Images of the BlackBerry "slider" smartphone

It looks like BlackBerry is finally coming out with a slider. This one slides vertically (like the Palm Pre) and features a full QWERTY keyboard. Imagine taking the BlackBerry Storm 2 and adding a hardware QWERTY keyboard that slides out. That's what this new device looks like. At one time, Samsung also made a few Windows Mobile smartphones that featured this type of form factor.

Why make a vertical slider instead of a horizontal slider? If you're going to browse a web page, you probably want your smartphone to be in a horizontal position so that you can effectively view web pages. However, if you tend to use your smartphone using one hand, then it really helps to have a vertical slider so that you can access the keyboard buttons with a single hand.  The problem with a horizontal slider is that it's difficult to type on those buttons using a single hand.

Image from Gadgetell.