Verdict
The Astro Slide is the very definition of a corner gimmick , providing a unambiguously accomplish full qwerty typing experience that you simply wo n’t rule elsewhere . It ’s miss in almost every other way , however , and it is n’t as cheap as its constituent paint a picture , so only those who genuinely want that ‘ pocket laptop ’ experience need apply .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
It might sound like a water Mungo Park attractor , but the Astro Slide is actually a crew - funded smartphone from Planet Computers , with much of the team behind the beloved Psion series work on its quirky PDA form constituent .
For those unfamiliar with the wild pre - smartphonedays , the fundamental feature here is a full mechanical keyboard stashed behind a full - sized exhibit . Crank that screen up and into position , and you in effect have a teeny tiny Android - powered laptop computer .
It ’s something a lot of people used to yen for in the early smartphone days , and which a dedicated nonage continue to desire – hence the Astro Slide ’s crowdfunding succeeder .
So does this jumble of sure-enough and unexampled features cohere into a complete and live up to twist ? Is it worth the £ 729 asking Mary Leontyne Price ? And who ’s really going to require to own such a phone ? Let ’s take a closer look .
Design and screen
However you need to draw the look and feel of the Astro Slide , it ai n’t insidious , and it certain as heck is n’t pretty . Even taking into news report the phone ’s unequalled slide - out keyboard , it ’s a seriously chunky wolf .
At 172.4 x 76.5 x 18.7 mm when in its closed place , it dwarfs even theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 in every management . It ’s way heavier , too , at 325 g.
I ’d go so far as to say that the Astro Slide ’s size and weight earn it impractical to apply as your principal everyday smartphone . pop it into my boxershorts air hole while I did a few chore around the business firm , I was constantly aware of this huge weight at my side , and fear for the long condition unity of said pocket .
The Astro Slide looks as ungainly as it feel . Its boxlike plastic body , furrow rear cover , and retro camera module make it appear like some kind of long lost image ‘ compact ’ film camera from the ‘ 80s .
The front of the phone expect a little more modern , but only so far as an early to mid-2010s Android phone . The phone ’s full - sizedAMOLEDdisplay is flank by truly huge top and bottom bezel and exaggerated rounded corners .
We have n’t even talk over the main pattern talk percentage point yet . The headphone ’s slide - out keyboard mechanism feel perilously janky and clumsy right along its journey from beneath the video display , with twin runners betraying oodles of flex and creak .
It ’s all in servicing of the phone ’s last and true shape , however . Once that keyboard is locked into position , with the showing reset against the far bound and protruding at an obtuse angle , it suddenly all makes sense . At this point the reason for the weighty bottom one-half and those clumsy gum elastic feet come into focus , as you may now lay the phone on a flat surface and type with confidence .
This is n’t a full - sized qwerty keyboard , manifestly , but it is a qwerty keyboard all the same . There ’s a complete row of turn keys along the top , an escape valve paint in the top leave , and a space cake on the bottom .
These are proper mechanical keys too , with a degree of travel that will be familiar to anyone who ’s used a classic keyboard from before the MacBook chiclet earned run average . They sour jolly well , with a satisfyingly springy thunk to every key press . With that read , you ’ll need to urge every Francis Scott Key properly , as I retrieve the odd missed keypress when attempting to type quickly .
If you ’ve never fully adjust to digital keyboard , or you wish to compose long - form emails or notes as cursorily and efficiently as potential , it presents a compellingly unadulterated option . There ’s plainly nothing else out there right now that offers this form of a ‘ proper ’ typing experience in anything come on a smartphone shape element .
My framework came with the Japanese kana keyboard impress out on the keys , but you’re able to specify plenty of alternatives and can switch to 24 different layouts through the UI . This did allow issue for me when undertake to sort out my @s and ? s , however , which never quite seemed to correspond with what was indicated on the headstone .
by from the keyboard , Planet Computers has included twoUSB - Cports with the Astro Slide . This frees you up to charge from either side , and also enables you to plume up a peripheral whilst charge . You also get a 3.5 mm headphone laborer and stereo speakers , though the latter are n’t of great timber .
Nor , for that affair , is the Astro Slide ’s 6.39 - in display . It ’s enough shrewd enough at 2340 x 1080 ( FHD+ ) , and it ’s an AMOLED panel rather than an LCD . But it ’s the sort of AMOLED panel that reminds me of the early day of the applied science , when Samsung used to crank the colour up to a wild floor of saturation .
Bolshevik and orangeness are ludicrously punchy here , and there ’s no way to tune or adjust this colour visibility in the configurations menu either . That ’s become a cardinal feature of even most low-cost AMOLED telephone , and its absence here is badly missed .
You ’ll also have to make do with a mere 60Hz refresh rate , which is n’t what we ’re customary to watch in an Android speech sound selling for more than £ 700 .
Camera
The Astro Slide ’s television camera system is brutally square . There ’s a single 48MP sensor on the rear , and a 13MP selfie camera on the front . Neither is right .
Several times when I took consecutive snap of the same thing , one would be monstrously overexposed , while the other ( always the 2d one ) would be more balanced . This applied to both cameras .
Detail is o.k. on the main 48MP sensor , but you ’ll need to manually choose HDR mode . There ’s no form of intelligent mechanisation here . You might not require to toggle it on , however , as when I did all of my stroke take on a weirdly grainy appearing , as if I was taking the shot through a finely textured windowpane .
Night shots are rather granulose and murky , but not the unfit I ’ve encounter . It ’s still the form of solvent you ’d expect to find in a cheap headphone rather than a £ 729 phone , however .
Selfie shots , meanwhile , are poorly lacking in both detail and dynamic ambit , whether applying HDR or not .
Really , it ’s best to catch the Astro Slide ’s tv camera offer as you would a tablet ’s . Be happy that it ’s there for emergency certification , QR codification scanning , and societal media posts , but do n’t rely on it for capturing any here and now you actually want to retain for posterity .
Any decent mid - range earpiece , such as theOnePlus Nord 2Tor theGoogle Pixel 6a , will run halo around it on the photographic front . But again , if you ’re arrive here for the tv camera , you ’re rather missing the point .
Performance
The Dimensity 800 5 g-force chip shot that powers the Astro Slide is not the kind of chip you be given to see in sound of this price . It ’s the kind of microchip that powers the Oppo Reno4 Z 5 gigabyte , a phone that sell for less than half that amount back in 2020 .
It ’s pair with a decent 8 GB of RAM , so app switching and ecumenical navigation is n’t an issue here . But for raw performance , the Astro Slide is far from thebest Android telephone set . Average Geekbench 5 scores of 495 ( single - core ) and 2104 ( multi - core ) affirm that it ’s very low down the Android smartphone pecking order .
GPU performance is a little better , with 3DMark result that beat telephone set running on the the likes of of the Snapdragon 695 . Again , though , these tend to be much more low-priced phones .
The focus , as ever , is hard on that physical keyboard , which takes precedency over any unconstipated smartphone consideration . I extremely doubt that any Astro Slide crowdfunder will be thirstily boot the phone up carry or desiring a fluid game of Genshin Impact on high options , and they wo n’t get one if they do .
irrespective of the Astro Slide ’s very clearly and specifically defined audience , it ’s a pity that we did n’t at least get a more modern and subject mid - range chip like the Dimensity 1200 or the Dimensity 1300 . Although the gadget is n’t intended to hightail it eminent - closing chore , it ’s still a machine for enthusiasts of a sort , and a little more pop would n’t have live awry .
You do get a middling competitory amount of internal computer memory at 128 GB , and there ’s a microSD slot for enlargement purposes too .
Battery Life
For such a sizable piece of outfit , the Astro Slide sure does have a small barrage . Bearing in thinker again that this is well the heaviest phone I ’ve ever used , I had expect more than a 4000mAh cell .
In practice , likely thanks to that humble processor and modest 60Hz display , it ’s up to the task . For the general typing - cloggy tasks that the telephone set has been designed for , it should see you through a full working day with relative ease .
Heavier job will drain it quite rapidly , but not disastrously so . Running the 3DMark Wild Life Stress Test three times over the space of an hour , the Astro Slide lose 18 % of its charge . By line , a mid - range phone like theRealme 9 Pro Pluswill lose around 13 % in this scenario , while a more capable ( and similarly price ) phone like theXiaomi 12might lose as much as 28 % .
major planet data processor ply a 30W courser in the box . That does n’t make for the most flattering comparison a quite a little of ‘ normal ’ phones of this price , though it still perplex theiPhone 14and theSamsung Galaxy S22 . As mentioned , there are two USB - C port provided , meaning you may charge the Slide whilst at the same time plugging in a USB equipment like an SD add-in reader , for example .
It also brook wireless charging , which I was sunnily surprised to see included given the dispirited - remnant specs elsewhere .
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Should you buy it?
- : If you want a laptop computer - ish typecast experience in the form ( more or less ) of an Android phone , this is the one for you , the Astro Slide is your only selection .
It might cost £ 730 , but most of that monetary value goes on the Astro Slide ’s physical keyboard mechanics . Its performance is unquestionably modest death .
Final Thoughts
The Astro Slide is not a particularly expert sound . It ’s impractically big and heavy , its display is unbalanced , its functioning is decidedly entry - floor , and its camera falls behind a lot of speech sound selling for half the price . All this costs about as much as aniPhone 13 .
Despite all of these downers , though , the Astro Slide is far from a write - off . In fact , it ’s thebest phonein its course . for certain , we ’re talk about a course of instruction of one here , but then the Astro Slide ’s niche solicitation is kind of the whole point in time .
On its own extremely specific terms , the Astro Slide is a success , albeit a qualified one .
Trusted Score
How we test
We test every wandering speech sound we review exhaustively . We use diligence received tests to compare features right and we use the phone as our main twist over the review full point . We ’ll always tell you what we find and we never , ever , accept money to review a intersection .
FAQs
No , this phone only has a 60Hz display – which is slightly disappointing for the Leontyne Price .
The standout feature of this sound is its slew keyboard that have you typewrite out subject matter without using an on - projection screen keyboard .
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Full Specs
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