The Best QWERTY Android Phones in 2011 part 1

We happen to believe that QWERTY smartphones are craved by mobile enthusiasts. An Admob report in 2010 showed that 54% of Android traffic was driven by devices that feature a full QWERTY keyboard. It’s hard to deny that a huge amount of people still want a powerful smartphone with a physical QWERTY keyboard. Following that, let’s take a look at what’s in the store for you this year in the world of Android QWERTY Phones!

HTC G2 / HTC Vision

The G2/Vision is a strong contender for best Android QWERTY smartphone of 2011. It features great hardware, one of the best keyboards we have ever used, a pretty good battery, and a healthy provision of sensors. Plus, it’s highly overclockable, if your into that kind of thing.

Feature Set:

• Qualcomm MSM7230 CPU clocked at 800MHz
• 512MB of RAM
• 4GB of internal storage
• microSD card expandable to 32GB (it comes with an 8GB card
• 3.7-inch, 800 x 480 capacitive touchscreen (S-TFT)
• 5 megapixel camera with LED flash, capable of 720p video
• WiFi here (802.11b/g/n), along with Bluetooth 2.1, an AGPS chip, proximity sensor, and an accelerometer.
• 1300mAh battery inside

Besides the very minor hinge issue, the keyboard itself is one of the best landscape QWERTY’s we’ve ever used. If you thought the Droid 2′s was decent, wait until your thumbs get a taste of this. We were easily able to attain the same efficiency as our thumb-happy blackberry days.

Motorola Droid 2:

The Motorola Droid 2 has Android 2.2, and features a more refined design and an improved keyboard. It has also has an enhanced 1 GHz processor with 512MB RAM. Furthermore, it also boasts Adobe Flash Player 10.1 and 3G Mobile HotSpot capabilities to send, access and share information quicker than ever before!

A gaze at its feature set:

• Size: 60.5 x 116.3 x 13.7 mm ;
• Weight: 169 grams;
• 8GB internal memory plus included 8GB MicroSD memory card;
• 5 megapixel camera with Dual LED Flash and DVD-quality video recording;
• Improved slide-out QWERTY keyboard with larger keys and enhanced tactility;
• 3.7-inch full multi-touch screen display with WVGA (480×854 pixels) resolution;
• 3G Mobile HotSpot functionality (costs additional $20 a month)

Priced at $199.99, the Droid 2 has a lot of improvements and is a great choice for people who want a smartphone with a physical keyboard with marked keys, and large alt, shift, space, and enter keys.

But, on the negative side it lacks HDMI port and doesn’t have a front facing camera. Check out our full review of the Motorola Droid 2 here.

It  is obviously boasting a touchscreen as well and its keyboard is a huge improvement over the original. It also runs Android 2.2 with 1 GHz TI OMAP chip and 512 MB RAM. Aside from that, its features are more or less the same as the original Droid: same internal memory, same camera etc. However, it does also feature a proximity sensor, an accelerometer, and the ever popular Gorilla Glass. These make it one of the stronger offerings currently available. But, users who have spent significant time with it are hardly impressed. They seem to all say that its performance is sluggish, despite its 1Ghz processor. Certainly, it doesn’t compare with some of the newer offerings from Motorola like the Atrix, Bionic, or any of the otherdual-core phones announced in the last month. However, there currently is no dual core QWERTY Android Smartphone on the market – yet.

Check out our comparison of some of the top dual core smartphones here

Sony Xperia Pro

Sony Ericson just expanded the Xperia line and unveiled the Xperia Pro! This particular smartphones features the latest cutting edge technology from Sony, with a great multimedia interface and Android 2.3. Furthermore, Sony has gone the “Xtra” mile and added some smart image enhancements.

Let’s briefly have a glance at its features:

• 3.7 Inch Screen
• Size: 120 x 57 x 13.5 mm ;
• Weight: 135 grams;
• 1GB internal memory plus microSD upto 32 GB;
• 8 Megapixel Primary camera with autofocus and LED flash;
• Touch focus, image stabilization, geo-tagging, face and smile detection;
• Also has a microUSBv2.0 and Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
• Android 2.3 Gingerbread

Check out our full review of the Sony Xperia Pro here.

Now, let’s take a sneak peek into some of the other expected blockbusters this year in the Android QWERTY Smartphones.

HTC Desire Z

“HTC Desire Z is the QWERTY slider your Android’s been waiting for.” - Thomas Ricker, Engadget. And, that quote I guess could be sufficient for us all to know the awesomeness of this smartphone. A solid and professional phone with the slider, or ‘pop-out’ as it is referred to by HTC.

Let’s look at some of its features:

• 800 MHz Qualcomm MSM 7230 processor;
• 119 x 60.4 x 14.2 mm
• 512MB of Ram, with 1.5 GB onboard memory space with upto 32GB expansion;
• Bluetooth 2.1 and Wi-Fi connectivity;
• On board GPS;
• 3.7 inches capacitive touchscreen;
• 5 Megapixel Camera with LED flash;
• Android 2.2
• And, obviously a slide-out QWERTY slider with four-rows of keys!

Samsung Epic 4G

In some ways, this is one of the best QWERTY Android Phones to date. It features very similar specs to the popular Samsung Galaxy S Series, and is more powerful than almost all of the QWERTY Phones on this list. Samsung really tried hard with this one, and it shows. It features a front-facing camera for a very excellent full slide-out QWERTY keyboard, and fast 4G connectivity. Unfortunately, it comes pre-loaded with Android 2.1, and is said to be upgraded at a later date.

“The Samsung Epic 4G features a 4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen display with Samsung Media Hub for media buying/storing,  AllShare for viewing on multiple devices and Social Hub for integrating social networking. The Epic 4G also offers pinch-to-zoom, 5 MP camera/camcorder with autofocus, Visual Voicemail, Mobile Hotspot  up to five Wi-Fi enabled devices to share the 4G experience simultaneously) and Wi-Fi b/g/n.” (Samsung Press Release)

It’s also worth noting that the brilliant Super AMOLED touchscreen display is one of the best we’ve witnessed to date.

Feature Set:

• 1GHz Hummingbird processor common to both Galaxy S and Wave.
• Front Facing Camera for video conferencing
• 5 Megapixel Camera with 720p video recording
• 4 inch WVGA (480×800) capacitive Super AMOLED touch display
• 1GB of Memory
• 512MB RAM
• Additional memory of up to 32GB via microSD

Check out our full review with video of the Samsung Epic 4G here!

Some smartphones really weren’t “smart enough” to actually deserve a description here. It really looks like the title of best Android QWERTY for 2011 looks to be between the Motorola Droid 2, the Samsung Epic 4G, and the HTC G2/Vision. Unless one of the top tier manufacturers offers a dual core variant with a larger screen, HDMI, and a great camera, we will just have to make do with these.

We will be covering some of the latest QWERTY Phones recently released like the HTC Evo Shift 4G, HTC Merge, Motorola CLIQ2, Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, Samsung Galaxy Indulge, HTC Cha Cha, Samsung Galaxy Pro, Droid Pro in the upcoming parts of this series.

What are your thoughts? Are there any great QWERTY’s we missed? Do you care still care about having a phone with a physical QWERTY keyboard? Would you consider buying a dual core 4.3 inch QWERTY Android phone if it came out?

The Best QWERTY Android Phones of 2011 – Part Two!