Buy an Android smartphone with a keypad. Is Android the future of feature phones? Blackberry Passport push-button mobile phone

Is it possible to find push-button phones on sale that run on the Android operating system? As it turns out, it is possible, but, firstly, it is not so easy to do, since the list of models is small, and secondly, we are, as a rule, talking about not quite ordinary devices. Now you will see everything for yourself. We will look at phones available on the Russian market.

BlackBerry KEY2

The second generation of a fairly well-known model from BlackBerry, which has not changed that much. For example, it uses a 4.5-inch display - similar to what we saw in the KEYone. The mechanical keyboard is still here.

But the hardware is new: Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 processor, 6 GB of RAM and 64 GB of internal memory. The main camera is now double. The battery capacity is 3500 mAh, there is fast charging. The operating system is, of course, Android.

A version with two SIM cards has appeared.

BlackBerry KEY2 LE 4/64GB

The same KEY2, but simpler. For example, there is a smaller battery capacity (3000 mAh, fast charging remains), a simpler processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 636), a smaller amount of RAM (4 GB), a simpler camera. But KEY2 LE is cheaper, although it still can’t be called cheap.

Elari Safephone

A very, very interesting new product for 2017, which, in fact, has no analogues. This is a push-button phone running on a stripped-down version of Android, and its display is touch-sensitive! By the way, looking ahead, we note that WhatsApp is installed here. Can I install other applications? Judging by the reviews, it is impossible.

The display diagonal is 2.4 inches, there is a front camera with a resolution of 0.3 million pixels. (the rear has a resolution of 5 million pixels), there is 3G support.

Elari Safephone can be called a “granny phone”, which is clearly hinted at by the large control keys, as well as the SOS key on the back cover. The back cover itself is made of plastic, but is made to look like leather - it looks fresh and interesting.

BlackBerry Priv

The user can immediately say: what kind of phone is this, it’s a smartphone! And he will be right. However, take a look at the device, it has a mechanical keyboard, so we think the BlackBerry Priv deserves to be on the list of feature phones.

In general, the BlackBerry Priv can be called a unique model: it is perhaps the world's first slider smartphone that has a large 5.43-inch display and a retractable keyboard. The screen resolution is high - 2560 × 1440 pixels, the processor is Qualcomm Snapdragon 808, and the amount of RAM reaches 3 GB. This is a real flagship, which has dropped significantly in price recently.

Although the BlackBerry Priv went on sale in 2015, it’s hard to call it outdated.

RugGear RG310

Another feature phone on Android with a small 2.4-inch display. If you look at the design of the tube, you can conclude that the device has a shock-resistant body. This is not stated directly anywhere, but in the reviews they write about the shock-resistant case. In addition, RugGear RG310 is dust and moisture resistant.

Android version - 4.2, processor - MediaTek MT6572M, memory - 512 MB and 4 GB (RAM and built-in, respectively), GPS, Wi-Fi, 3G are supported, there are two cameras, two SIM cards.

The battery capacity is high - 3600 mAh, which is a very serious indicator for a push-button mobile phone.

Sonim XP6

Sonim XP6 is a water- and dust-resistant smartphone with a shock-resistant housing. The model cannot be called cheap, but it has advantages that its competitors do not have.

The first is a slightly larger display, here its diagonal reaches 2.63 inches and the resolution is 432x320 pixels. The screen, by the way, is touchscreen.

The second is a very powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor, which works together with 1 GB of RAM and 8 GB of internal memory.

Third, there is 4G support! And this is rare for push-button phones.

Finally, the battery capacity is as much as 4800 mAh! True, this affected the weight - the device weighs as much as 270 g.

BlackBerry KEYone

Another BlackBerry? Yes! Moreover, this is an equally interesting device, which, of course, is a smartphone, although it has a QWERTY keyboard - it is located directly under the 4.5-inch display.

The BlackBerry KEYone looks very stylish and unusual, which fans of unusual communication devices will certainly appreciate. The smartphone received Android 7.1, is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 625 processor, memory capacity is 3 GB and 32 GB (RAM and built-in, respectively). There is a slot for memory cards, and it supports memory cards up to 2 TB!

The camera resolution is 8 and 12 million pixels, there is a fingerprint scanner. Battery capacity - 3505 mAh.

Lenovo A588T

A cool device from Lenovo, which, unfortunately, is difficult to find on sale here, but you can still try it.

This is a flip phone based on Android - a very rare category of phone. Moreover, this model has the ability to rotate the screen 360 degrees!

The processor is MediaTek MT6582, the amount of RAM is 512 MB, 4 GB built-in, there is a slot for a memory card, 2 SIM cards, battery capacity is 2250 mAh, which is very good for a clamshell. The weight is not the smallest - 178 g.

Over time, a person gets used to what he uses, and therefore, switching to something new can cause him some inconvenience. Smartphones Meizu, Samsung and the first generations of iPhone are equipped with a mechanical “Home” button, which controls many actions for controlling the mobile device. In turn, most smartphones from Xiaomi are devoid of this, but there are some exceptions. What Xiaomi with a “Home” button exist “in nature”?

At the time of writing, the most famous mobile device with a central mechanical button is the flagship.

A high-quality screen, NFC support, powerful hardware and a fingerprint scanner built into the button have made the smartphone famous even outside the Xiaomi fan community.

Following it, the company released a nice, but less popular one.

The smartphone runs on an 8-core processor of its own production, Surge S1, and apparently for this reason did not manage to gain much fame, but nevertheless became the “first sign” for the company to introduce its processors into mobile devices.

For fans of large screens, the model will be interesting. There is also a mechanical button with a built-in fingerprint scanner, as well as a 5.7-inch phablet with rounded corners and NFC support. The smartphone is equipped with a high-quality 8 MP front camera and a 22.5 MP main camera with the ability to record video in 4k.

As for the Redmi family, here too there is a representative with a central mechanical button and a built-in fingerprint. The model was named .

The device is interesting primarily due to the presence of two main cameras located one below the other.

Thus, there is a choice, and if you wish, you can find something unusual among the huge number of similar devices that are presented on the market. However, lately it all comes down to the fact that smartphones on the front panel have nothing but a display, which means they have become impersonal and absolutely identical.

Smartphone T112. In terms of characteristics, everything is pretty bad there: old Android 4.4 KitKat, 2-megapixel rear camera, 0.3-megapixel front camera, 4 GB of internal memory, 512 MB of RAM, 2000 mAh battery, 2.8" screen with a resolution of 320x240 points, that is, QVGA... The processor is Qualcomm Snapdragon 210, four cores with a frequency of 1.1 GHz, thanks to the built-in modem it supports 4G cellular networks. The price of the smartphone is 399 yuan (about 4,000 rubles). It’s not even really a smartphone, but rather a push-button phone.

After the success of fully touchscreen smartphones, push-button phones began to be systematically forced out of the market; now they are mainly ultra-budget devices without any mobile Internet, rarely equipped with a 0.3 MP camera. Those who are devoted to push-button phones have to either look for rare models with more or less normal characteristics, or use old devices, the characteristics of which were often much better. It is very difficult to create an advanced push-button phone in 2016; there is neither suitable software nor dialer-oriented hardware with more or less acceptable characteristics. But there is demand! In many countries (the USA, for example) it is even growing.

Ytone V4

A way out of the situation was found in the creation of push-button phones based on Android. Not only the unknown Tangwei was involved in this. Take a look at the Chinese TENAA certifiers - almost three dozen similar phones have appeared there in recent months. Of the well-known companies, only ZTE joined this movement; the remaining products were created by completely unknown companies. I'll list, perhaps: Desay, RuiTel, Koomii, Sop, Ytone, Tetc, Leway, Lovme, Lephone, Hemi, Coobe, Sintave, JXD, Bihee, Rtomto, BF, Noain, Htfpos, Huana, Bai Mi, JKL, Ecetd, X -honor and Microsun.

Desay D100

The devices have screens with a diagonal from 2.4" to 3.5" with a resolution of 320x240 or 480x320 pixels. All of them support LTE, usually only the TD-LTE standard; these models use a MediaTek MT6735 processor. Those models with Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 (there are a minority of them) also support FDD-LTE, which is more common outside of China. The volume of internal memory is from 4 to 8 GB, RAM is 512 MB or 1 GB. There are usually two cameras, the resolution is no more than 2 megapixels. There are exceptions, for example, the Desay D100 has no cameras at all. Batteries – usually between 1500 mAh and 3000 mAh.

RugGear RG310 Voyager and Kyocera Gratina 4G KYF31

Not only in China you can find Android-based dialers. In Russia, for example, there is a protected RugGear RG310. It costs 14,990 rubles, and is equipped with a dual-core MediaTek MT6572; Google Play is there. This, by the way, is not entirely usual: in order to attract amateurs of simple phones, all the “complex” features of smartphones are often hidden from users. This is, for example, what Japanese manufacturers are doing, since the beginning of last year they have been actively converting their clamshells to Android. The first was Sharp with its Aquos K SHF31, later Fujitsu and Kyocera followed suit. There is no Google Play on their Android phones. And Android is almost never mentioned in advertising materials: for manufacturers these are still dialers, only for the sake of their further development they have to use smartphone hardware and software.

Another striking example from Japan is OLA Hello Kitty Figurine KT-01. It's hard to recognize this clamshell kitten as an Android smartphone, but that's what it is. Apparently, without the involvement of the “green robot,” OLA was unable to implement support for 3G and Wi-Fi cellular networks (the latter is necessary to update the kitten’s software over the air). That is, Android is clearly not used here for its own sake, it simply turns out to be necessary to implement all those functions that OLA wanted to see in the “figurine”. By the way, today the start of sales of this strange device took place.

Do you think there is a future for “advanced simple phones” running on Android? Or has the development of push-button telephones turned in the wrong direction? Share your thoughts in the comments.

A review of the mobile phone market shows that not all buyers are ready to switch to devices with a touch keyboard. Although leading companies are pushing just such gadgets, there are still many people who are happy to purchase push-button phones based on Android. How exactly can this be explained? Most likely just personal preference.

Most buyers believe that only touch devices are called smartphones. However, this is not true. A smartphone is a device that runs on a specific operating system. And what its screen and keyboard will be like does not affect the characteristics at all. A modern gadget with buttons looks unusual. But this does not mean that such a device will be inferior in technical characteristics. It is also worth noting that a push-button telephone on Android has a large list of advantages. It is impossible to describe all the models in one article, so we will focus on the most popular ones.

Samsung Galaxy Golden GT-I9235

The Korean company has filled the mobile device market with its products. Devices are sold in almost every country in the world. The line has a wide variety of models - from simple classic ones to sophisticated “shovels”. This brand also sells smartphones with mechanical buttons. Many such models have been developed, but they are implemented mainly in China and Japan. Unfair treatment of the domestic buyer, isn't it?

To get acquainted with such gadgets, consider the GT-I9235 model. This is a push-button phone on Android. Operating system version - 4.2. It is a typical “clamshell” in design and a smartphone in equipment. The peculiarity of this device is the presence of two screens. Both are color, 3.7 inches diagonal. Display type: multi-touch. Resolution - 800 × 480 px. A removable battery with a capacity of 1820 mAh is responsible for autonomous operation. Supports work with one SIM card. The amount of RAM is 1.5 GB. Chipset - Qualcomm Snapdragon 400. Built-in memory - 16 GB, there is a slot for external storage. Works with new generation mobile networks - 4G.

Sonim XP6

An interesting smartphone option is the XP6 model. This is a secure push-button phone running Android 4.4.2. Can be used in extreme situations. The indisputable advantages of the device are support for LTE networks, a capacitive battery (4800 mAh), a shock-resistant case, and a powerful processor.

Externally it is a classic model with a push-button keyboard. Type - monoblock. There is only one SIM card. The screen has a small diagonal - only 2.36 inches. The image and viewing angles are good, the quality is ensured by the TFT matrix. Display resolution - 320 × 432 px. Productivity is high. The “brain center” of the device is a 4-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 processor. It operates at a frequency of 1.2 GHz. RAM - 1 GB, built-in - 8 GB. There is one camera with a 5 megapixel matrix. Supports Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and has a microUSB port.

Sharp AU KDDI SHF31

It is almost impossible to purchase a Sharp push-button Android phone in Russia. Those who wish can only use the services of online stores and, it is worth noting, they will not go wrong. The smartphone is quite interesting and has excellent characteristics.

The design type of this model is “clamshell”. It weighs only 128 g. Equipped with two screens. The main diagonal is 3.4 inches. The matrix is ​​classic. Resolution - 960 × 540 px. The external display is small - only 0.9 inches. It only displays the time and information about missed notifications. Memory sizes: RAM - 1 GB, ROM - 8 GB. The processor runs on four cores. Chipset model - Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8926. Performance is high thanks to a clock speed of 1.2 GHz.

The smartphone is equipped with an excellent camera with a resolution of 13 megapixels. A 1410 mAh lithium-ion battery is responsible for autonomous operation. A slot for a flash drive is provided for memory expansion. The device works with 4G networks.

BlackBerry Priv

A push-button phone on Android has also appeared in the BlackBerry lineup. Surprisingly, the Priv model is the first device equipped with this operating system. The smartphone has excellent technical characteristics. The only problem for the domestic buyer is the high cost (more than 30 thousand rubles).

What does the manufacturer offer for such a price? The first thing I want to pay attention to is a full-fledged qwerty keyboard. It moves out according to the slider principle. The screen is large. Its diagonal is 5.43 inches. The image quality is excellent. Maximum resolution - 1440 × 2560 px. Density is 540 ppi. Display type - AMOLED. Viewing angles, saturation, color rendition are excellent.

The smartphone is powered by a six-core chipset. Two of them are Cortex A57, and the remaining four are Cortex A53. Each of them operates at a frequency of 1.8 and 1.44 GHz, respectively. There is 3 GB of RAM. Naturally, such equipment allows users to hope for a high level of performance.

LG Optimus F3Q

The Android push-button phone Optimus F3Q was released two years ago. The manufacturer managed to optimally combine functionality and beauty. The model is made in a modern design. The keyboard slides out from the side. There is a 4-inch screen on the front side. It is touch sensitive and full size. Type - LCD IPS. The smartphone is based on a dual-core MSM8930 processor with good characteristics: frequency - 1.2 GHz, RAM - 1 GB. To ensure autonomous operation, the developers chose a 2460 mAh lithium-ion battery.

Mobile phones with touch controls are becoming a worthy replacement for push-button models. This has been happening since 2013. Currently, it is almost impossible to find a smartphone with a push-button keyboard on the shelves of modern stores. Despite this, some smartphones still have a slide-out keyboard, and this fact indicates that not every company is interested only in touch displays.

LG Enact

LG primarily focuses on touchscreen smartphones. Despite this, the push-button model can still be successfully found. Moreover, the device successfully operates on the Android operating system. Maybe this particular device will please people who do not strive to actively and successfully understand modern trends.

LG Enact pleases with ease of control, but at the same time the functionality matches its sophisticated brothers. Additional advantages include a very powerful and decent battery.

Of course, there will be disadvantages. For example, a smartphone has a small display (the diagonal is only 4 inches), but even such dimensions do not lead to refusal of the purchase.

Technical data:

• 1.2 GHz Snapdragon 400 processor;
• built-in memory – 8 gigabytes;
• battery capacity – 2460 mAh;
• operating system – Android version 4.1;
• camera – 5 megapixels with LED backlight.

In fact, the technical specifications are at an average level and suggest a practical approach to a mobile phone. The cost is $350.

Nokia C6

Nokia C6 has gained real interest. The smartphone is ideal for fans of an active lifestyle who still gravitate towards a qwerty keyboard. The mobile phone runs the fifth version of the Symbian S60 operating system, which, fortunately, is characterized by maximum convenience.

The smartphone has 4 rows of keys that represent almost all letters of the Cyrillic alphabet. The exceptions were two letters - X, B. On the right side of the keyboard there is a navigation system that successfully replaces the arrows. Among the advantages of buttons are their large size and convex shape. The white backlight allows you to type text successfully and without any problems even in the dark.

• bluetooth;
• wi-fi;
• branded navigator;
• possibility of using memory cards;
• radio;
• 5 megapixel camera.

The screen has a resolution of 640 by 360 pixels, and this is already enough to watch videos.

An interesting feature is the minimum weight (50 grams). The smartphone is available in black and white.

BlackBerry Venice

BlackBerry offers a unique smartphone with a slide-out keyboard called Venice. This model features a 5.1-inch curved screen. Technical data and functionality are encouraging:

• screen – 5.1 inches. The most convenient and enjoyable work experience is expected thanks to the smartphone display;
• An 8-core processor that successfully performs almost any task;
• 16-megapixel camera that allows you to create high-quality images;
• Battery capacity – 3650 mAh for long-term operation on a single charge.

However, the smartphone initially attracts with its unique design: the front glass is actually curved at the edges. We can safely assume that this form will provide maximum ergonomics.

BlackBerry Passport

This smartphone is popular among businessmen and executives. It should be noted that it turned out to be one of the fastest, best and most functional among models with a sliding keyboard.

The smartphone initially looks expensive and prestigious, which evokes only the best impressions. Moreover, many people will appreciate the ability to control in two ways: touch screen and slide-out keyboard. However, the smartphone is offered without the Cyrillic alphabet, which turns out to be an atypical drawback. To communicate successfully, you have to regularly use a transliterated to Russian translator or double buttons, which actually complicates the process of typing any text. If you use the keyboard for navigation, you can control your smartphone with ease, because the buttons are adapted even for copying, pasting, and highlighting different texts.

Despite the high cost (about 43,000 rubles), BlackBerry Passport is ready to please with its versatility. All functions are brought to near perfection, which, without a doubt, leaves the best impression.

Despite the fact that smartphones with push-button keyboards are becoming a thing of the past, similar models can still be found on the market. The most important thing is to carefully study all the offers and understand which option is best to choose the right one, since only in this case can you be completely satisfied with the purchase.

Video: the best smartphone with a sliding keyboard 2017