![]() Planet Computers installs some proprietary apps including an email app, but when you open it there’s a Google alert telling you it’s unsafe. The more I used it, the more problems showed up. ![]() Color balance is fine, but there’s a lot of smoothing and very little detail, while it also has trouble with focus and the HDR mode doesn’t seem to work at all. Secondary feature or otherwise, it’s reasonable to expect it to take decent photos, but it doesn’t. This is a productivity phone so unsurprisingly the camera is very much a secondary feature, and sure enough, it’s a solitary 48-megapixel camera on the back, and a 13MP selfie camera on the front. The stereo speakers are decent, plus there’s a 3.5mm headphone jack on the body, and there’s NFC inside the phone for mobile payment systems along with a 4,000mAh battery. Powering the phone is a MediaTek Dimensity 800 with 8GB of RAM and 128GB storage space, plus there’s a MicroSD cardholder in the dual SIM tray to expand this figure. There are sizable bezels around the screen, and once I noticed how the battery icon is squeezed right up against its corner, while the clock on the opposite side isn’t, I couldn’t ignore it. The screen is a 6.39-inch AMOLED with a 2340 x 1080 pixel resolution and it’s perfectly adequate, but the lowly 60Hz refresh rate makes it look old compared to even modestly priced Android phones today. It’s not the most ergonomic solution, but worse is the way the keys are flush with the case, making them awkward to locate without looking, and slow to press. The power key contains the fingerprint sensor, which is on the side of the screen section along with the SIM card tray, but the volume keys are on the opposite side set lower down on the keyboard section. The mix of plastic textures makes the phone feel a little cheap, like it’s still a work in progress. The rear of this phone has a ridged texture for grip, but the sides of the handset are smooth. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 3 is 16mm at its thickest when folded and is 271 grams for comparison, plus it is made from aluminum. The Astro Slide 5G is made of plastic, measures a hand-stretching 18.7mm thick, and weighs a pocket-bothering 325 grams. Yes, it gets a little quicker once you’ve got the layout down, but because it’s not intuitive and the keys frustrate until you purposely adapt to them, it doesn’t feel very inviting or inspiring. ![]() Put all this together and typing on the Astro Slide 5G is a long, slow, drawn-out affair. Spending minutes trying to find the question mark because it’s not attached to the key with the question mark symbol makes me rather angry, and it shouldn’t happen on a device straight out of the box. However, no matter what regional options I select regarding layout, I haven’t figured out the right keys for punctuation or special characters. Planet Computers has made the keyboard available with 24 different layouts, with my review model in both English and Japanese, which is excellent. Pressing the Q, W, E, and A, S, and D keys returns a decent level of feedback, but the keys on the opposite side of the keyboard - I, O, P, K, and L - get caught unless you make an effort to really make sure you press them “right.” It’s not a recipe for typing enjoyment. The motion isn’t precise or refined enough to type quickly, and the feel is inconsistent so it becomes frustrating. I’ve been typing on the Astro Slide for a few days, including making an attempt to type this entire article on it, but I just can’t get on with the keys. So what’s it like? Andy Boxall/Digital Trends You’re faced with a backlit keyboard that spans almost the entire length and depth of the device, giving you as much space as possible to type on. ![]() Rubber sections under the body keep it from moving around, and even when you tap the screen in keyboard mode it stays steady unless you really prod at it. It’s definitely not the most refined action, but it doesn’t feel like it’s about to break.Ī set of rear supports extends out when the keyboard is in place, and these ensure it’s very sturdy when placed on a desk. It lifts up, it moves from side to side, and when you reach almost full extension you have to give it quite a pull before it starts to tilt and lock into place. It doesn’t require much effort, but there’s a lot of what I’d call slop in the motion. The action isn’t automated so you manually slide the keyboard out yourself. What you're seeing here, the way the keyboard slides in and out, is the one good thing about it. I've been using this, the Planet Computers Astro Slide 5G. What’s the deal with the Astro Slide 5G hybrid phone? HMD Global wants you to keep your new Nokia phone and save the planet I’ve used Android phones for 10 years, and I hate these ones the most ![]()
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