Return of the candy bar phone?

[SlyFlourishXDA]

Hi Anandtech,

I have become tired of smartphones with large displays and having access to anything and everything at the drop of a hat. In my life, having a smartphone is becoming a distraction. I'm not here to play the blame game or to be told I should be better at monitoring my smartphone habits. What I want is a return to form for the phone industry.

Why have we become obsessed with making our devices larger and so feature rich it bogs down the experience? Can people have a phone that nails all the basics such as texting, calls, access to popular apps, takes great pictures, amazing battery life, fast system performance?

In my opinion we don't even have a phone that does all of those really well, but we are getting close for sure. I agree, all the aforementioned features are critical for the everyday user but what about easy one-handed operation and device durability?

A pocketable device that you can navigate and use with one hand is crucial, I don't understand why we are going the way of the phablet. You can multi-task more on a phone with two hands, but you cannot multi-task with real life tasks when you are using two hands on your phone. I won't get too far into device durability, but for crying out loud we can make machines that fly to the moon and back and crash through the atmosphere or dive down to the marianas trench. Please can we make a device that can survive a 5 foot fall, or a drop into a puddle.

I had an idea, what if we could marry the form factor of a candy bar style phone (think of THIS) with perhaps a slightly larger 4.5" screen? There are benefits to have a mid sized screen with hardware buttons. Obviously it will not be for everyone, but there is a market out there.

*Ideal device*
-Ergonomic for one-handed use
-mid sized screen
-premium features (camera, sensors, screen resolution)
-great battery life
-IP68+ rating
-hardware buttons

Regards,
Sly

 

[Zaap]

A candybar style phone with a 4.5" screen that could be used one-handed?

Not really seeing the point of that.

Good luck in wishing for an entire global industry to change based on your very niche desires for a device but it's a snowball's chance in hell.

Personally I'd never use a hardware keyboard on a phone ever again. It's a very poor trade for screen real estate and flexibility and something largely of a past era. On screen keyboards that are there when needed and gone when not are superior. I would guess a majority of people feel the same based on the most widely accepted form factor.

Sure though, I get that some like a niche and maybe you could hope for a few products to fill it, but its probably futile to expect the smartphone to devolve back to say, a slightly better iteration of 2003.

 

[SlyFlourishXDA]

A candybar style phone with a 4.5" screen that could be used one-handed?

Not really seeing the point of that.

Good luck in wishing for an entire global industry to change based on your very niche desires for a device but it's a snowball's chance in hell.

Personally I'd never use a hardware keyboard on a phone ever again. It's a very poor trade for screen real estate and flexibility and something largely of a past era. On screen keyboards that are there when needed and gone when not are superior. I would guess a majority of people feel the same based on the most widely accepted form factor.

Sure though, I get that some like a niche and maybe you could hope for a few products to fill it, but its probably futile to expect the smartphone to devolve back to say, a slightly better iteration of 2003.

Perhaps a 4.5" screen is too large w/ hardware keys and maybe I am thinking too nostalgically about including hardware keys. However, smartphones I have owned went in screen size from 3.2"-5.7" and I have found that 5.2" is the max for one handed use. I'm 6'3" w/ large hands and I believe if a device were to be all screen and still facilitate easy one handed use, the perfect screen size would between 4.5"-5".

Thank you for responding, it is definitely a niche market. I am calling for a hybrid phone that is half feature/half smart. Although it would be nice to have a feature phone that doesn't skimp out on camera and premium build.

 

[gorcorps]

good riddance to hardware keyboards

The keyboard I use can change sizes, and switch sides if you're using it one handed in either hand. Can't do any of that with a fixed keyboard, and then each and every key is a potential failure point. I'm not even going to touch the argument of comparing a $600 consumer device to something that requires hundreds of millions if not billions in tax dollars... I agree phones need to be more durable but that's a terrible comparison

 

[Crono]

A physical keyboard is a nice feature in a vacuum. The compromise of a small keyboard on a phone versus a full sized keyboard for a desktop or on a laptop is unavoidable regardless, though, and the small advantage you gain from having physical keys versus a software keyboard isn't enough to justify the amount of space it takes up. At least for most people that's the case now, which is why the market for smartphones with physical keyboards is all but dead, and as gocorps and Zaap point out software keyboards are much more flexible.

The standard candybar design wasn't very good for QWERTY keyboards, though, which is why for a brief time smartphones with slide-out keyboards were a thing. Those had their own problems, including added thickness and wear of the sliding mechanism. Candybar still makes a lot of sense for feature phones - yes, they still exist - just not for current smartphone OS'.

You can find phones that hit all or most of your other requirements aside from hardware buttons. But most flagships won't hit every single point because realistically manufacturers have to choose to optimize a few areas due to constraints of time, price, design and process limitations, etc.

 

[zerocool84]

I used to love keyboards on phones but prefer the space be used for a larger screen and battery and thinner device overall. The industry has spoken. That's why RIM died as well.

 

[ImpulsE69]

touch screen should never have taken hold like it did. It is still the most awful way to do input on a phone. It's also why so many people are so much more distracted and dangerous.

Slide out kb's were the bomb.

 

[Ken g6]

touch screen should never have taken hold like it did. It is still the most awful way to do input on a phone.

I really never picked up pressing keys with my thumbs. Swype (or clones), on the other hand, is great!

It's also why so many people are so much more distracted and dangerous.

People are distracted and dangerous with any mobile device.

I wouldn't mind a smaller, thicker phone I could use with one hand, though. I don't even care about resolution that much. My old Huawei Prism II is almost perfect, except its CPU is slower than molasses.

 

[CP5670]

I like physical keyboards too, and stuck with my old Samsung Captivate Glide for several years because of this. I still find that faster than most software keyboards, except on tablet-size devices. Most of the software keyboards either take up too much room or are missing important things like arrow keys. I was thinking of getting a Priv, but the keyboard is apparently not that good and the phone has other issues, so I went with a regular phone (Axon 7).

 

[ImpulsE69]

I really never picked up pressing keys with my thumbs. Swype (or clones), on the other hand, is great!


People are distracted and dangerous with any mobile device.

I wouldn't mind a smaller, thicker phone I could use with one hand, though. I don't even care about resolution that much. My old Huawei Prism II is almost perfect, except its CPU is slower than molasses.

I knew people who could send entire text messages with the keypad without ever taking their phone out of their pockets. No matter how you swing it, touch screens means looking at what you are pressing, which means more distractions.

 

[SlyFlourishXDA]

I knew people who could send entire text messages with the keypad without ever taking their phone out of their pockets. No matter how you swing it, touch screens means looking at what you are pressing, which means more distractions.

Yes! I agree, I am not faster at typing with a touchscreen than I was with a physical keyboard. It is more distracting to focus on a flat surface of glass to make sure you touch the right areas. Technology nowadays is probably advanced enough to create a keypad that has a swype-esque feature built in.

I don't understand the argument that a screen for typing is better than physical keyboard. If that was the case, why do we all use physical keyboards for more productive work?

 

[SlyFlourishXDA]

I'm not even going to touch the argument of comparing a $600 consumer device to something that requires hundreds of millions if not billions in tax dollars... I agree phones need to be more durable but that's a terrible comparison

Well I don't think its a terrible comparison. Do you understand how much time, money and R&D it took to create a modern day cell phone? I wager that the miniaturization of electronics is way more costly than sending a rocket to space and back. Anyways, technology has changed quite considerably since physical keyboards on phones were mainstream. It is not unreasonable to think that it could be reinvented and serve a market that still would like to put their fingers on actual keys than a glass screen.

 

[Red Storm]

I knew people who could send entire text messages with the keypad without ever taking their phone out of their pockets. No matter how you swing it, touch screens means looking at what you are pressing, which means more distractions.

Other than very simple text messages, that sounds highly exaggerated. Swipe style typing is so fast, easy, and perfect for one handed use. It's one of the great innovations in the mobile software industry.

 

[Zaap]

I don't understand the argument that a screen for typing is better than physical keyboard. If that was the case, why do we all use physical keyboards for more productive work?

This makes the presumption that any of those shitty little chicklet keyboards that phones had was ever anywhere near as usable for typing as the full-sized keyboard at anyone's desk.

I know there's a bit of waxing nostalgic in this thread but sorry... there was never the case of a crappy little cell phone keyboard that compared with the full sized real thing. Most I ever used were clunky as hell and no one in their right mind was writing novels using one.

Most people use full sized keyboards at a desktop because it's a stationary position and it makes sense. A laptop keyboard is going to be a size tradeoff for portability.

The phone even moreso. But for many, typing alone isn't as important as using a large enough screen to make the rest of the phones features more useful (camera, GPS, PDA, web, media player etc.) to justify a hardware keyboard taking that much priority.

(Add to it the fact many prefer an on-screen keyboard for flexibility of input as mentioned above by several, and it's a no-brainer.)

There's also the fact that you're perfectly free to use a hardware keyboard if you so chose. There are some that attach to an existing device, or use a bluetooth setup.

 

[CP5670]

There is one option for keyboard fans right now, the Blackberry Priv, which runs Android. I like its look and feel a lot and was on the fence with getting it, but it's apparently prone to overheating and the rest of the hardware is mediocre compared to other phones at that price. It's also not clear if it will have good long term support, given the state of the company.

 

[Commodus]

There is one option for keyboard fans right now, the Blackberry Priv, which runs Android. I like its look and feel a lot and was on the fence with getting it, but it's apparently prone to overheating and the rest of the hardware is mediocre compared to other phones at that price. It's also not clear if it will have good long term support, given the state of the company.

I used the Priv for a while, and it's a pretty good phone if you don't mind the so-so camera. I didn't run into overheating issues. The bigger concern is long-term support. It took several months for Marshmallow to arrive, and it's hard to say how well BlackBerry will act when it comes to Nougat.

What's funny: the best part of the keyboard wasn't so much the physical typing as using the keyboard surface as a trackpad. You can scroll through web pages and edit text without having to obscure the screen with your fingers.

 

[core2slow]

Just import a Samsung galaxy folder/W2017 phone (or whatever name they're calling it) and live in your niche world, OP. It's pretty stout in terms of specs and hey...it's a samsung? You're not going to get the industry to go backward just because you have little to no productivity that could be satisfied by a dumbphone or something from the PAYG walmart shelf.

 

[SlyFlourishXDA]

Just import a Samsung galaxy folder/W2017 phone (or whatever name they're calling it) and live in your niche world, OP. It's pretty stout in terms of specs and hey...it's a samsung? You're not going to get the industry to go backward just because you have little to no productivity that could be satisfied by a dumbphone or something from the PAYG walmart shelf.

Ouch, you are confused. If you think that a phone with a smaller display and candy bar form factor can't be built with productivity in mind then you are mistaken. I don't think your logic of decreasing phone size and catering to people who prefer physical keyboard means the industry has to go backwards. We live in an age of excess, everything reflects that, your phone does more than you know what to do with. People have become conditioned to think they cannot be productive without a smartphone in their hands. The modern day smartphone has replaced a lot of tools, no doubt. One of the cons of a phone doing anything and everything in people's minds would be an unwillingness to think outside the box and solve problems without a smartphone as your tool. It happens throughout history all the time. Smartphones are going to change, people need to start thinking of new ideas of how we are going to move forward with this technology instead of heralding today's form factor of a smartphone as the be-all and end-all.

 

[zerocool84]

Ouch, you are confused. If you think that a phone with a smaller display and candy bar form factor can't be built with productivity in mind then you are mistaken. I don't think your logic of decreasing phone size and catering to people who prefer physical keyboard means the industry has to go backwards. We live in an age of excess, everything reflects that, your phone does more than you know what to do with. People have become conditioned to think they cannot be productive without a smartphone in their hands. The modern day smartphone has replaced a lot of tools, no doubt. One of the cons of a phone doing anything and everything in people's minds would be an unwillingness to think outside the box and solve problems without a smartphone as your tool. It happens throughout history all the time. Smartphones are going to change, people need to start thinking of new ideas of how we are going to move forward with this technology instead of heralding today's form factor of a smartphone as the be-all and end-all.

Yes it does mean the industry has to go backwards because we already had phones with keyboards and they died off. If people cared enough about them they wouldn't be a niche product now.

 

[SlyFlourishXDA]

Yes it does mean the industry has to go backwards because we already had phones with keyboards and they died off. If people cared enough about them they wouldn't be a niche product now.

What people care about and what is practical/functional are not mutually exclusive my friend. That is not the reason they died off.

 

[Commodus]

Ouch, you are confused. If you think that a phone with a smaller display and candy bar form factor can't be built with productivity in mind then you are mistaken. I don't think your logic of decreasing phone size and catering to people who prefer physical keyboard means the industry has to go backwards. We live in an age of excess, everything reflects that, your phone does more than you know what to do with. People have become conditioned to think they cannot be productive without a smartphone in their hands. The modern day smartphone has replaced a lot of tools, no doubt. One of the cons of a phone doing anything and everything in people's minds would be an unwillingness to think outside the box and solve problems without a smartphone as your tool. It happens throughout history all the time. Smartphones are going to change, people need to start thinking of new ideas of how we are going to move forward with this technology instead of heralding today's form factor of a smartphone as the be-all and end-all.

I think our communication devices are going to change, but I don't think we're going to go back to candy bar phones. Whenever we move past the big screen, it's probably going to be toward wearables or even implants. There's still an inherent advantage to seeing a lot of information at a time, it's just a question of how you see it and interact with it.

The problem, in a sense, is that the smartphone is currently the best solution for most things: lots of visual real estate, a completely flexible interface, and enough battery life/space that you can bolt on features like good cameras and mobile payments. It's one device that replaces two, three or four gadgets at once. It's going to be very, very hard to convince people that they should change unless you can make any future hardware at least as convenient.

 

[SlyFlourishXDA]

I think our communication devices are going to change, but I don't think we're going to go back to candy bar phones. Whenever we move past the big screen, it's probably going to be toward wearables or even implants. There's still an inherent advantage to seeing a lot of information at a time, it's just a question of how you see it and interact with it.

The problem, in a sense, is that the smartphone is currently the best solution for most things: lots of visual real estate, a completely flexible interface, and enough battery life/space that you can bolt on features like good cameras and mobile payments. It's one device that replaces two, three or four gadgets at once. It's going to be very, very hard to convince people that they should change unless you can make any future hardware at least as convenient.

Interesting, I don't think for the average consumer there is an inherent advantage to seeing a lot of information at one time. I think it is about having the proper information put in front of the user precisely when it is needed. I know you said "there's still..." which indicates to me that you are speaking about the present, to which I agree there is an advantage to displaying a lot of information to today's user. Sensory overload is a problem if people are given too many things to focus on, it is the paradox of choice, it can be paralyzing and make people unhappy . That is what we are seeing today, there are many studies that detail smartphone addiction and the main reasons behind it. If people are only given correct information precisely when they need it and nothing more, I wager the dependency on technology will be more healthy and beneficial.

We are at a fork in the road where the questions "Yes we can do this, people will love it and will make us tons of money....but should we do it? What are the negative consequences?" aren't being asked enough or are outright being ignored. Developing life changing technology should not be in the hands of people solely in the game to create the most money. I really do think there needs to be a regulatory organization that protects the interests of humans maintaining a healthy relationship with technology. That organization needs to be made up of physicians, scientists, athletes and community leaders.

 

[GoodEnough]

SWYPE keyboard was the paradigm shift
We are never going back, thank God