For one reason or another, handset makers have abandoned the vertical QWERTY sliders. Why that’s the case is beyond me – these kind of devices potentially offer best of both worlds, including a large touchscreen and full QWERTY keyboard. On the downside, this form factor does make phones slightly bulkier but I believe the benefits are greater as you get to type much faster.
Some of the earlier devices with this form factor include BlackBerry Torch, Palm Pre and Dell Venue Pro, all of which (unfortunately) failed to attract big gathering. However, we would say the form factor doesn’t have anything to do with it. Rather, BlackBerry Torch was running on an old platform and it was slow, while the Palm Pre and Dell Venue Pro shipped with webOS and Windows Phone, which at the time had emerging eco-systems with insignificant number of apps to choose from.
Today, however, the situation is different and we’re hoping that some smart handset maker will take its chances with a vertical QWERTY slider. To make it a success, such a device needs to have solid specs sheet with an HD screen (at least 720p) with a diagonal of at least 4 inches, fast processor, great camera and so on. I would say that Facebook could be one of the companies pushing for this kind of smartphone, hoping that users will benefit from the QWERTY keyboard to chat with their buddies while on the go.
Anyway, just thought I should write about this, hoping that some handset maker’s representative will read these words and actually do something about it. What about you – would you be willing to grab a vertical QWERTY slider presuming it has great specs sheet?