To me the keyboards on iPhone and Android feel like they are from a different planet and made for garden gnome fingers but I did not grow up with these phones.
The Pinephone with the keyboard accessory was tempting too, but the software readiness (and older hardware) didn't seem practical as a daily driver.
It doesn't take much to throw in a LTE modem, sim card reader, a mic and a speaker -- suddenly you have a phone!
I'm don't really have a point here, and I don't know exactly where my meandering project will eventually end up -- but I really like the "own the full stack" aspect of it, and the decoupling of my little device from all the extras that have accumulated under the umbrella of "phone".
A proper implementation could make phones as usable as laptops.
If someone is really "typing long emails or editing documentation with just their phone's touch keyboard" they're probably not doing that while standing/walking, so they're probably better off getting a little stand for their phone, and a portable Bluetooth keyboard, which will be far more functional than a keyboard for thumbs.
The perfect form factor however is the Blackberry Passport which I now own as a little Cyberdeck device (managed to get a version running Android). The combination of touchscreen, keyboard swipe mouse cursor and physical keyboard is what every phone should be.
Sadly it died one day some months ago and recently I contacted some shops to find what went wrong with the phone and it looks like the battery had some issue.
But luckily, its battery is removable so I can just buy a new one. I am gonna bring it in a few days maybe (if I get the time) but should take less than 2$
The amount of features in the phones (calling+storage/music+audio+messaging ie sms) and all others make it worth it, the only thing it doesn't have is internet/app access but I really loved the phone.
For context: It's the kaechoda k100. Its keyboard is physical but it doesn't show the buttons and looks really cool irl. The buttons only show when you click on them.
I remember one of my friends literally shout one day that I had Iphone Mini and the whole class was looking at me but it actually felt really nice phone and definitely better than my dad's old shitass redmi 1 gb phone android which was so slow.
the k100 had 32mb ram iirc. its crazy how snappy it was compared to the almost two magntitude larger 1 gb android ram phone.
Dumbphones are amazing given how cheap they are.
I think that personally a cool-looking dumb phone can/should actually-be given to kids for calling/safety-concerns without giving them the beast of phones if possible in situations but obv it depends on situation.
Although one of the things I wanted with the dumb phone was a Linux handheld.
I found this website just now https://mecha.so/comet#hardware so it would be interesting to see how the idea of linux handhelds pan out.
Dumb phone + Linux handheld seems good seperation of concern personally to me given how lightweight Dumb phones are. I have had them sometimes be lost in my pocket :)
Edit: But point be said that obviously they are very restricted for messaging purposes at times but I had optimized my typing speed for it to be like 1 word per second maybe 2 so for some basic things and even talking to some of my friends sometimes it was possible.
I was the only reason people used SMS sometimes in the world where mostly its whatsapp during my time with the dumb-phone.