AT&T's six new phones all have keyboards

Ahead of this week's CTIA trade show, AT&T's announced its summer lineup. Everything, from the fancy Samsung Impression to the $50 budget bucket, has a full QWERTY keyboard.

• Nokia's E71, a great-looking Blackberry-style model with a 2.3" display, 3 megapixel camera, HSDPA, WiFi and bluetooth. Available unlocked since 2008, it runs Symbian and will be $150 from April or May.

• Samsung's Propel Pro, an upgrade on last years' Propel. The new model has Windows Mobile 6.1, a slider keyboard and a thumbpad navigation system. It has a 320x320 display, tri-band GSM for international roaming, and a $200 tag.

• Samsung's Impression, touted as the first U.S. phone with an amoled display. The 3.2" screen's resolution is 240x400, and it has a 3 megapixel camera, GPS and a full QWERTY slider keyboard. It'll be $250 from April 7.

• LG's Xenon, which has an ultra-wide 240x480 pixel touchscreen display and a 2 megapixel camera, WiFi and standard keyboard. It'll be $150.

• LG's Neon, a $100 model made of terribly bright colors. There's no 3G, no WiFi, just a 2MP camera, a 320x240 pixel display, and joie de vivre.

• Samsung's Magnet, a $50 budget textphone that still has a keyboard but is otherwise quite basic: it has charms, but check the camera, web browser and menu snappiness before committing.

AT&T Unveils New Integrated Devices for Texting, Email and More [AT&T]

[#1 posted by Robabob , March 30, 2009 7:19 AM]

Who is it that keeps telling the phone manufacturers that qwertys are best? Am I the only one that doesn't get on with them? Using a full size qwerty it's quite easy to operate without looking at it too often (even for non touch typists), as is a small phone keypad using predictive text. On a phone sized qwerty you can't touch type as it's too cramped and you can't simply feel your way across the keys as there are too many.

[#2 posted by DTPhantom , March 30, 2009 7:26 AM]

I do. Typing for more than 5 seconds on a virtual keyboard makes me want to kill my self. I'm not sure why you say you can't touch type because after a week or so I can type on my BlackJack II with out looking.

[#3 posted by Robabob , March 30, 2009 7:34 AM]

@2 I'd have to agree that typing on a virtual keyboard also makes me suicudal :)

[#4 posted by Oddball , March 30, 2009 8:03 AM]

A physical qwerty keyboard is the best solution for text messaging, email, whatever even on a phone. I've had horrible experiences with predictive text systems. Especially with names.

I'm still waiting for someone to stuff a smart phone into the form factor of the LG Lotus. I hate the candy bar design, but I'm pretty much stuck with it if I want the full functionality of a smart phone.

[#5 posted by Rob Beschizza , March 30, 2009 8:33 AM]

Oddball, the LG Lotus is about as smart as a dumbphone can get (I have one): the software just doesn't have the right features. I constantly think "If it can do this, why doesn't it do that?"

Opera Mini is very good on it for browsing the real web.

[#6 posted by zuzu , April 3, 2009 10:16 AM]

Who is it that keeps telling the phone manufacturers that qwertys are best? Am I the only one that doesn't get on with them?

Yes, you're the only one. I know people who got the Propel specifically because it was cheap (compared to BlackBerry, iPhone, etc.) and it has a qwerty keyboard.

The Sony c905 is nice and does T9, as well as doubling as an 8MP geotagging Cybershot camera.