[asyl15]

Hello! I'm a new member on this site, but like you all, I'm also a Microsoft fan and Nokia fan. (I was glad to see Nokia mobile devices merge into Microsoft... I had always wanted to see Nokia's great Lumia apps come natively to Windows.) Anyway, my dream devices are a bit out of the usual so here it goes.

First among my dream devices is a basic phone that would succeed Microsoft Mobile lineup of basic phones. Hardware would be a definite basic phone: 12-key keypad, 4-direction keys with a select button in the centre, call receive and end buttons. But it would also feature the Windows back button and a "C" (backspace) key. There wouldn't be a Start key as the call end key would serve that purpose outside of a call (no multitasking), and would also be the "power" button. There wouldn't be a search key either. Because it caters to developing nations, it would have a flashlight and a basic camera. Lastly, it could take any of the three form factors: bar, flip and slide.

On the software side, it would have an interface like Windows 10 mobile but stripped-down. There wouldn't be live tiles but the icons would look like the "small" icons for Windows 10. It would also support J2ME apps instead of Windows apps. It could have Opera Mini as its browser or a stripped-down version of Edge. Regardless, it would only browse WAP sites because the hardware would support GPRS & MMS. As for input, it would support multiple languages but for the input method, you would have to guess it. I remember my old 3310 typed Chinese using strokes that I had to guess.

Another dream device I have is a basic phone turned smart. Recently, Fujitsu and Sharp in Japan unveiled phones like these running Android (Fujitsu Arrows F-05G and Sharp Aquos K SHF31). A slider phone would not be "dumbed down" as it could be like a Windows 10 Mobile edition of a Dell Venue Pro.

But a flip version would be in between the basic phone I described above and a smartphone like the Japanese phones I mentioned. Like the two, instead of a touchscreen, its buttons would double as a touchpad. It also would feature a 12-key keypad only (as here it's all about 1-hand use.) It would have a few extra keys like an input switcher key, a dedicated "C" (backspace) key so that there would also be a search button. It would also have a Windows key to allow calls to go on the background. The touchpad would be activated when running apps that cannot use the 4-direction keys and consequently, the screen would display a mouse pointer. As for specs, it would be a true smartphone in flip phone dressing.

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As you can tell, I am still wanting to see 12-key phones. I like T9 and I would also benefit from buttons because of Canada's harsh winters (it's not fun using a touchscreen outdoors when it's -30C). Frankly, this second one (a smart flip phone) I described would be my ultimate dream phone whether that's high end or low end in specs.