However, there are still plenty of people out there who will actually pay extra for a physical keyboard, and there is currently no reliable, modern alternative. You have a BlackBerry KeyOne and Key2, but they are also used, very expensive and really old. Then you have those from Unihertz, but Unihertz can’t be trusted as a company/manufacturer and their hardware is also very expensive for very low specs.

If a manufacturer like Motorola or perhaps a new player (a OnePlus-style) has just made a modern device where the only compromise is screen size, a bit of the form factor of the Blackberry Bold 9900, I’d be more than happy to pay the niche for it.

Although I can now also get along well with a touch keyboard, it’s still less pleasant than the physical buttons. With my BlackBerry I can type entire messages with my phone in my pocket or under my desk, and I don’t have to experience that with a touch keyboard.

In addition, the physical keyboard offers other capabilities, such as sending long emails or typing documents with greater ease, and even programming, which you don’t have to experience on a touch screen. On a touch screen, you only need some autocorrection even if you try hard, because accidental touching of the wrong key or misrecognition of your finger is inevitable, and autocorrect isn’t compatible with things like programming. During my BlackBerry period, I again had to fix a website for a freelance client on vacation, and while it wasn’t very good, it worked fine, but I wouldn’t start with a touch screen.

So no, touch keyboards don’t work “properly”. It works fine for most people who don’t skip a bit of social media on their phone, but it’s nothing for a power user, and there are already at least a few thousand people who are really serious about it. Not enough for example for Samsung or Apple where most of the cost is indirect, but a manufacturer that focuses more on a profitable price/quality ratio like Motorola should be able to make a profit from it easily. If that was so difficult, foldable devices would have flopped a long time ago, because you don’t see a lot of people walking around with them.