* Article
* By Dimitris S.
* 13 January 2010
* Android, Symbian, Windows Mobile
* No comments
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"Rafe and I have often pulled out the 'hybrid' form factor as the one offering the best of all worlds. i.e. a screen that occupies most of the plan form factor of the phone, with a qwerty keyboard that does the same, made possible through a sliding, pivoting or folding mechanism. Yes, there's a level of mechanical complexity which might prove unreliable in the long run, but the benefits are huge.And yes, touchscreen-only fans will point out that a 'slate' device (e.g. Samsung i8910 HD, HTC HD2, Google Nexus One) can pop up a landscape keyboard when needed, to also give the best of both worlds, but I'd also argue that:
* with such a virtual keyboard on-screen, the display area left is much reduced
* even on the best virtual keyboards, you don't get the mechanical feedback of thumb-typing on real keys - this leads, ultimately, to faster, more satisfying text input
This head to head isn't exhaustive, of course, I've limited it to just four interesting devices. The idea is both to compare hybrid solutions from different platforms/ecosystems and (in the E90's case) from a different era. And to provoke discussion and debate, of course!" Read more here:
