Motorola i465 shows off "pyramid" keyboard

First up - this isn't a phone we're going to see here anytime soon. Nor would we want to. It's the Motorola i465, designed for America's rather quaint iDEN networks (think 2-way radio meets mobile phone in a push-to-talk, text messaging stylee). What's interesting about it is the keypad - a fully-fledged QWERTY keyboard shoehorned on to a near standard-size phone by way of some nifty pyramid style keys.

The raised ridges keep the keys slender, while (hopefully) allowing enough separation to prevent any dual key press typibng mnqalklfunbctions. In another cunning innovation, Motorola has printed the numbers on one face of the pyramid, and the corresponding key-sharing letters on the other so you can glance from the left to read the numbers, or the right to see the letters - nice.

Otherwise the i465 is a completely unremarkable phone - VGA (yes, that’s VGA ) camera and, er, WAP - but it does point to that ever increasing trend in the US of sticking QWERTY keyboards on dumbphones to encourage users to tap out lucrative messages.

Props toRussia's Mobile Review for digging up the leaked press shot. We look forward to greeting pyramid keys on this side of the Atlantic some time soon.

[ via Electronista]

Originally published on www.mobilecomputermag.co.uk, now incorporated into Broadband Genie
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