It used to be that most every smartphone on the market had a physical keyboard, but today those devices are pretty rare. There's some good news for fans of keyboard-clad phones today, though, and that's that there's a new one coming with 5G support.
The Astro Slide from Planet Computers is touted as the first 5G smartphone with a keyboard. It uses a slider hinge to reveal the landscape QWERTY keyboard from beneath the display and then angle it toward you so that you can begin typing. What's more, that keyboard is backlit to help you see it when you're typing in the dark.
One of the other highlight features of the Astro Slide is its 5G support. Planet Computers touts that the Astro Slide features a dual 5G worldwide modem with support for up to 4.7Gbps downloads, and there are dual nanoSIM slots plus eSIM support for travelers.
Powering the Astro Slide is an octa-core MediaTek Dimensity 1000 MT6889 processor paired with 6GB of RAM. There's 128GB of storage included, but you can add more with a microSD card slot if you'd like.
The display is a 6.53-inch panel with a resolution of 2340x1080, and the battery measures in at 4000mAh and includes wireless charging support. There are dual USB-C ports on the Astro Slide, one on each slide, plus a 3.5mm headphone jack. And when you want to listen to music out loud, you can use the phone's stereo speakers.
Rounding out the Astro Slide's feature list is a 24MP rear camera, a 5MP selfie cam, a fingerprint sensor on the display, and NFC support.
On the software side, the Astro Slide runs Android 10 and also includes a multi-boot option that'll enable it to support Linux OSes.
The Astro Slide is now live on Indiegogo. The crowdfunding campaign as already surpassed its goal of nearly $200,000, but you can still put down money for an Astro Slide if you're interested. As of this post there's a backing tier that'll get you an Astro Slide for $634, which is 30% off its normal price of $907.
Planet Computers estimates that the Astro Slide will begin shipping in March 2021.
