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I was recently looking for a sliding qwerty keyboard phone and to my dismay I realised that while we weren't looking, the NSA took them all away! In my quest I

I was recently looking for a sliding qwerty keyboard phone and to my dismay I realised that while we weren't looking, the NSA took them all away! In my quest I found a phone database where you can search by features (I forget which one right now) and sorted through all possible candidates. My hopes went up momentarily when I saw the Dell Venue Pro[1] before I clicked "next" and saw how wrong they got it[2]. Eventually I sumbled on the Motorola Photon Q[3] - which I'm not even supposed to have, as it doesn't come with a SIM slot at all. Luckily some enterprising Korean guys have figured out the modding process and are selling them on ebay. I tried my luck and received it a few days ago. Really good value for money, loving the sliding action and physical keys but wish it were a bit more powerful. I think I've compensated for this mostly by cutting out a lot of fat and its puny dual core CPU now runs 4.4 fairly comfortably. I'll probably go back to my Nexus 5 soon but it's a great backup phone and I love the keyboard. I'm half convinced that a custom N4/5 backplate with a built-in keyboard would sell like crazy. #kickstarterideas TL;DR: Look at Moto Photon Q. [1] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Dell_Venue_Pro_smartphone.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Dell_Venu... [2] http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dell_venue_pro_11.jpg http://cdn.slashgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/dell_ven... I literally burst out laughing as soon as I saw this. Bless you, Dell. (also: windows) [3] http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Motorola_Photon_Q_4G_LTE.jpg http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8d/Motorola_...

walterbell 12y ago
Can it run Cyanogen? The Blackberry Passport is one of the few modern keyboard phones, it uses Amazon's appstore for Android apps.
- yourad_io 12y ago
  Yes, and CGM 11 (KitKat) as well. The CGM wiki isn't entirely clear on this - there's a specific build for the Q which is somewhat outdated [1] so you should use this [2] [3]. Be aware that you'll need to tweak it a bit to make it super-responsive with 4.4 - at least for me, the N5 has really spoiled me (...especially after I went back to 4.4) > The Blackberry Passport is one of the few modern keyboard phones, it uses Amazon's appstore for Android apps. The passport is cute, but I didn't consider non-Androids (I'm a flasher:) and I wanted something in the "second/backup-phone" price range. The keyboard would likely be nicer than the Q's though. [1] http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=xt897 http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=xt897 [2] http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960_jbbl&type=snapshot http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960_jbbl&ty... [3] http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info (get the _jbbl or it won't flash)
  - walterbell 12y ago
    Cool, thanks for the pointers.
j45 12y ago
This looks pretty sweet. THe treo I was speaking about was a little earlier than that and didn't have a sliding keyboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_650 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_650 I'm pretty used to the swiftkey touch keyboard now, but the one feature that the Treo destroyed any phone that I ever used was the ability to press function and calendar on a keyboard and the app would move right into creating a new item on your calendar or to-do list.

walterbell 12y ago

Can it run Cyanogen? The Blackberry Passport is one of the few modern keyboard phones, it uses Amazon's appstore for Android apps.

yourad_io 12y ago
Yes, and CGM 11 (KitKat) as well. The CGM wiki isn't entirely clear on this - there's a specific build for the Q which is somewhat outdated [1] so you should use this [2] [3]. Be aware that you'll need to tweak it a bit to make it super-responsive with 4.4 - at least for me, the N5 has really spoiled me (...especially after I went back to 4.4) > The Blackberry Passport is one of the few modern keyboard phones, it uses Amazon's appstore for Android apps. The passport is cute, but I didn't consider non-Androids (I'm a flasher:) and I wanted something in the "second/backup-phone" price range. The keyboard would likely be nicer than the Q's though. [1] http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=xt897 http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=xt897 [2] http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960_jbbl&type=snapshot http://download.cyanogenmod.org/?device=moto_msm8960_jbbl&ty... [3] http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Moto_msm8960_Info (get the _jbbl or it won't flash)
- walterbell 12y ago
  Cool, thanks for the pointers.

j45 12y ago

This looks pretty sweet. THe treo I was speaking about was a little earlier than that and didn't have a sliding keyboard. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_650 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treo_650 I'm pretty used to the swiftkey touch keyboard now, but the one feature that the Treo destroyed any phone that I ever used was the ability to press function and calendar on a keyboard and the app would move right into creating a new item on your calendar or to-do list.