However, in some cases, hardware QWERTY lovers are also interested in a top-specified camera on their mobiles. In this mixed scenario, there are not many options available.

I went searching, and have come up with a list that some might find helpful. 8 megapixel cameras are the rave these days, so I have used that as the yardstick for drawing up my list.

These are devices that are available in the Nigerian environment. For those who live in other markets, you will be able to easily add to this list.

Symbian
1. Nokia E7
2. Nokia E6

Android
1. Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro

Sadly, there are no 8 megapixel phones from Blackberry yet. Crazy; isn’t it? I wonder when (or if ever) RIM will step up their game in the camera compartment? The lack of top-range cameras on BlackBerry devices is one of the reasons why I find it difficult to use a BlackBerry as my primary smartphone.

For some of us, it just gotta be QWERTY.

Because my job requires that I review phones, I have no problem using a pure touchscreen device when I have to. But my preference – a hardware QWERTY!

You see, I have large hands and big fingers. Nothing like an excellent hardware QWERTY agrees with those more.

My very first smartphone had a hardware QWERTY keyboard. The mobiles that have spent the greatest amount of time with me were all hardware QWERTY devices. Examples include the Nokia E61, Nokia 9500 and Nokia E90.

I loved the Nokia N8 for its fantastic camera and multimedia prowess, but I kept picking up the E7 again and again. That superb keyboard just wouldn’t stop haunting me. Even now, I still carry it around every now and then.

Commie, Anyone?

I particularly love the Communicator form factor. No; its not the same as side sliders. If its not a commie, it is not a commie.

Back in the day, when you owned a communicator, you had the most powerful devices on the block. Commies were the top dog.

I once ran my entire webhosting operation on the Nokia 9500 Communicator. That was a 4.5-inch display beast with a 330 MHz processor, a 640×480 VGA camera, and Opera HTML browser.

However, Nokia has done away with that form factor, and no-one else is doing anything like that.

My QWERTY Smartphones Till Date

1. Nokia 9210 communicator
2. Nokia 9500 communicator
3. Nokia E61
4. Nokia E61i
5. Palm Treo 700P
6. Sony Ericsson P990i
7. Sony Ericsson P1i
8. HTC Titan/Sprint Mogul pocket PC
9. Samsung i780 pocket PC
10. Nokia E90 communicator
11. T-mobile G1
12. Nokia E75
13. Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
14. Samsung B7320
15. LG GW550
16. Nokia N900
17. HTC Touch Pro2
18. BlackBerry 9630 Tour
19. Nokia E5
20. Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro
21. Palm Pre
22. Blackberry 9800 Torch
23. Nokia E7
24. Samsung Galaxy Pro B7510
25. Blackberry 9300 Curve 3G
26. LG C660 Optimus Pro
27. BlackBerry Curve 9360
28. Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro

Trade-Offs

I also love great multimedia on my mobiles. Unfortunately, devices with hardware QWERTY usually don’t come with the best camera and musical experiences. However, as long as the multimedia experience is not poor, I can live with the trade-off.

A guy Can Dream

If I had one mobile wish that any of the gods of mobile can grant right now, here it is: iOS or Windows Phone user interface, plus mass storage functionality, with a 4.5-inch display in a communicator form factor.

I would bite. Hard.

There you are – my world of QWERTY smartphones. Give me QWERTY or…

Of course, such a limited viewpoint does not portray the full picture – the true picture – of things.

The Statistics

At the time of writing this, there are over 170 modern mobile phone models with hardware QWERTY keyboards in the market. This includes feature phones, as well as smartphones from all platforms except iOS – Bada, Android, Symbian, MeeGo, WebOS, BlackBerry and Windows Phone.

These manufacturers know that there exists a market for hardware QWERTY devices, and wisely ensure that this market is not neglected in their line-ups.

All these manufacturers are releasing hardware QWERTY devices for all classes – low-end, mid-tier, and high-end. They are releasing candy-bar QWERTY devices and slider QWERTY devices alike too.

Around this time last year, I wrote an article on how it looked like QWERTY bars had been left in the hands of RIM/BlackBerry. Apparently, other manufacturers have wizened up to reality and are now pushing QWERTY bars with more vigour.

Pros And Cons

There are arguments for and against hardware QWERTY keyboards. We can argue the pros and cons all we like, but here is the most powerful factor – people will use what they want (or like), regardless of the pros and the cons.

Here is an excerpt from an article on Android Authority on the Best QWERTY Android Phones in 2011:

We happen to believe that QWERTY smartphones are craved for by mobile enthusiasts. An Admob report in 2010 showed that 54% of Android traffic was driven by devices that feature a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s hard to deny that a huge amount of people still want a powerful smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard.

This is interesting, as the Admob report echoes my observations on the subject – QWERTY devices are not going anywhere.

Yes; its hard to deny that a huge amount of people still want physical QWERTY keyboards. Yet, somehow, some still flat-out deny it.

Choice. Preference. Taste

SWYPE is awesome; yes. Onscreen QWERTY keyboards have improved tremendously; yes. But there are those who want hardware QWERTY and nothing is going to change that. This phenomenon is called choice. Preference. Taste. The last time I checked, it was a good thing.

Those who think that speed is all there is to the argument are wrong. If that were true, nobody would buy trucks or SUVs or city cars. Everyone would buy sports cars and roadsters instead.

Some men like their women lean and trim. Others prefer them with some extra flesh. Same goes for the women-folk.

In the end, a lot boils down to taste. That’s the way the world works. That’s the way humans are.

Personally, by default I will take a hardware QWERTY device over a touchscreen-only device. Not that I think the latter is inferior. In the same way, there are those who won’t touch a hardware QWERTY smartphone either.

If Apple were to release an iPhone with a hardware QWERTY, chances are that I would purchase one. Yes; I am hardware QWERTY like that.

In their line-up of best QWERTY Android smartphones of 2011, the Android Authority guys added, and I firmly agree:

QWERTY smartphones aren’t dead as some claim. It’s a booming ecosystem, in fact.

Those who claim that the hardware QWERTY on mobile is dead are seriously mistaken or comfortable in their denial. It is actually alive and well. The figures speak clearly.

Wake up, guys; the hardware QWERTY is alive and well. Comments welcome!

PS: This review has no pictures yet. We upgraded to WordPress 3.3 last night and have been unable to upload pictures since then. Pictures will be added as soon as we can. Thanks for bearing with us. – Editor.

I said it before and I will again – the LG C660 Optimus Pro is a good-looking budget device. It was the good looks that first got my attention. Okay, well, it really was the QWERTY keypad – and then I noticed how good the phone looked.

But think of it, along with that keypad, this baby offers all the standard features of Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) with a 2.8-inch capacitive display, and a 800 MHz processor. Sounds promising. And it is.

But for a device that costs around N30,000, there has to be compromises; right? Right.

But I will get to that later.

The Shining Stars

First, those keys do look small, but they work very well. I have large fingers and didn’t have big issues using the keypad. As a matter of fact, within hours, I fell more in love with the Optimus Pro on account of the keypad alone.

The display is responsive (more so than that on its distant cousin, the Galaxy Gio). Sunlight legibility is fairly good. With the brightness set to at least 50%, it is usable outdoors. Its not at the top of the ladder of sunlight legibility, but its quite usable.

I particularly like the LG desktop – with the large AccuWeather widget showing your city, time, date and weather condition. Did I mention that I really like it?

All other Android functionality is standard – and those are well known and they work fine: email, web browsing, music playback synchronisation, wifi, hotspot, etc. Its all there, so being a budget device doesn’t mean that you are denied any of those.

Video playback supports MP4, 3GP, WMV, and surprisingly AVI files.

The Compromises

While there’s a hefty 800 MHz processor running under the hood, the limited RAM of 256 MB means that using the phone with multiple apps running results in some lag, as well as a persistent low memory error when the little guy runs out of RAM.

Yep; persistent. The error pop-up gives you the option to select “Okay” to launch the built-in app manager and choose what apps to close, or to tap “Cancel”, go on with what you are doing and let the OS decide what to kill off.

After checking out the app manager once, I always canceled and just went on with my current task. Many times, when I go back to an app that I had been using, I find that its been shut down. I’m looking at a maximum of three or four running apps here. Anything more and something gets shut down.

Well, what were you expecting from 256 MB RAM on Android? This isn’t Symbian or BlackBerry. Still, its not terrible. It can be lived with. I have so enjoyed the Optimus Pro so much that I haven’t griped about it as much as I thought I would.

Another weak point of this guy is the camera. How do I put this? Let’s just say that this is about the worst 3.2 megapixel camera that I have used. I suspect that the erstwhile holder of that honour, the Huawei U8180, produces slightly better pictures. “suspect” is the operative word. The 3.2 megapixel camera on the Samsung Gio certainly does much better.

Like all other Android devices that I have used, power management is not impressive. While your usage may vary, but i find that charging the phone fully and leaving it idle overnight with Gmail, one company mail, Twitter and Facebook running, by daybreak, the battery is down to about 50%.

that’s idle. No human interaction with the phone. As another Android user said, it seems there’s an angel (maybe a devil too, who knows?) who uses his phone while he sleeps.

Your mileage may vary, but you certainly need to watch your battery and nurse this baby tediously to get through a full work day if you have the services listed above running on it.

Of course, you can always disable as many apps and services – or even everything besides calls and SMS – should you really need to.

A Few Other Niggles

I had issues with Glo’s APN settings on the Optimus Pro. The device has GloWAP and GloMMS configured by default. When I create a new APN for GloFlat and select it for use, the phone ignores that and uses GloWAP. I tried again and again, but never found a way around that.

I had no issues with Etisalat or Airtel APNs which I tested, so it looks like a Glo issue.

Conclusions

I like the Optimus Pro. It is a breath of fresh air, especially with its solid feel and good QWERTY keypad in a bar form. Of the several android devices that I have used this year, the Optimus Pro is the one that I developed a fondness this deep for.

I can live with the low RAM, but that poor camera is an issue. For you, things may be different. The power management is a deal breaker for me. I hate having to nurse a phone to get through a day of usage.

However, what is certain is that for its price, the LG Optimus Pro is serious value for money.

The LG Optimus Pro C660 is an Android 2.3.5 QWERTY slab that looks the business. It was love at first sight for me. Y’all know that I am a sucker for QWERTY candybar phones, and this is no different.

The Optimus Pro looks and feels cool. And with a 800 MHz processor purring under the hood and a 1,500 mAh battery providing the juice, it sounds like an Android device that ticks all the boxes – QWERTY, touch, power and a promising battery.

It has also got Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) running the show too, which is as good as you can get on any Android smartphone now except you have the Galaxy Nexus.

Brief Specs:

• 2.8-inch capacitive TFT display
• HSDPA, Wifi, Wifi hotspot
• 800 MHz processor
• 256 MB RAM
• 150 MB internal storage + MicroSD card
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Android OS, v2.3.3 (Gingerbread)
• Document Viewer

Here are a few pictures as appetisers.

The LG Optimus Pro beside the BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300

LG Optimus Pro keyboard

LG Home on the Optimus Pro

Looking Good; Right?

I hope that I have whet your appetite a bit. I find this baby exciting. It looks like extreme value for money, and as usual Mister Mobility will be putting it through its paces in the next few weeks – all for your convenience.

But I am betting that individuals looking for a budget Android smartphone that outperforms others in its class will love this baby.

In the meantime, comments!

It’s been three years since the release of the E71, and I am amazed at how much relevant it still is in today’s smartphone space. While the E71 has limitations due to lack of certain hardware and perhaps software present in today’s smartphones, you still will not feel very much left out carrying one around today.

My reason for saying this is really simple: much of what can be done with today’s smartphones can also be done with the E71. Period.

I have been carrying one around for a week now, and eish! It is delivering very well.

1. This is still a very beautiful and very well built phone
2. It is still enjoying support from the manufacturer.
3. This guy takes care of all my social networking needs.
4. I am able to edit and view office files on it, be they Word, Excel or Powerpoint. As a matter of fact, I am writing this article with the E71.
5. With Joikuspot Premium installed, I am able to use it as wi-fi hotspot.
6. This baby lets me use keyboard shortcuts when typing and editing documents.
7. It’s got very impressive battery life.
8. When it’s time to get my groove on, I launch the music player and blast away. Okay, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but you get the gist.
9. While I won’t get the Nokia N8 picture quality from it, the 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash manages to snap decent photos.
10. I know I won’t be able to have an erotic conversation with the delectable lady Siri on the E71, but I am still able to initiate a call by telling my phone to call someone from my contact list using the voice command feature.

There you have it! Three years running, and the E71 is still rocking. That’s impressive.

It is a smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard. She loves and enjoys the keyboard. She told me that she was getting bored already and would love to get a new smartphone. She was looking at Android. And Samsung. I thought it was a good move.

Then she dropped the spoiler: she didn’t want a touchscreen smartphone. She finds touchscreen devices difficult to use, she said. They require too much attention and concentration to use, she said. Simply put, she wants a non-touchscreen smartphone.

An Extinct Specie
It may not have dawned on you yet, but I do not know of any smartphone that was released this year 2011 that does not sport a touchscreen. Not one.

The last non-touchscreen device on any smartphone platform was launched last year, 2010.

You read that right. My facts may be a bit off, but if I am right, that would be the Blackberry 9780 in November 2010.

The E6 launched with a QWERTY keyboard this year has a touchscreen display. I mentioned that to her. She declined. If it had touchscreen, she didn’t want to hear of it, so I didn’t bother with any of the new BlackBerry or Android QWERTY devices.

The New Age
But the reality is, she will have to adjust if she wants to use a smartphone. I had to adjust, though my preference lies with non-touch QWERTY too. Many others have had to adjust.

Let’s call it the evolution of the smartphone and the adaptation of humanity. Adapt or go extinct.

My first pure touchscreen device was the Samsung S8003 Jet back in January 2010. It was a non-smartphone marketed as “smarter than a smartphone”. The touchscreen experience wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be. Today, I use another pure touchscreen device as my primary smartphone, the Nokia N8. It is not terrible, but I miss my QWERTY keyboard.

One thing is for sure, whether it is with or without a hardware QWERTY keyboard, we are in the age of the touchscreen.

Some quick specifications:

• Released June 2011
• 2.6 inch, 480 x 320 pixel, TFT capacitive touchscreen, with Gorilla Glass
• Android OS, v2.3 (Gingerbread)
• 800 MHz processor
• HTC Sense 2.1 UI
• 512 MB RAM
• QWERTY keyboard
• Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Wi-Fi hotspot
• 5 MP, 2592 x 1944 pixels, autofocus, LED flash

In hand, the ChaCha gives the impression of a well-built device. It felt really sturdy. The QWERTY keyboard is very usable with large keys and good tactile feedback. I do think that the placement of the Facebook button is off though.

I also loved the user interface – lots of white space in a clean, elegant way.

Typical of HTC devices, audio reproduction was tinny. I did a comparison with the N8 for a few people present and the difference was as clear as night and day. If HTC’s reputation is anything to go by, I wouldn’t bet on the camera shining either. HTC has never stood out in the multimedia space. If interested in multimedia, you are better off with a Nokia, Apple, Sony Ericsson or Samsung device.

I enjoyed the short time that I spent with the ChaCha. It is a lovely QWERTY device. Here are some pictures:

The QWERTY keyboard feels good and works well

The menu - clean. I am a sucker for clean, neat UIs with lots of white space

Web browsing

Music player on the HTC ChaCha. Tinny speakers spoil the experience.

The camera interface

The rear of the ChaCha

The ChaCha is in the same price range and class as the Nokia E6, another QWERTY candybar. Audio music quality apart, I’d take this one over the E6.

Here is a gallery of some of the devices that I used from 2007 through 2010.

January 2007 - Palm Treo 700P

September 2007 - Sony Ericsson P990i

February 2008 - Nokia E61i; Nokia E61

February 2008 - Sony Ericsson P990i; Nokia E61i

February 2008 - Sony Ericsson P990i, Nokia E61, Nokia 9500, Nokia E61i

November 2008 - Nokia E90; Nokia 9500

March 2010 - LG GW550

April 2010 - Nokia N900

July 2010 - HTC Touch Pro2

September 2010 - Nokia E90, Nokia E61i, Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

September 2010 - Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 Mini Pro

Things have certainly changed dramatically since 2007. Still, I have stubbornly clung to my hardware QWERTY keyboard devices. Odd, but incidentally (or significantly), my current device, the Nokia N8, is a touchscreen-only device. Perhaps it is lady Belle (I have the newer leaked ROM, and its superb!) that’s got such a hold on me that I can tolerate the lack of a hardware keyboard (article on that coming soon).

Anyway, hope you enjoyed the gallery.

Why Do I say it is a great device?

Yes it is, but there are things I don’t like about it too. I am coming from a background of QWERTY keypads. I owned and used a Blackberry 9700 before moving to the Nokia E71 which is my current device before going out on a 2-week date with the sexy Nokia E6.

1. QWERTY and Touch screen
I find the QWERTY keypad sexy. In fact I have described it as the bum of a new born baby — soft and fresh. It begs you to touch it, unlike the Nokia E71 that is very hard to my thumb. I sometimes suffer from blisters using the Nokia E71 due to its toughness and hardness.

I don’t have to hit on the QWERTY keys of the E6 all the time as there is an option to use the touch screen. The option and menu buttons are present onscreen on the E6. Unfortunately, when a call is coming in, I have to click on the physical answer button on the Keypad to answer the call. The option to answer calls using the touchscreen should be there.

2. The Native Browser
The Symbian Anna browser present on the E6 is much more advanced than the one on my Nokia E71. It allows me to view up to three web pages at a time. Not more than three. I can easily switch between the browsers without interrupting what I am currently working on. I can load a youtube video using the mobile version of Youtube.

Pinch to zoom is supported when viewing web pages using the native browser. There is however a limitation. Depending on how the web page you are viewing is adapted or created, you may zoom it to the point where the texts would flow away from your screen and it would not be automatically resized. That to me is a minus. I cannot be scrolling to and from to read a piece. I find myself using Opera Mini most of the time. Opera Mini gives me a better view of most web pages.

3. Internal memory (mass memory)
8GB storage, 256MB RAM and 1GB ROM. I have been downloading videos from Youtube via the PC and uploading it via Ovi Suite on the mass memory of the E6 and yet, I still have a whole 6Gb space left. There is the option to expand the memory with a microSD card of maximum memory of 32Gb. I am not sure I can quickly finish that. But for those who have huge need for storage, be my guest and get as much 32Gb MicroSD as you want. The 32Gb miscoSD was not included in the pack.

4. Calendar and Office documents
You have access to Quickoffice — MS Word, Powerpoint and Excel from the comfort of this tiny device. Part of this post was started in Microsoft Word and attached via mail using the Nokia E6 and then sent to my other email address. It came out as a full email document. This is the first time I would be trying out Office documents on a mobile phone.

The PDF document was however too tiny to read as you can see below. (screen shot one) To view it you will have to enlarge it and then the text will flow away from the screen making it difficult to read. Scrolling here and there to see the texts that have flowed out of the screen becomes a real pain. (screen shot again)

Viewing a PDF file - font too small

PDF file - zoomed in. Text not reflowed

5. Resolution and Pixel
By specification, the pixel count on the E6 display is 326 ppi. The display is very sharp. I was with a Nokia E7 this evening. I found out that the E6’s display was a lot sharper.

6. Size and portability
You can easily hold it in your hand; slot it in your pocket or your bag. It is very portable

7. Multimedia — Music, Movies, Photographs
Due to the large mass memory, there is room for you to store full length movies, musical videos and photographs. The 3.55mm AV out gives you quality sound. You can play your popular musicals — audio and video — and enjoy quality sound production.

8. Applications (Suggested applications that can heighten your experience of the Nokia E6)
My main excitement and thrill of the Nokia E6 was the availability of certain apps. The apps I enjoyed using and downloaded are –

- Whatsapp. For instant messaging and connecting with your friends and contacts on Symbian, Anroid, iOS and Blackberry
- Skype. It worked perfectly with the E6. I was able to make voice call with EDGE network with clarity.
- Gravity. As someone who uses Twitter extensively, I find the Social app pre-installed by Nokia to be grossly incompetent. It is clunky, slow and the UI sucks. To fix that, I use Gravity, an app developed by Jan Ole Sur, for Twitter, Foursquare and Google reader.
- fMobi. The Gravity app does not present me with an interesting view of Facebook, so I use fMobi. However, I am not a very good fan of Facebook.
- Other apps I installed are Nimbuzz and Operamini. Joikuspot—internet hotspot—was pre-installed. It is an app I have enjoyed using extensively too.

9. The User Interface
Symbian Anna is sooooo sexy. I handled a Nokia E7 running old Symbian^3 and I felt sad for those who are yet to get the Symbian Anna update.

10. Email and text messaging
The text messaging experience is sweet. You can easily reply text messages as if you are chatting by having all text messages stored as conversation. Unlike the Nokia E71, the text while reading and replying email are bigger.

11. Miscellaneous
The E6 has four home screens. I did not particularly find any need for that. I am fine with one or two. The third party applications are well integrated with the device. The only app I found challenging to use is the fMobi. It is full of features, but the 2.46” screen of the E6 makes it inconvenient to use the app and enjoy it. Apart from that every other thing is cool.

The E6 along with other devices is promised an update of belle in Q4 along with other devices. Let’s hope Nokia pushes it fast. Nokia has a reputation for delays.

What are the things I don’t like about the sexy Nokia E6?

- The Email delivery is not as fast as that of my Nokia E71
- The text can be very tiny and impossible to read when viewing some web pages that are not optimised for mobile. Especially since the screen is just 2.46”
- It gets stained easily by gathering dust
- It cannot shoot close up shots—your best bet would still be Nokia N8.

My final verdict

With that said, I would say if you are a business person or a multimedia user that does lots of messaging and with good eyesight, the Nokia E6 will make a good date.

Since I am doing just one review, feel free to comment and ask me any questions in the comment on anything that I may not have touched in details.