The touchscreen revolution has wiped out the physical keyboard from pocket devices, but if you loved your Nokia E7 or a Sony Vaio P, you might have longed for a modern alternative. Planet Computers has tried to fulfill these wishes with the Astro Slide 5G Transformer.
The device had a physical keyboard that slid sideways and promised to boot Android or Linux, depending on whether you want something more like a phone or a PC. In retrospect that should have been the number 1 red flag as none of those dual boot smartphones have ever been a big hit.
Planet Computers started a crowdfunding campaign in early 2020 on IndieGoGo to try to finance the construction of the device. Early backers got a whopping 40% off, so the Slide would cost them just €490, down from its expected retail price of €820.
In January 2022 CG renderings turned into real hardware which was shown at CES. Specs included a 6.39-inch AMOLED display (FHD+), a Dimensity 800 chipset (with 5G connectivity), 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of (expandable) storage. The first deliveries were expected in March.
We are in 2023 and very few have received their Astro Slide. The ship date has been pushed back several times: at one point it was July 2022, then September/October, then January 2023. below the $3 million pledged by early backers you’ll see another red flag. It’s just enough to mass-produce a standard ODM-offered mid-ranger, but far from enough for a project as ambitious as the Astro Slide.
The latest update (released a couple of weeks ago) mentions that China travel restrictions have finally been lifted so that the Planet Computers team can tour the factory, meet with management, and inspect the facilities.
The company says Astro Slides with French and Arabic keyboards are shipping, and backers confirm this: several people from France have commented that they have received their units.
More Astros with American, Japanese, British, German, and Swedish layouts are expected to ship “in the coming weeks” (again, this was posted a couple of weeks ago), devices with French and Arabic layouts will also continue to ship. But a quick glance at the comments section will be enough to tell you that the delivered units are just a drop in a sea of undelivered units.
What went wrong? We don’t know what happened beyond the scenes, but the problem seems clear enough: the thing that made the Astro Slide exciting is also the thing that’s causing it to crash.
| Full mechanical keyboard, 24 layouts |
| Arabic, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Dvorak, Finnish/Swedish, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian/Danish, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swiss, Thai, English UK , American English |
If you go to the IndieGoGo page you will see that you can still support the project and choose from one of 9 keyboard layouts. The spec table lists 24 layouts in total, which means 24 SKUs to produce. And unlike the charger (which is also a selectable option), the keyboard can’t be packaged separately.
Laptops face the same problem, of course, but most are made by much larger companies. And smartphones, well, their touchscreens let you run any keyboard you want, from English to Korean to Morse code to Klingon, so they sidestep that entirely.
However, whatever the reason for the delays, Astro Slide proponents are tough. Some have waited two years (some three) and still haven’t received the device, and by now even if they did get anything it would be almost useless. The Android OS is two versions behind, as is Wi-Fi 5 (ac), the Dimension 800 chip has never been a powerhouse to begin with.
Project Computer’s Astro Slide
While the system is outdated, it is in some ways very new. We spoke to a backer who received his unit 2 years and 9 months after backing the project. The software is reportedly very buggy and with the way things are progressing we wouldn’t expect any quick fixes.
The backer also reports that the Astro Slide has poor build quality with cheap plastic. And its main feature, the hardware keyboard, is far from the best with such problems as short key travel.
The story of Planet Computers’ Astro Slide 5G Transformer is a stark reminder of how difficult it is to break into the world of smartphones. Hardware keyboards in particular are proving to be a big challenge. A relatively recent attempt to revive BlackBerry phones hasn’t even made it to the concept stage — at least no concept devices have been shared with the public.
Are you a supporter of Astro Slide? If so, we’d love to hear from you in the comments section.
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