Best QWERTY smarthphone/ultraportable for writing

[antonyfirst]

Hi guys,

I am looking for a nice QWERTY handheld/smartphone/netbook to use for writing portably. I am currently owner of a Nokia E70, which is extremely quick in its keyboard response, has good screen and great ergonomicity due to its particular keyboard design. Anyway, it's a 3-years old model, which is slow for nice additions like internet surfing or others. It also has its quirks: a slow Symbian (and I don't want to use symbian anymore in my future purchases), a very fragile analogue stick (wears after some months, mainly due to the dirt which goes near the circuit: it could have be designed to be more dirt proof), and some random but frequent slowdowns (memory leaks) when the using the full keyboard (resulting in mixed letters in some words). I have got used to this kind of toys and I like to type every kind of work/uni/translation writeups. Typing is extremely fast, comparable to my computer keyboard.
Anyway, with the new toys coming out (like the HTC G1 or Blackberry Bold) I am growing interested in exploiting more of the mobile potential, in order to enjoy a bigger screen (G1 size at least, which would also allow to watch some telefilm episodes on it), more advanced internet browsing functionalities, multitasking and an overall snappy OS.
Writing on the go is still the main priority, so I am prone to ruling out candy-bar models, as well as touch only models (I need my physical qwerty keyboard, and the most ergonomic and responsive one possible). I also don't want to get another Nokia until they drop Symbian for Linux, and build quality increases.
I am open to other kinds of handhelds, like OQO's (if only they were cheaper) or netbooks.

Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Fallen]

I do a lot of writing with my EEE PC, with the new Ubuntu for netbooks (called Easy Peasy) as my OS.

I use Open Office, as well as Celtx as a screenwriting software.

I love it.

I still prefer my mbp and OSX when I'm at home, but I can't get over how robust the eee running ubuntu is, or how convenient it is.

Amazing. That I have lived to see these times.

I have the 701, but my father has the 901, which is better all around. The 1000 pushes it over the edge in terms of size imo.

 

[appophylite]

With smartphones, I've found that the Motorola Q9h has a really good keyboard. Shame that the phone itself is not nearly as good a mobile platform...

I also have no complaints regarding the keyboard on my Acer Aspire One. Tiny as heck to fit an 8.9 inch computer, but when I'm typing on it, it still feels like typing on any other laptop.

 

[Nocturnal310]

Sony Xperia X1.

fastest Winmo 6.1 based phone as claimed on XDA developers forum.

i am using it currently..love it.

if u wanna know more about it u can ask me here or on xda developers forum under same username

 

[sleepkyng]

nokia n800 with stowaway bluetooth keyboard.

i write a lot of articles on that and then when I'm home do most of the copy editing / writing in Word.

 

[AwakenedBeing]

For netbooks, EEE PC or Lenovo IdeaPad.

Although I have an iPhone 3G, I prefer the BlackBerry Bold. A buddy of mine has a Bold and we did a comparison of our phones. The Bold is one of the best phones ever made right now. OS is very fast and simple to use once you get use to it. The QWERTY keypad is like any other BlackBerry, which is easy to use and very responsive. The Bold's screen is about half the size of the iPhone. The display of the screen is very bright and sharp compared to the iPhone, which was a plus. Only thing I didn't like was web-browsing because I was so use to the iPhone's touchscreen. Overall, the Bold is a very good phone. Keyboard is excellent, OS is very fast, screen has amazing quality, and after a week or so, navigation and web-browsing becomes very easy. For battery life, it lasted around 4 hours of constant internet browsing, playing music, texting, and calling. My iPhone only lasted around 3 hours.

 

[DanTheMiataMan]

EEEpc 1000HE goes for 330 ATM and has 9 hour battery life =)

also

Dell Mini 9's are going for like 179ish barebone.

 

[walkingman]

Vaio P's keyboard is apparently pretty good:

Video: Sony Vaio P typing test (99 wpm!)

Expensive though...

 

[pat1006]

I have a Samsung NC10 as a netbook which I have no problems typing on. I don't use it much but when I do, I have no problems with it! It gets great battery life too. In addition, I have a Samsung BlackJack II as my smart phone. This phone is terrible to type of. It constantly misses keys because I type too fast on it.

 

[cash68]

Just throwing it out there, but the iPhone technically has a qwerty keyboard. It is slow at first, but once you learn the technique (slide and lift, as opposed to pecking), you get really fast with it.

 

[Rednamalas1]

Blackberry bold + foldable bluetooth keyboard.

 

[fraseyboy]

What's wrong with Symbian?

 

[walkingman]

Symbian has come a long way since the E70. New Nokias has plenty of memory and less likely to suffer from memory leaks. Nokia has realised that RAM and processor speed is important to smartphones.

 

[antonyfirst]

Thanks guys for the suggestions. My best bet looks to be either a future Blackberry with QWERTY cable and Storm-style, or maybe the announced HTC G2.

I have seen a new Symbian OS on Nokia E71. I have my reasons not to like it, so let's just keep their phones out of this thread.

Can Asus 1000HE really last 9 hours on the road? It's more than I am used to see about netbooks.

The Xperia X1 seems interesting, anyway a PC Magazine review trumps it as "very expensive among the competitors" and "buggy OS". If price has been lowered and bugs have been solved, it might be an interesting choice. Nocturnal, can you add some info?

Cheers

 

[AwakenedBeing]

Quote:

Originally Posted by antonyfirst /img/forum/go_quote.gif Can Asus 1000HE really last 9 hours on the road? It's more than I am used to see about netbooks. Cheers

I had an Asus 1000HA before selling it and getting an iPhone 3G. Asus has it advertised for 7 hours. That is if you run power savings mode and turn brightness down to about 3/10. Power savings mode really sucks because it makes your netbook much slower, but it conserves your battery as a compensation. I tried power savings once and never touched it again because it took about 15 seconds to open iTunes when I click on it. For real world use, I got about 4-5 hours out of one charge with WiFi on and browsing net, half brightness which is surprisingly bright, and playing music.

For the 1000HE, it is advertised for 9 hours!

Both the HA and HE are similar. I suspect the HE to last around 6-7 hours of real world use, probably even more since I like to do a lot while using a computer.