Cellphones with keyboards?

[robkelk]

My old, old BlackBerry Bold is dying on me, and I have to replace it. But I've been using it because it has a physical keyboard - it seems that half the time touchscreens don't respond to my touch, so a keyboard's a necessity.

I've been lead to believe that BlackBerry got out of the hardware business a while back. Does anyone make a cellphone with a physical keyboard nowadays?

[Labster]

Nope, BlackBerry still sells phones with keyboards, but so do some other companies. These phones run Android now.

I've never had a phone with more than 17 physical buttons, so I'm probably not the best one to give advice on this kind of phone.

My own question is "can someone sell me a new iPhone with the small size/form factor of the SE?" And I already know Apple's answer is "fuck you, consumer" with its giant thin phablets. My work bought me an XR and it's the worst mobile phone I've ever owned; I will not use it. And I'm also on a 2013 MacBook Pro which my work will also upgrade every two years, because I want a laptop with a goddamn Escape key and a keyboard that works every time. But, unfortunately, a reliable keyboard would make the device 5mm thicker and we can't have that, can we?

[classicdrogn]

WRT laptop keyboads, I always carry around a regular, full size Amazon Basics USB 108-key and mouse set myself, and just throw it on top of the opened laptop and use the mouse against my pants if there's not enough desk space otherwise. I am extremely unconcerned with appearances though. As for cell phones, while mine is a ten year old $10 flip phone, so I have no actual reccomendations to give, an Amazon search for "slider phone" (no quotes) seems like at least a place to start looking at prices and consumer reviews.

[robkelk]

Nope, BlackBerry still sells phones with keyboards, but so do some other companies.  These phones run Android now.
...

Good news and bad news, then... unless the Android Blackberries have the security features I've grown to love in the older BBs. Thanks.

[Bob Schroeck]

I know Samsung used to make smartphones with a slide-out keyboard -- Peggy had one for a few years -- but I don't know if there are any still in their product line.

[robkelk]

I now have a Blackberry KEY2 LE. (It was on sale - only $20 more to buy it outright than it pay for it over a two-year plan. And I can afford to spend that $20.) Now to transfer my contacts over... and, considering I skipped at least three generations of phones, I think I'll have to do that by hand.

None of the "incoming SMS" sounds are particularly interesting. I'll have to see what I have in my sound effects collection.

Thanks for the help, everyone.