[mysteriousllama]

I suppose this is as good a place to ask as any. I can't be the only one in this boat!

I currently use an ancient Droid2 because it has a hardware keyboard with most of the characters I need for programming and SSH sessions. It's really starting to show it's age and I would like to upgrade.

No newer phones come with keyboards. The default software keyboard does not have the needed characters. Third party soft keyboards have the correct characters, but it takes a massive amount of screen space to display them in a usable manner.

So I ask you hackernews: What phone setup do you use for SSH during long commutes and such? Are there any decent external hardware keyboards that integrate well with particular models? How about Phablets that have the extra screen space for a proper soft keyboard?

[mkr-hn]

I've got a Samsung Galaxy S Relay on the way with a physical keyboard. The keyboard is one of the reasons I chose it over one of the better-speced options in the same price range. It's a little old (late 2012), but it runs Android 4.1.2 and has good reviews.

A quick GIS tells me the keyboard has all the important programming keys. I plan to use it for writing, but it might work for programming.

[mappu]

I had an SK17i until recently. It was a great phone, very cool for ssh, running ncurses stuff and the odd patch, although the hardware keyboard was missing useful things like angle brackets.

When it randomly broke, i strongly considered the Blackberry Q5 as a replacement, but i ultimately gave in and went to soft keyboards.