This 5G smartphone comes with Android, Linux - and a keyboard. Back to the future with the Astro Slide

London-basedPlanet Computersis on a mission to reinvent the iconicPsion Series 5PDA for the smartphone age. Although mobile professionals -- especially those old enough to remember the 1997 Series 5 with affection -- are often open to the idea, the company's previous efforts, theGemini PDAandCosmo Communicator, have had their drawbacks.

The Gemini PDA, for example, is a landscape-mode clamshell device that, despite a great keyboard, is difficult to make and take calls on and only has one camera -- a front-facing unit for video calling. The Cosmo Communicator adds a small external touch screen for notifications and some basic functions plus a rear-facing camera, but you still have to open the clamshell to do anything productive.

The Astro Slide, announced today via acrowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo, has a new design with one large (6.53-inch) screen that slides open to reveal the keyboard, transforming the device from a portrait smartphone to a landscape PDA via a patented RockUp mechanism.

Here's how the Astro Slide stacks up against its two predecessors.

Planet Computers phone/PDA specs

As with the Gemini PDA and Cosmo Communicator, the designer behind the form factor is Martin Riddiford, who was also responsible for the industrial design of the original Psion Series 5.

"We started this process by looking at devices with dual screens, which we thought was a big compromise on the keyboard," Janko Mrsic-Flogel, CEO of Planet Computers, told ZDNet. "Then we looked at the usual kind of flip-up, like theF(x)tec, but that reduced the size of the keyboard. So we came up with a couple of designs that didn't compromise on the keyboard -- we patented both, and are launching one of them now."

When closed, the 6.53-inch Astro Slide looks like a conventional large-screen smartphone -- albeit a hefty one, thanks to the physical keyboard. It measures 76.6mm wide by 164mm deep by 15mm thick and weighs 300g, compared to 73.7mm x 161.9mm x 7.8mm and 186g for Samsung's Galaxy S20+ for example.

The Astro Slide is powered by MediaTek's flagshipDimensity 1000chipset, a 7nm SoC with an integrated 5G modem that provides support for dual 5G SIMs and carrier aggregation resulting in up to 4.7Gbps performance. The standard model, with a target price of £799, will come with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage (expandable via MicroSD), although Mrsic-Flogel said there may be a premium model with more RAM and 1TB of storage in due course. It supports Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and has a 48MP rear camera -- a big step up from the Cosmo Communicator's 24MP. The front-facing camera is unchanged at 5MP.

SEE:IT pro's guide to the evolution and impact of 5G technology(free PDF)

The Astro Slide runs on Android 10, with a multi-boot option supporting various Linux distributions. It comes with Planet Computers' software suite -- Agenda (calendaring & to-do lists), Airmail (email), Data (database) and Notes (note-taking & dictation). One software tweak for the Astro Slide will be the ability to specify different quick-access icons for portrait and landscape mode.

Summing up "the first 5G phone with a keyboard", Mrsic-Flogel said: "It's a little bit of a departure...it looks like a PDA, but will provide even better no-compromise functionality for portrait and landscape use, and one-handed use, which was missing a little bit. Cosmo Communicator users appreciate the 'semi-engaged' mode when the device is closed and the 'fully engaged' mode when it's open. That's great for Nokia Communicator/Psion users, but we really wanted to bring more people into the fold. We see this more for the BlackBerry people who want a keyboard on a traditional smartphone."

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