I thought most smartphones would work like this:
A full keyboard that slides out from behind the touch screen, like my old LG Quantum(?) here. Or like the lost Pantech Impact I had before this: A horizontal clamshell, folding together when not in use.
I still want my modern, fully supported mobile OS. I'm not a techhead who could, say, hack Linux onto old e-readers. I just thought-- since I first got pocket dictionaries or PDAs^(†) with Qwerty but without touch screen-- that our "computers in our pocket" would look like little laptops 💻
Kids' toys, PDAs, handheld video games, educational electronics--there was a ton of every day or cheap stuff with keys to match typewriters & computers. (In retrospect, I probably wanted to use the mini keyboards more than some of the items they were attached to. Wasn't committed to "Wheel of Fortune" or a young cousin's fake laptop, yanna? You too?)
Even now, the 2-in-1 hybrid tablet computers are still coming out pairing touch screen rectangle with a fully functioning keyboard! I thought it would be easy to find a clamshell-style phone case with Bluetooth keyboard; it's just a smaller rectangle version of the tablet cases. Which, I did also have a 3-in-1 "tablet pc" like that once--case folded like a book. Keyboard could flip entirely behind to be ignored, or I could make a trifold stand to use in landscape. Or use the computing rectangle by itself. All it needs is to scale down to my Android phone 🥲
I loved my keyboards. Every few months/years, I spend hours at a time looking to get something that integrates phone + qwerty keyboard in my pocket AND in my hands^(‡). I don't feel like I'm looking for what folks who owned Blackberries or Palm Pilots look for, so I'm grateful to this new sub for including more variety. I'm excited to read advice posts & lurk in megathreads 📱⌨️
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† Personal Digital Assistant that I had didn't even have a clue colours existed, let alone "wireless Internet" 💀
‡ It's that time of year for me again, hi! That's how I got here!
