Don't agree there. The Hero and Moment are quite nice. The Moto Droid is on the right track. With a better keyboard and maybe some softer lines, it'd be the phone to beat. I own both the Hero and Moment. While I can type very well on both, I prefer having a keyboard because I can actually see the entire screen while I type. In giving my people at work a choice between the two, most preferred the Moment with a hard keyboard.
I also think a non screen form of navigation is essential on the front. A good track ball or optical pad does wonders to augment the touch interface and can really make cutting and pasting a breeze.
How about the Pre, little larger footprint with increased screen size, little thinner. screw the whole inset keyboard and curved slider. Put the focus back on a quality keyboard which is something they've obviously forgotten how to do. 1-1.2gb snapdragon, 8 or 16gb on board with a card slot or even just an 8 or 16gb card included and let the user go to 32gb when it comes out.
And I am completely fine with a few hard buttons at the bottom, flanking the trackball/optical pad. One thing I've learned is I hate touching the screen for everything. Give me a little more old school one handedness on top of the slickness of the touchscreen.
The 2nd generation Pre should have no problem being a slider and coming in no thicker or larger than the HTC Eris.
The other problem would be maintaining the vertical slider but adding functionality buttons at the bottom. Would make the phone really long when opened. The landscape slider is definitely growing on me. Get rid of the chunk factor, and I think you'd have a winner for round 2.
Originally Posted by cardfan:
Name one smartphone with this form factor at Sprint that has a capacitive touch screen.. The Hero is the only one but its half baked.
Ruby doesn't seem too bright then... What his priority should be is designing webOS devices that people want and will have a good profit margin.