[VVertigo]

I used a Blackberry Classic up until last year when my provider dropped 3G coverage. It's probably a good thing as I never got phone addiction since the browser was unusable and didn't have the apps. I did get in the habit of carrying an iPad with me though for that: but at least then you only pull it out when necessary. I might have to check out the Zinwa retrofit kits mentioned in the article: I do miss the hardware keyboard when using the Android I replaced it with.

The Pinephone with the keyboard accessory was tempting too, but the software readiness (and older hardware) didn't seem practical as a daily driver.

[xethos]

My Zinwa (full-device, not kit) BlackBerry actually showed up, and has been my daily for several weeks. It's fantastic, and I adore it. I love the trackpad, and use it for scrolling and cursor-placement in text daily. The keyboard is an actual, honest-to-god RIM keyboard, and it feels like it. Batteries have gotten denser, but the screen is still small, and I ditched GApps - so my battery life is measured in days.

To temper expectations though: the screen ratio doesn't always work perfectly with apps, getting Google Pay can apparently be a challenge, and the LineageOS build is imperfect (though fixes have been sent, and I expect it to get better).

Should anyone pick one up, mind the antenna resistors when using the SIM removal tool - it's possible to bump them, and they'll have to be soldered back to the board for WiFi and GPS to work correctly after.

Overall, it was cheap enough [0] that I jumped on it early, and it's gone well enough that if the Q10 revival happens, I'm buying a full device and a spare mainboard immediately.

[0] Initially there were two sets of specs, and I bought the lower-end one. Later on, to simplify production, Zinwa bumped everyone to the Pro version at no extra cost.

[robocat]

Did you do any typing speed tests against friends using other mobile solutions?

I've found Swype to be reasonably quick (and the learning curve isn't too steep).

However I never had a chance to race a really competent Blackberry user.

[VVertigo]

I'm probably pretty far out on the normal mobile user curve: my phone is primarily used for phone calls along with some texting and I don't even have a data plan.

I would suspect many mobile users would be faster than me (I know people who can go astonishingly fast), although I can (or at least used to be able to) type much faster on the BB keyboard than my phone screen. I am a decent typist though, so for most communication over a sentence I will resort to email using a desktop or laptop. I hate typing on laptop keyboards though and use an external one. I'm also not a fan of a bunch of back and forth texting, so for conversations like that it's usually better resolved with a call.