The Vodafone V345 - the cheapest physical keyboard phone?

The V345 is one of the more basic physical keyboard phones, with a price tag to match. While it boasts its suitability for social networking and web access, this appears to mean that it can access the internet – albeit slowly – and it has built-in Facebook so there’s no need to download the app.

In appearance it is similar to the iconic design of the Blackberry Curve, with perhaps a touch of the familiar early Nokias around the curved edges. The keys on the QWERTY keyboard are similar in size and shape to the Curve, although some have complained that they are too small. At 105mm in height and 58mm in length, it is fairly standard, although with a 12mm depth it is quite thick. It does, however, have the option for push or pull email, which is a useful aspect.

The V345 is undoubtedly a simple phone – the camera is a mere 0.3 megapixels (an example of somebody else's 0.3 megapixel photo can be found here) and it can only connect to a 2G network – but it could be perfect for someone who just wants the basic functions of a phone. It is the Nokia 3310 for the Smartphone generation.

The Spike physical keyboard for iPhone

This is one of the most impressive creations we've seen. Spike is a brilliant piece of engineering from an organisation called SoloMatrix, who used the Kickstarter crowdfunding model to get their project off the ground. And what a product it is.

The notion of a physical keyboard attachment to attach to the inherently sexy iPhone's manicured form sounds like it will be a clumsy, Bluetooth keyboard work-around. Not so: Spike is a genuinely attractive piece of machinery which has similar functionality to the Blackberry keyboard, even down to the chamfer on the keys themselves.

QWERTY for touchscreen

It works through the capacitive touchscreen of the iPhone. Yep, that's right, this thing overlays the on-screen 'keyboard' and applies a layer of tactile plastic between you and those pesky touchscreen 'keys'. Tim Hornyack reckons it isn't as good as his Blackberry (which I guess we already knew) but hails it as a general success, despite some problems with key recognition.

Obviously this is a relatively convoluted workaround, effectively simulating a real QWERTY phone with a plastic add-on. It's not going to be as good as your Curve or Bold. But still, it bodes well for the future of the physical keyboard as it demonstrates that there's an appetite for practicality and the money to back it up.

We'll be covering the world of iPhone physical keyboards in more depth in future, so if you know of any others then leave a comment or get in touch.

The Asha 205 - Nokia's new QWERTY phone

The Asha 205 is being lauded by Nokia as their ‘most social’ phone ever. Designed with Facebook and Twitter in mind, this Nokia physical keyboard phone is a marvellous example of a feature phone targeted at a young audience who value the physical keyboard for high-volume text communication.

The keyboard boasts isolated keys, as well as quick-access button. As well as the full keyboard, this phone even has a dedicated Facebook hot key – the first time this feature has been included in a Nokia phone.

The phone comes with the Nokia Xpress browser. According to Nokia, this software “uses cloud-based servers to reduce data volumes by 90%”. The result, they say, is that the Nokia Asha 205 sips data rather than guzzling it.

In addition to the physical keyboard, Nokia have included a brand new sharing technology called ‘Slam’. This enables the user to instantly share a file (a photo, for example) with the nearest Bluetooth-enabled device without having to pair the devices first. Of course you can still send the photo over social networks and email, but this feature is likely to prove popular among users who want to share with a specific device rather than broadcast on Facebook.

Dual SIM

One of the most important features (besides the physical keyboard, of course) is the dual SIM. Not only does this allow for rapid swapping of SIM cards, but it also enables the user to have both a work and a personal number on the same handset. RIM claim to be simulating this separation to some extent with their BB10 OS, but not to the extent that two separate phone numbers can use the same handset.

Samsung’s ‘Godiva’ jettisons its physical keyboard

Photos leaked earlier this month showed Samsung’s latestsmartphone, currently going by the name ‘Godiva’. The handset (destined for Verizon in the USA) comes with Android 4.1.2 on a 1.4GHz MSM8960, making nice pictures on an uprated 720p display – but no physical keyboard.

Earlier speculations that the phone could carry a sliding keyboard (fuelled by the similarities between the Godiva’s SCH-i425 designation and that of the earlier keyboard-enabled SCH-i415 Stratosphere II) have been shown to be wildly optimistic, as the photos show a firmly touchscreen mobile handset.

Still, it would appear that the Godiva will be a pleasant JellyBean phone. Minor disappointment from some corners of the Android world regarding the lack of a physical keyboard phone might just be enough to spur Samsung into making a QWERTY Android handset.