Sometimes, just when you think you’ve seen every bad idea in smartphones – usually with a BlackBerry logo on it – something comes along and reminds you that there will always be something even more ridiculous around the corner.
The award for strangest accessory we’ve ever come across goes to Samsung, after notorious leaker @evleaks posted an image of what is claimed to be a keyboard cover for the soon-to-be-announced Galaxy S6 Edge+. You read that right, it’s a keyboard and a cover in one.
The photo, which we have little reason to believe isn’t real given the leaker’s track record, shows the Galaxy S6 Edge+ donning the abomination that is the keyboard cover, and it’s just as horrendous as it first sounds. Covering only the bottom portion of the handset’s screen, this keyboard cover should give owners of Samsung’s latest Galaxy phone a way to type on a physical QWERTY keyboard should the idea of using a software keyboard fill them with dread. We didn’t think that there were too many of those people left these days, but someone at Samsung clearly believes otherwise. It seems The UI will automatically adjust itself to compensate for the hidden portion of the screen and, as the cover slides over the device’s hardware keys, it will come with substitute home, back and multitasking buttons.
There are obviously no details yet as to when the keyboard cover will be released or how much it will cost, but with the Galaxy S6 Edge+ set to be announced at an event next week, we don’t expect to have to wait too long before the thing gets its first outing.
With software keyboards now very much the norm, it is easy to forget that at one point, many Android phones came with slide-out hardware keyboards because some people still felt they were required. Years later, however, the software keyboard has improved so much that hardware keyboards have almost died out, though Samsung obviously thinks there is a need for them still.
We don’t think you’re likely to see too many of these keyboard covers around, though.
(Source: Evleaks)
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