Blackberry variant of Pinephone/Pinephone Pro

[terarmot]

I was thinking that I might be more interested in blackberry style qwerty keyboard, than keyboard that is being worked on for Pinephone right now. Is there more people interested? How dificult would be to make specific version of pinephone with this design? Or maybe DIY kit with necessary parts? Now when Blackberry no longer makes phones only other option with this design is chinesse Unihertz Titan which is not suitible from many reasons (screen size, heavines, software support, etc.)

[fire219]

I've seen a few people mention interest in a portrait-style keyboard, but in general it seems to be preferred way less to the kind we're moving forward with. I can't see a portrait one ever being an official accessory, but nothing is stopping anyone from making their own.

[nelstomlinson]

I've seen a few people mention interest in a portrait-style keyboard, but in general it seems to be preferred way less to the kind we're moving forward with. I can't see a portrait one ever being an official accessory, but nothing is stopping anyone from making their own.

I would be interested in one that slides down from underneath like the Blackberry Priv.

[ryo]

The shell-like keyboard seems more practical to me, especially considering we're technically using a PC OS on a phone, and I haven't really seen a general laptop user using their laptop in portrait mode.
But I can see how people would prefer a vertical keyboard, it's what most people type on when using an on screen keyboard anyway, which is understandable seeing how Android and iOS made landscape mode keyboards less and less practical over time, and sadly it's the same thing with Squeekboard (Phosh) and Majiit (Plamo and uTouch).

[biketool]

Another option is to have a slider like the old Sharp Zaurus PDAs.
Basic dpad arrow inputs along with enter, backspace, super, and esc; slide down to get a tiny but very tactile-clicky QWERTY KB.
I liked it when I had it but now I think it would not be great.
Zaurus SL-5500 PDA with keyboard open:


I might love the N900 but to get a screen as big as a Pinephone, which is now the minimum I would want, we pretty much have to have the clamshell and it protects the screen even if it makes one handed use as a phone a bit more difficult.  This is a linux device and pretty much needs a hardware keyboard or at least a few more hardware keys to be fully useful with current available software.

[beta-user]

Many people just want a keyboard that slides so that you could still use the phone as a phone. With PinePhone's keyboard what am I supposed to do when someone calls me? Am I supposed to quickly change the backplate to remove the keyboard so that I could put the phone to my ear? It's really cool that Pine is making this, but I'm not yet convinced this design will be practical. Slider keyboards were used in many phones and we know what to expect from them.

[biketool]

Many people just want a keyboard that slides so that you could still use the phone as a phone. With PinePhone's keyboard what am I supposed to do when someone calls me? Am I supposed to quickly change the backplate to remove the keyboard so that I could put the phone to my ear? It's really cool that Pine is making this, but I'm not yet convinced this design will be practical. Slider keyboards were used in many phones and we know what to expect from them.

Yes, the N900 KB option, the difficulty is in making a good thin tactile click keyboard(like the Zaurus and N900) and a strong slider rail mechanism.  A rubber pad keys keyboard would fail early and there is no tactile click to know you had made a keystroke.