The existence of the accessory – a first for Samsung’s product line-up – was revealed by renowned leaker @evleaks on Friday. From what is visible in the picture, the keyboard attaches to the bottom of the handset and the interface shifts upwards to account for this.
It can be assumed that the touch keyboard is automatically deactivated once the physical one has been connected. The unique accessory includes buttons for home, back and recent apps to replace the ones on the phone that it obscures.
The keyboard itself appears reminiscent of old phone designs like the pocket PCs and PDAs made by companies such as BlackBerry and Palm. It features a full QWERTY layout made of small, shiny silver keys. Numbers and punctuation are accessible with a dedicated Shift key while buttons to access emoticons and voice input are also visible.
If the innovative accessory exists then it could give Samsung the differentiating factor that it needs. Recently, the company has been losing market share in the smartphone business due to strong competition from rival manufacturers.
The keyboard is rumoured to cost 60 euros to buy and is thought to work with Samsung’s upcoming Galaxy S6 Edge+. This will be an updated, larger version of the existing S6 Edge. There may also be a “Plus” variant of the ordinary S6 and it is possible that the keyboard will be compatible with this too.
Both handsets will be revealed on August 13 at Samsung’s Unpacked event in New York, alongside the much-anticipated Galaxy Note 5 stylus-equipped phablet. It is unknown if there will also be a similar physical keyboard accessory for the Note range.
The keyboard could have originated as part of Samsung’s strong ties with BlackBerry. Images of the upcoming “BlackBerry Venice” Android phone show a curved display reminiscent of Samsung’s Galaxy Edge design so perhaps it is possible that BlackBerry shared some of its technology with Samsung in return.
The Galaxy S6 Edge+ keyboard cover looks to be an interesting smartphone accessory that could quickly attract fans if implemented well. With the promise of faster, more accurate typing using physical keys, Samsung may be able to attract more business users and mobile workers to its Android-powered devices.
