mathsbian

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@mathsbian

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v-raze
@v-raze

We are SO BACK

Y'all may know that I'm a BlackBerry holdout. After Planet Computers ran off with backer funds from the Astro Slide 5G, I kind of lost hope for the last year and change that there would be any kind of viable modern physical keyboard phone to replace my aging Key2.

But I recently came across a wonderful project on GitHub called Fairberry that solves most of my problems with other similar solutions, uses an actual BlackBerry keyboard (from a Q10), and most importantly can be adapted to fit any smartphone by means of a 3D printed case. This also means that the Fairberry can be made with the keyboard in-line below a phone rather than stacked on top of the 'chin' of it, which I'll probably try as I'd prefer the extra length to extra thickness.

A photo taken from the Fairberry GitHub that shows two smartphones laying on a table, equipped with Fairberry attachments 3D printed from a translucent material. The phone in the foreground has a black keyboard and matching translucent case, while the one in the background has a white keyboard and a yellow upper case.

At present, this seems to be my best bet for a modern phone that fits my needs well. But in case you have similar-yet-different needs or want something more polished-looking, there's info about some other physical keyboard options below the break!

I'm in the process of ordering parts for now. The project uses a custom PCB and there are pretty significant lead times on some of the components, so I intend to make at least two of them to avoid long downtimes if one breaks or something goes wrong. If anyone else here is interested in group ordering to build their own or having me slap an extra one together for them, let me know so I can adjust quantity accordingly!

mathsbian
@mathsbian

Oh shit, I’ve been having a very sudden and sharp rise in my fingers not touching the keyboard of my iPhone where intend them to, this would be awesome to have.

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v-raze
@v-raze

Thankfully the PCB can be ordered fully assembled from JLCPCB, so the only actual soldering that needs doing is to temporarily attach and later remove the programming pins for the SOC, and to attach the four wires from the PCB to your USB connector of choice! Actually ordering said PCB is a bit of a hassle though, hence my offer to do an extra or two if anyone is interested. Honestly I think I'll personally have more trouble figuring out how to get the 3D print the way I want it than anything, but that's definitely the kind of thing you can outsource to an online service, or a local library or makerspace.

The project has pretty well written instructions here, if you're curious about what's involved:
https://github.com/Dakkaron/Fairberry/blob/main/Documentation/Hardware_Fairberry_Mainboard.md

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v-raze
@v-raze

Thanks for pointing that out, I forgot to mention them in this post (and wasn't expecting it to do severals!). Unihertz is pretty much the last holdout still semi-reliably making keyboard phones, yeah. I have three reasons I'm not really interested in one:

  1. Build quality. They seem to be hit or miss across the Titan range, but the most recent model, the Titan Slim, is... unfortunately not very slim. It's basically a knockoff Key2 and there's no way I could switch to it from a Key2 and not just be constantly disappointed by the fit and finish. Tactile and sensory stuff matters to me (in weird and selective ways, cause I have zero issues with my cheap 15-yr-old-glossy-squishy-plastic Toshiba laptop, but I digress).

  2. Keyboard layout. While most any non-Blackberry device will be an adjustment for me... I really don't like what they did with it.

  3. Firmware/software/privacy. This is something of a black box to me, as I don't have the necessary industry knowledge or technical familiarity to say what is or isn't a risk in regards to baked-in spyware, and I generally feel that it's a risk in most all modern phones, so maybe it's unfair to target Unihertz here. But given their company has some known issues with this I am inclined toward particular distrust. They also don't have the best track record for long term software support for their phones, which is honestly the only real reason I'm considering giving up the Key2 at this point anyways (BlackBerry/TCL put out their last security update for it in May of 2020). An option like the Fairberry appeals to me a lot more here because I can put it on a phone like, well, a Fairphone, which I can rest assured will receive security and OS updates for the better part of a decade.

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