I want a Droid without a slideout keyboard....

[rob129]

They should have two models of the Droid, one with and one without. Lets face it, the Droid slide out STINKS! If they left out the keyboard could they have added any other hardware and kept it the size that it is now? I wish someone would make a very thin shell that would keep the slider shut and also serve as a phone protector....When I say thin I mean really thin!

 

[LarryMcJ]

They should have two models of the Droid, one with and one without. Lets face it, the Droid slide out STINKS! If they left out the keyboard could they have added any other hardware and kept it the size that it is now? I wish someone would make a very thin shell that would keep the slider shut and also serve as a phone protector....When I say thin I mean really thin!

I have to "sort of" agree with you. When I first got me Droid I tried the keyboard and promptly closed it and said I'd never use it. And while that's still mostly true, I have tried a few more times to use it and it gets easier each time.

That said...at first it bothered me to even have it...I felt like it was something I needed to use but didn't, but after a week I've totally forgotten it and it just stays closed. Think of it as a heater for your car if you live in Ecuador

 

[tsaunders]

I wouldn't mind a version like that. I always like options.

 

[scorrpio]

Lets face it, the Droid slide out STINKS!

I like the slide out, I find it easy to use, comfortable, and I use it whenever I got a bunch of typing to do - like a forum post or email. So speak for yourself please, without generalizations. One reason I would never consider an iPhone - even if Verizon offered it - is the lack of physical keyboard.

Either just keep your Droid closed or return it an wait for HTC Passion. It's supposed to be out soon, will run 2.0, and sport a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU and 5MP camera. Oh, and no physical keyboartd.

 

[tsaunders]

The Passion would be ideal for someone who doesn't want a slide out keyboard. I was going to wait for it, but sadly my AT&T phone was dropping calls way to much.

 

[barry99705]

"Supposedly" there's one coming out.

 

[dgerst]

I've used mine very little so far. The virtual one is nice enough. They could make it only a bit slimmer and still add a day's worth of extra battery. That'd be sweet.

 

[LarryMcJ]

I've used mine very little so far. The virtual one is nice enough. They could make it only a bit slimmer and still add a day's worth of extra battery. That'd be sweet.

Regarding the battery, I went from a day's use to over two full days by turning off the GPS. Other than the display, it's the single biggest battery drain.

 

[nycdroid]

It would be nice just to have the option but I prefer having one with a physical keyboard. Coming from an iPhone and Blackberry, I like both types of keyboards. I use a virtual keyboard for quick entry. The physical keyboard for longer text entries or if I'm doing extended browsing/reading.

The biggest issue with a virtual keyboard is that it takes up screen real estate. With the physical keyboard I can see the entire page (or text, email, etc) while typing a response.

 

[N2o]

uh... there were two Droid models when it launched. Motorolas with the keyboard, HTCs without...

 

[dw0095]

Moto calgary is coming soon with moto blur. Not as powerful hardware as droid but will probably be nice.

 

[barry99705]

uh... there were two Droid models when it launched. Motorolas with the keyboard, HTCs without...

Yea, but the one without is pretty much the same hardware as all the other older android devices. I think the OP wants a tablet with the horsepower of the droid, and not just another hero clone.

 

[athflying]

Regarding the battery, I went from a day's use to over two full days by turning off the GPS. Other than the display, it's the single biggest battery drain.

GPS should only be active if you are using a program that uses it such as Maps.

I like the keyboard because I recently discovred NES emulators and have been killing some Excitebike in my free time...need a keyboard for that.

I never thought I would say this, but I think I could survive with just the onscreen keyboard of the Droid, but I like having the physical keyboard as backup...kinda like a safety net...just makes me feel better.

 

[Soultics]

Opinions differ so much, I absolutely hate the on-screen keyboard, I can type 3x as fast on the physical. As the previous poster said, its good for emu's too!

 

[0837s]

I too wanted a keyboardless Droid. Yes, I settled on the Droid with the keyboard for now. I'm coming off of a BlackBerry Storm and really like the virtual keyboard. Since I got the Droid a week ago, I have used the physical keyboard 1 time, which was required to set up the initial settings on the phone. The Droid will only be with me until the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 releases- 4" screen, full touch screen (no physical keyboard), 1GHz Snapdragon, 8MP camera... That phone is supposed to release sometime in Q1 of 2010.

 

[Gunner]

As the previous poster said, its good for emu's too!

Really? The Droid is good for Emu's?

I had no idea they were so advanced!


But seriously, the more I use the physical kb, the more I am getting used to it. It's very good for filling out data on websites, using the kb and tabbing along w/ the d-pad. Much faster. As others have said, I've never been interested in any phone that doesn't have a physical kb. That's a showstopper for me.

 

[ocean1]

I dont use mine, its a PITA not very good. I do use it only to wake up my phone after a call sometimes. Guess its good for that bug

 

[iPhoneMilk]

To me the droid is a temporary phone.

I got this phone so i could get over to verizon, and also to hop on the Android train.

now that i'm on, whenever the next best Android hardware model comes out, i'm 100% switching to it.

I don't like the hardware slideout on the droid it sucks, and i also don't like the WIDTH of the screen.

if you're coming from an iphone like i am, compare the 2, stick your droid screen up to the iphone screen and compare the virtual keyboards.

on the droid its SUPR SUPR thin and makes it hard to type when it's in Portrait.. this i don't like. And i would prefer a phone that is wider portrait wise..

 

[bruceo]

I've used mine very little so far. The virtual one is nice enough. They could make it only a bit slimmer and still add a day's worth of extra battery. That'd be sweet.

+1 for no keyboard and extra battery. The passion may be the droid killer, its htcs virtual keyboard rocks. Im sure they will make sure to release it well past the droids 30 day return window.

The only dissapointing spec on the passion is the crappy video res.

 

[chefboyardee]

But seriously, the more I use the physical kb, the more I am getting used to it. It's very good for filling out data on websites, using the kb and tabbing along w/ the d-pad. Much faster. As others have said, I've never been interested in any phone that doesn't have a physical kb. That's a showstopper for me.

I'm with you there, for the same reasons. I'm much faster with them most of the time, if only they would add predictive text to it (the physical keyboard) like we've seen in 1 or 2 random screenshots. But I found it was very fast and easy to get used to, and it's just so much easier to mix in numbers, symbols, etc on the real keyboard. That, and there's the kbd launcher shortcuts, which are great.

And you can hold shift and use left/right to select stuff to copy and paste (then hold down the gold button to actually copy or paste it). That's a big one for me - trying to edit text with the onscreen keyboard is impossible, there's no left/right and trying to click where i want the cursor to go is *never* accurate.

But mostly I like having all my screen visible to me at once, not half or fully blocked depending on orientation.

 

[ratchetjaw]

I am ok with it, using it now actually. I would rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it. I am all aboard the motorola droid train. They have a winner here in my book

 

[ktfoley]

+1 a thinner model without the slide out keyboard

And expand the string length on the voice to text capability. I hardly ever use the software keyboard, instead opting to use "talk to me keyboard" for all emailing and texting.

 

[El Blacksheep]

Gaming without a physical keyboard is quite limited. I'll stick to my slider model tyvm!

 

[ocean1]

The only that slide out keyboard is good for is to wake up the phone after a call. Otherwise its pretty much crap.

 

[jeepguy_1980]

On the demo phone I didn't care for the physical keyboard. But I almost never use the landscape virtual keyboard now and I can type on the physical without even looking at the keyboard (mostly).

I just wish it had a Sure Type portrait keyboard. The Sure Type portrait keyboard on the Storm 1 was really fast and accurate.