The HTC Vision brings together two of the most important smart phone features that many Android fans have been waiting for: a high end HTC Android smart phone and a slide out QWERTY keyboard.
To say that there is a shortage of Android devices with QWERTY keyboards is an understatement. If the large success of the Motorola Milestone/DROID can be attributed to just one factor, it is the fact that the device was among the first Androids to ever have a physical keyboard.
One might say that a keyboard is not such a big deal. After all, with virtual touch screen keyboards allowing users to have the full range of letters available it seems like having a physical keyboard is redundant and would make the phone a lot bulkier than it would be without a keyboard –case and point, the Motorola Milestone XT720, the device is basically the slimmest Android device available after it dropped the physical keyboard.
But ask anyone who has had the choice between a basic virtual keyboard, a screen with haptic feedback and an actual keyboard, and they would tell you that the difference is astounding. While it will not matter much when making quick one-liners for text messages or those short 140 Tweets, the difference is quite significant when it comes to actually typing out long emails or forum posts. This is because the physical keys give real feedback and are far more responsive than a touch screen –and current haptic technology cannot provide sufficient emulation of physical key pressing.
Obviously, the choice of getting a keyboard will still rely on the end user. As efficient as the extra hardware may be, not everyone will appreciate having a keyboard –not everyone is addicted to writing emails or making long posts online. But for anyone who tends to write a lot –and for those who seriously need their document editing apps, having a physical keyboard makes all the difference.
Tags: google-android, HTC, HTC-Vision, QWERTY