The touchscreen revolution has wiped out physical keyboards from pocketable devices, but if you love a Nokia E7 or Sony Vaio P, you might want 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 out from the side and promised to boot either Android or Linux. In retrospect, none of these dual-boot smartphones have ever been wildly successful, so this should have been red flag number 1.
Planet Computers launched a crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo in early 2020 to try and fund the building of the device. Early backers got his hefty 40% discount, bringing Slide’s price down from the expected retail price of €820 to just €490.
In January 2022, CG rendering will be in real hardware and unveiled at CES. Specs included a 6.39-inch AMOLED display (FHD+), a Dimensity 800 chipset with 5G connectivity, 8 GB of RAM, and 128 GB of storage (expandable). The first deliveries were scheduled for March.
It’s 2023 and very few people have received an Astro Slide. The shipping date has changed several times. At one point he was July 2022, then he was September/October, then January 2023. Falling below his $3 million pledged by early backers would be another red flag. This is barely enough for mass-producing the standard midrange that ODM offers, but not enough for an ambitious project like Astro Slide.
The latest update (posted a few weeks ago) says that travel restrictions in China have finally been lifted, allowing the Planet Computers team to visit factories, meet management, and inspect facilities.
The company says it is shipping Astro Slides with French and Arabic keyboards, which has been confirmed by backers. Several people in France have commented that they have received the unit.
Astros with layouts in the US, Japan, UK, Germany and Sweden are expected to ship “in the next few weeks” (also posted a few weeks ago). Devices with French and Arabic layouts will continue to ship. But a quick glance at the comments section reveals that delivered units are just a drop in a sea of undelivered units.
what went wrong? I don’t know what else is going on with the scene, but the problem is clear enough. What made Astroslide exciting is also what caused its downfall.
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Mechanical full 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, British English, English (US) |
Head over to the IndieGoGo page and you’ll see that you can still back up your project and choose 1 of 9 keyboard layouts. A total of 24 layouts are listed in the specification table. That means I need to create 24 of his SKUs. Also, unlike the charger (which is also a selectable option), the keyboard cannot be packaged separately.
Laptops, of course, face the same problem, but most are made by much larger companies. Smartphone touchscreens avoid this problem entirely, as you can interact with any keyboard you like, from English to Korean, from Morse to Klingon.
Either way, whatever the reason for the delay, Astro Slide backers are in big trouble. Some have waited two (or three) years and still haven’t received their device. Android OS is two versions behind, as is Wi-Fi 5 (ac). Dimensity 800 chips weren’t strong to begin with.
Astroslide on Project Computer
The system is outdated, but in some ways very new. After supporting the project, she spoke to a backer who received the unit two years and nine months later. The software is reported to be very buggy, and as things progress, don’t expect a quick fix.
Backers also report that the Astro Slide is made of cheap-feeling plastic and poorly made. And its main feature, the hardware keyboard, isn’t the best, with issues like 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 have proven to be a big challenge. A relatively recent attempt to revive BlackBerry phones didn’t even make it to the concept stage. At least the concept device wasn’t open to the public.
Are you an Astroslide supporter? If so, we would love to hear from you in the comments section.
