rated phones blog – Rating the newest mobile phones available in the world

Well, the HTC Vision is not really ready for action, no OS has been installed in the handset and there really is no way of telling if the device’s internal components are already complete. But looking at the images alone, one cannot help but hope that the engineers would pop in a ROM of the Android Éclair and finally show off an HTC device that packs a much demanded physical keyboard.

The slide out QWERTY keyboard has been a very elusive feature among HTC Android fans. While Motorola has already come out with the Milestone (known as the DROID in the US), and Sony Ericsson has recently offered the X10 Mini Pro, many would still want an HTC Android device over other manufacturers as the phone maker has been a constant in the development of the Android OS.

Taiwan based HTC has been a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance, the first manufacturer to create an Android smart phone and they also made Google’s Nexus One as well.

For those who have never used a physical keyboard, the charm of the feature lies in the simplicity of its purpose: it helps people type faster. While it is pretty common to hear of people who can dish out hundreds of characters in a few seconds of a using a T9 keypad, the average person is not as fast. Virtual keyboards often suffice for quick typing requirements such as for Tweets or simple one-liners; but for making long forum posts or personal emails, having a physical keyboard changes the experience to a more convenient level.

In the meanwhile, haptic technology is pushing the limits of how a touch screen can emulate a physical keyboard. While the technology is quite impressive -using a combination of audio output and sometimes, vibration feedback; the technology is still a long way from a real slide out keyboard.