Planning To Go QWERTY? Here Are A Few Recommendations

We help you find QWERTY phones that are still available in India.

Chandrakant 'CK' Isi
12th Jun 2014

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Planning To Go QWERTY? Here Are A Few Recommendations

Thanks to the Apple iPhone, touchscreen smartphones have taken over the world. Once considered as status symbol, QWERTY handsets are going extinct. However, I'm sure many of you messaging junkies must be missing the good-old days when you type a message without looking at the screen. So if you're thinking of revisiting the physical keypad phone, here are a few suggestions at various price points.

Under Rs 10,000

Nokia Asha 210
Street Price: Rs 5000
If you're a QWERTY fan on a tight budget the Asha 210 is a good option. For navigation, the phone sports a D-pad. The keyboard is well designed, and even features a dedicated button for WhatsApp. The 210 packs in a 2.4-inch display with 320x240 pixels. It has 2 megapixel camera and features such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, dual-SIM functionality, and EDGE connectivity. With a 1200 mAh battery, this feature phone easily lasts for around two days. The phone comes in several colours such as yellow, cyan, black, magenta, and white to suit your taste.

BlackBerry 9220
Street Price: Rs 9000
The Curve 9220 is the old-school BlackBerry handset with the iconic optical trackpad. It runs the old BlackBerry OS 7.1 platform. However, if you're looking for a QWERTY smartphone under 10k, this is your only option. The 9220 has a great keypad, ideal for writing emails. In the connectivity department, it offers EDGE, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth. A 2 megapixel camera has been added as token feature. It comes with 1450 mAh battery, which easily last over a day.

Under Rs 20,000

Blackberry Torch 9810
Street Price: Rs 15,500
This is an old phone, but stylish slider smartphone. It has a premium metallic body. This BlackBerry 7 handset offers a 3.2-inch touch screen. The Canadian company has also retained the good-old optical trackpad to make the BlackBerry purists feel at home. The slider reveals a full-QWERTY keypad. The buttons are so well laid out that even the first row of keypad is comfortable to type with. Other features include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, a 5 megapixel camera, 8 GB internal storage, a microSD card slot, and 1270 mAh battery.

BlackBerry Q5
Street Price: Rs 17,200
The Q5 is a touch-and-type handset based on the BB 10 operating system. It features a 3.1-inch HD IPS touch screen. The aspect ratio is 1:1, so the screen resolution is exactly 720x720. The keypad is excellent. BB addicts will get used to it in no time. The Q5 sports a 5 megapixel camera that can record Full HD videos. There's a 2 megapixel front-facing camera for video chat. At the heart is a dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 chip clocked at 1.2.

Under Rs 30,000

BlackBerry Q10
Street Price: Rs 27,300
The Q10 is a beefed-up version of Q5 with a premium body. It flaunts a 3.1-inch Super AMOLED screen with pixel dimensions of 720x720. It's powered by a dual-core 1.5 GHz Snapdragon S4 chipset. Then, you get an 8 megapixel camera, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB internal storage, microSD card slot, and 2100 mAh battery. The phone also comes with a micro HDMI port to display presentations on LCD and plasma screens. Launched for Rs 45,000, it's now available for Rs 27,300. Great deal, if you ask us.