Would you buy a phone with a physical keyboard? [Poll of the Week]

Physical, QWERTY keyboards may not be present on 99.9% of Android devices on the market, but one manufacturer isn’t giving up on them. BlackBerry, the company who recently announced that it’s teaming up with TCL for its future hardware endeavors, is about to launch a new security-focused Android phone, that, of course, features a physical keyboard. Unofficially dubbed ‘Mercury‘, the new smartphone will be officially announced on February 25, right at the beginning of MWC 2017.

We were lucky enough to go hands-on with the device at CES a few weeks ago, and we must say… that keyboard is nice. Not only is it incredibly well built, it also includes a few features many people don’t associate with a physical keyboard. The space bar doubles as a fingerprint sensor, and you can also take advantage of keyboard gestures to swipe through menus on the phone.

Do we actually need physical keyboards though? Virtual keyboards have improved incredibly over the past few years, and most smartphone users nowadays have completely forgotten about using a physical keyboard to input text.

But the question is, if a smartphone was good enough, would you go back to a device with a physical keyboard? Or are you strictly set on using virtual keyboards from here on out? Be sure to cast your vote in the poll attached below, and speak up in the comments if you have anything to add. We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

Next: BlackBerry Priv review