All the other discussions I found on Lemmy dismiss it because they find the idea of a second phone ridiculous. Or because they don’t buy into the “dumb phone” concept. But I think it makes a compelling phone on it’s own, and you wouldn’t need a second.
But really look into it. By every indication it appears designed to be a fully featured main phone. It has some compromises made to fit the keyboard first philosophy, but it has everything you’d need and more. Dual SIM (eSIM+physical), a headphone jack, micro SD Card support, a 50mp camera with OIS (I know megapixels don’t mean much but I think it shows it’s not gonna be the cheapest crap camera), NFC/Google Pay support, Android Auto, Qi2… That doesn’t read “second phone” to me. It’s just… phone.
They have now said that it will have an unlockable bootloader too. I’m not finding much to dislike here. 8GB of RAM is somewhat low but should be fine. The processor is still a question mark but honesty as long as it’s not bottom of the barrel it should be perfectly fine. I have always gone for flagship phones but honestly I’ve started analyzing what I actually do on my phone and I pretty much never push the hardware. I like knowing I have the top of the line but I basically just web browse, message, read email, scroll Lemmy, and listen to music/podcasts. Very occasionally watch some YouTube but that’s usually on my TV or PC. No gaming or anything. I should be able to do all of that on this device, some of it won’t be as good on that screen obviously but it should still be doable. I need the camera to at least be decent. Not great just not garbage. Like it’s fine if the low light performance is meh and the video isn’t the best. But I don’t want to look at my photos and regret taking it with that device, so we’ll see.
I don’t want a dumb phone, and I don’t think this is one. You should be able to do everything any other phone can. I don’t think it’s a second phone either. I think they’re just leaning into that for marketing reasons, so that when anyone points out the tradeoffs of this form factor they can just wave it away as a secondary device.
It appeals to me because it’s a small phone. Seriously nobody makes one worth using. Unihertz sure, if you want a bad software experience with no updates ever. But otherwise you just have the non-plus sized iPhone/Galaxy S. Those are considered small. Or maybe the flip-foldables. It also appeals to me because it has major character and (imo) style. I’m bored of glass and metal sandwiches. Give me this! A plastic device with a swappable back that has a (vegan?) leather option? Hell yeah.
Swiping has become increasingly shitty for me and predictive text is approaching unusable. I would love to have a physical keyboard again.
This has puzzled me for a long time. I had the same phone from the introduction of the original swype to it becoming inexplicably worse, to gboard being functionally better if you can ignore it probably spying on you via goog services even with internet permission removed, to that also becoming mysteriously worse, and all the other attempts at implementing it coming and going while never reaching the level of swype or gboard at their peaks.
I considered maybe my old phone had a deteriorated touch panel but three phones later and it’s still never been as good. I’ve been wondering if the tired scenario occurred of some common code like an unattributed foss library that had an update that broke the original functionality of multiple swipe keyboards and none of the keyboard devs ever noticed.
I’ve also noticed that swipe typing has become increasingly shitty, until I realized it’s me. I’ve become too proficient, and/or sloppy/clumsy. I’m too fast, basically, causing inaccuracy and imprecision. If I just slow down and swipe with more precision, it’s a lot better.
As someone who considers themselves a large proponent of swipe texting i have been increasingly running into issues where a word i want to type is almost unreachable with swipe texting because the letters are in too straight of a line on the keyboard and so it only interprets the beginning and ending letters or it takes another word that lies an a similar line
But see, you cant become too proficient at a physical keyboard, you either hit the correct button or you didn’t and there’s no computer deciding edge cases the wrong way because there aren’t edge cases.
My last keyboard phone was the Motorola Photon Q ( which was awesome, had that thing for years) I’ve had 3 total touch screen only phone since then, and only in the last year has it gotten truly terrible. I’m actually in the process of converting a Razr 40 Ultra outer screen into a slider phone with a blackberry q20 keyboard. But if it keeps being a pain in my ass I’ll probably just get the Clicks.