claim to have it working on AT&T.

John seems to be right, there are slide out keyboard cases available for some of the popular phones, S4, S5, One, etc. but none I've come across have stellar reviews.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

You know that BB OS on the passport is 100% different from what they were offering a couple of years ago, right? It might have some of the same user interface ideas but it's ground up different.

The new phones are more or less computers. When it starts to hang do what you would do with a computer. No, not smash it.....yet. Restart. Have had similar issues and one time brought it to the store for help. The guy turned it off and back on and issue fixed. Guy told me it clears the cache and temp memory causing the drag. I find I have to do that once in a while with all my cell phones, work blackberry and personal Samsung Galaxy S5. Even end up doing it on my wife's iPhone once in a while.

After some further investigation, I confirmed that I don't want a Blackberry. You did get me to look into the Passport further though, Pres589, it's not for me.

In reply to wlkelley3:

I know, it even turns itself off and/or reboots itself on its own occasionally, sometimes in the middle of the night it decides it doesn't want to charge any longer, and you awake to a battery that's 1/3 its capacity.

I've used all the "best" resource management, boosting, cleaning, apps, and done everything short of a complete factory reset. Short term minor improvements, possibly placebo effect, is all I've ever noticed. I don't want to have to wipe and reinstall everything, but that may be inevitable.

When I'm Supreme Overlord, every major phone carrier will be required to carry at least 3 physical QWERTY keyboard smartphone options.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

Internet specs for your phone mention a removeable micro sd card. I remember not too long ago reading a story where a sd card failed, almost rendering a phone useless. The card did not show any outward signs of damage, but the phone slowly became a brick until one day the sd card was removed. Suddenly the pbone was fast and responsive again. If you have an sd card in your phone, try removing it and restarting your phone to see if performance improves?

I have a passport. First blackberry ever after 4 iphones. I love it and one of the main reasons I got it was for the keyboard. Battery lasts for 16 plus hours and it is not big. Even with my fat homemade case it fits nicely into the back pocket of my jeans.

I gave up, and "Rooted" my phone, I figured I either root it, and maybe fix it, or I brick it and get something new.

After rooting, and getting superuser on it, I removed 95% of the OE bloatware with the free app NoBloat, I'm doing better at managing what apps turn on at boot and run in the background, I got a free app called Root Boost to better manage system resources to my liking, and I also bought a new 16 Gb card to replace the 8 Gb I was using. All downloaded apps are on the SD card.

So far, "knock on wood," the phone has been much more stable, responsive, and actually usable. It hasn't been 24 hours yet since rooting, but things look promising.

Now phone manufacturers, listen up, when this phone finally does die, I'm still going to want a real push button qwerty keyboard, so get on with the design and building of my next phone already!

Yeah people always complain about their computers "slowing down" as if they have piston rings to wear out or something it's a software problem and it's manageable.

I'm just like you, OP. Screw touchscreen keyboards. After my Motorola Droid 4 gave up the ghost, I just had to accept it and got a Galaxy Note 4. The advantage of the larger phablet is that it's a little easier to type on; the keys are larger than on a smaller phone. The stylus also makes things easier.

I'm still hanging onto my N900 and the keyboard is a big part of it. I'd like to upgrade to a Neo900 but I don't have the €€€€

There's hope for the last 3 of us holding out for Android QWERTY phones!!!

Supposed to be out in November, Blackberry Venice, slide out QWERTY keyboard, natively running running Android Lollipop, decent hardware specs.

Rumor is that the Blackberry Passport 2 is going to get Android OS in '16 too.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

Make that 4 of us. I have a Galaxy S and its on its last legs. Not sure what to do next, since this my second replacement of the same phone.

Well it's being called the PRIV, has some killer specs, you can pre-order it now, it starts shipping Nov 6, but it's $700. Yikes . http://shop.blackberry.com/store/bbrryus/en_US/pd/productID.328095700/categoryID.70449700

Maybe AT&T will have some holiday deals, or contract extension deals, it's not like we're jumping ship since SWMBO still has the grandfathered unlimited data.

In reply to bigdaddylee82:

At $700, I would rather go back to my old flip phone. I plan on formatting my current phone soon. It freezes every hour or so now.

In reply to mrwillie:

Yeah, that's more than I paid for my laptop, I may have to wait for some used ones on eBay, or refurbs at one of the online stores.