The best Qwerty smartphones of 2011
In the smartphone market the current trend is very much for slim, sleek touchscreen devices but, as good as some touchscreen devices are, typing out a long e-mail or document can still be taxing, so if you're a heavy texter, typer or you like to work on the go you'll likely favour a hardware keyboard. But which one is right for you? Well, let's dive-in and find out which hardware QWERTY toting smartphone's are the best on the market.
First to bat is the BlackBerry Torch 9800, a device which marries all of RIM's business know-how with a host of multimedia functionality to keep even the most fidgety user busy. The device runs on the latest version of RIM's BlackBerry OS, version 6.0, and is powered by a 624MHz work-horse CPU and 512MB RAM. The typically responsive BlackBerry QWERTY slides out from the beneath the 3.2-inch capacitive touchscreen and will make working and messaging on the hoof a breeze.
Next in line is the amazing Android 2.2 powered HTC Desire Z, the successor to the phone that launched Android, the HTC Dream. The Desire Z comes with the all the technology that you'd expect from a device with its lineage, such as a 5-megapixel camera, vivid 3.7-inch touchscreen and top-end Qualcomm chipset which includes a CPU clocked at 800MHz and the Adreno 205 GPU for silky smooth gaming. But most importantly the Desire Z features a well spaced keyboard that's among the best we've ever used.
If you're on the lookout for a QWERTY packing smartphone but you're on a budget you should give the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro a look. The device comes with version 2.1 of Android (that's 'Éclair' to the initiated) and features a 5-megapixel camera with LED flash, 600MHz ARM11 CPU, Adreno 200 GPU and a tidy little 2.5-inch capacitive touchscreen. The Mini Pro only measures a teeny 90 x 52 x 17 mm but the hardware keyboard included is more than ample, but you might have trouble if you have hands like Peter Shilton!
Another fine device for you to consider is the BlackBerry Bold 9780, a device which sticks to RIM's tried and tested plan of putting a well spaced, responsive keyboard beneath a high-resolution non-touch display. With the Bold you'll get access to RIM's growing BlackBerry App World, which should provide you with plenty of software to keep you productive and entertained. Hardware-wise the Bold 9780 is quietly impressive. It runs on a 624MHz CPU which keeps things ticking over nicely and also includes 512MB RAM, a 5-megapixel auto-focus camera with LED flash and, of course, BlackBerry e-mail, which is till the benchmark for push messaging.
Last but by no means least is the Motorola Milestone 2, which is the capable successor to Motorola's hit Milestone (or Droid, if you're in the US). The Milestone 2 features a 3.7-inch Gorilla Glass™ display, 5-megapixel auto-focus snapper with LED flash, 1GHz Cortex A8 chip with PowerVR GPU and a more than ample 512MB RAM, not to mention 8GB of on-board storage. A cool feature of this Android 2.2 powered device is that it comes with MotorBlur™, Motorola's custom UI overlay which brings you all your latest messages, e-mail and social networking information to live home screen widgets. Oh, and let's not forget the responsive hardware QWERTY that's nestling beneath the whole package!
So there you have it! If you're looking for a device that backs up all the cutting-edge smartphone tech with a good, solid keyboard you've got plenty of choice. Honourable mentions have to go to the HTC 7 Pro, a lively Windows Phone 7 specimen and the upcoming Nokia E7 though, which is a Symbian^3 powered workhorse that features arguably the best mobile keyboard we've ever seen. So why not treat yourself to a nice new messenger and stay in touch with the people that matter?
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