Results: Are physical keyboards a thing of the past?

So, the new BlackBerry-branded smartphone, __with a name that's yet to be announced, has officially been added to TCL's product portfolio. It's a midranger __with Android 7 Nougat on board, a full bouquet of BlackBerry software features, and last — but not least — a hardware keyboard!

Physical keyboards have been pretty much gone from mainstream smartphones for years now, yet BlackBerry (now TCL, producing BlackBerry-branded handsets) insists on making models with the feature, and even to develop the keyboards further. Sure, it adds that one signature "thing" that is very BlackBerry. But we wondered — what to the users (and potential customers) out there think about physical keyboards nowadays?

So, we asked you. Here's how the poll went:

Phonearena polls

sort by

original order votes count

Physical keyboard on a smartphone, yay or nay?

Yeah, i love the tactile feel under my fingertips! 41.02% (660 votes) (660 votes)

I guess I could use one, if it packs extra useful features (like a trackpad feature) 24.11% (388 votes) (388 votes)

Nope. Virtual keyboards is where it's at for smartphones! 34.87% (561 votes) (561 votes)

1609 votes