Wild popularity? BlackBerry had the entire physical keyboard mobile market to itself and still failed catastrophically. Its only successful period was prior to the existence of the iPhone. As soon as that was on the market, with its touchscreen keyboard, BlackBerry sank like a brick. What does that say about the popularity of the physical keyboard? Its last release was nearly 8 years ago at this point - it’s a dead, irrelevant brand and its major selling point, the physical keyboard, is an extreme niche in today’s market.

DeX was released a pretty long time ago. My Galaxy Note 9 from 2018 could run it, I’m sure many modern phones are equally capable of running a desktop mode.

The start of something good!

(Until Google kills it.)

Yes, and landline handsets with buttons existed at the same time as rotary dials…what’s your point?

You could say that for any piece of old and irrelevant technology. I’m sure people thought rotary dial telephones were amazing too before something better came along.

You can install F-Droid and any open source Android app.

I think the general idea of these phones has legs but the addition of a physical keyboard on the Minimal Phone puts it into an extreme niche. It feels more like a passion project designed specifically for the use of the company founder than something tailored to the market, and is stuck between the practicality of the smaller Mudita Kompakt and the performance of the Bigme HiBreak Pro. If the Minimal Company makes a Minimal Phone 2 I’ll be interested to see how different the design is.

Yes and yes. No issues.

Apparently it does, considering I haven’t dropped a phone in years while you are so paranoid about it that you equate it to car accidents. I think it’s pretty obvious which one of us is doing it wrong.

The comment was removed by a moderator, I didn’t delete it lol

Learn how to hold a phone. Pinky fingers at the bottom, the rest of your fingers at the back, thumbs free for operating the screen. You shouldn’t be gripping it on the sides.

Plenty of phones out there with non-glass backs, but you can also just put a skin on it if grip is an issue.

You can do it without a case too, these people just don’t know how to hold a phone properly.

You don’t need a case, just stop dropping your phones.

Also iodéOS.

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That’s sooner than I expected, they have historically released later in the year.

I use Kvaesitso, it is one of the better open source launchers with a lot of customisability and a very clean design.

Unihertz has a physical keyboard series called the Titan, which is getting a new release later this year. There’s also the recently released Minimal Phone and the Clicks keyboard accessory for the Motorola razr 50 series.

They are being made by smaller companies, the problem is that the so-called “demand” always has excuses as to why they don’t buy them. It was the same with small phones - many people claimed to want them yet the sales didn’t reflect that.

I can see you’re missing options for the Sony Xperia XZ1 and XZ1 Compact. I own both of those phones and they are currently being maintained for both iodéOS and LineageOS for microG. Here are some links:

• iodéOS builds for XZ1 through automatic installer
• LineageOS for microG builds for XZ1
• iodéOS builds for XZ1 Compact (unofficial)
• LineageOS for microG builds for XZ1 Compact

Check which regional variant you have first, as I believe some models (such as the Japanese ones) are not supported.