Touchscreen Mobiles: Part II

In Part I of this feature I highlighted some 'totally touchscreen' handsets that had no physical keypads at all and relied on virtual keypads (onscreen) instead. In this second installment, let's look at some handsets that offer the best of both worlds by incorporating full-screen touch sensitivity and a physical keypad for those who don’t like to mess up their screen with fingerprints.

Slider Phones
LG KF 700

LG's KF700 slider is equipped with a 3 inch, 240 x 480 pixel resolution TFT touchscreen display. The keypad slides down from behind and yet it appears rather slim at 14.5mm. It has a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera that uses image stabilization for better pictures. Other features include a media player, FM radio, Bluetooth and USB connectivity. For internet connectivity there's 3G with HSDPA and GPRS. It also supports microSD cards for external memory.

QWERTY Sliders
HTC Touch Dual (Rs 26,500)

The HTC touch has always had a great design, but things just got better with a slide-down QWERTY keypad. Unfortunately it seems HTC compromised a little, with the display being reduced to 2.6 inches from the 2.8 inches in the Touch. But that’s no biggie; considering features such as Bluetooth, USB (mini), EDGE, 3G with HSDPA, USB, and Windows Mobile 6.0 Professional. It even has a 2 megapixel camera, with a secondary camera for video calling. Like the Touch, the Dual too incorporates HTC's TouchFLO finger swipe navigation

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1

Although this handset has not yet been released, it’s something to look forward to this year. The Xperia X1 has a 3-inch, 800 x 480 pixel resolution TFT touchscreen display with a superb QWERTY keyboard that slides out. The handset is well designed and lightweight, and will run on Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional. It incorporates a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera with flash, inbuilt GPS with A-GPS, Bluetooth with A2DP, and USB v2.0 connectivity. It supports Wi-Fi, EDGE and 3G with HSDPA. There's about 400MB of internal memory and support for external memory. I particularly liked the optical navigation pad under the display and motion sensor with UI auto-rotate feature

QWERTY Candy Bar Phones
Sony Ericsson P1i (Rs 16,600)


Though I wasn't hugely turned on by the P1i and its functions, it nevertheless is a good phone with great features such as a 2.6 inch touchscreen, a QWERTY keyboard and a scroll wheel on the side. It has a 3 megapixel auto-focus camera, Bluetooth with A2DP profile, USB, and Infrared connectivity. External memory is handled via M2 cards. It supports Wi-Fi and 3G. A great feature to have on a business phone like this is the Business Card Scanner. It even a has a media player and an FM radio with RDS.

Treo 750 (Rs 22,500)

The Palm Treo 750 is a comfortable phone to use, with a neat QWERTY keyboard, 5-way navigation pad, and 2.4 inch TFT touchscreen display. It runs on Windows Mobile 5.0 PocketPC but is upgradeable to Windows Mobile 6.0. Features include a 1.3 megapixel camera, miniSD external memory card support, 3GT, EDGE, Bluetooth with A2DP support, and USB connectivity. It also has infrared if you need it.

There you have it: my list of dual input handsets that incorporate touchscreen technology and physical keypads to offer a complete mobile experience. If you have suggestions regarding any more handsets, please leave a comment. Indeed, I shortlisted some of these devices based on recommendations from Tech2’s very own readers. Thanks guys... keep reading!