TL;DR
- US firm Raz Mobility has launched an Android telephone for visually impaired customers.
- It comes with a T9 keypad, navigation keys, and a Google Assistant button.
- The telephone additionally provides wi-fi charging, a 3.5mm port, and microSD card growth.
Immediately’s high Android telephones include loads of accessibility enhancements, together with a number of options for the visually impaired. What if that isn’t sufficient for you, although?
US firm Raz Mobility has revealed the SmartVision 3 smartphone for blind and visually impaired shoppers (h/t: The Verge). And also you solely want to have a look at it to comprehend that it’s very completely different from 99% of Android telephones on the market.
Loads of options for the blind
The SmartVision 3 packs a bodily T9 keypad for typing, for starters. And that is essential for visually impaired customers, providing a constant, tactile expertise in comparison with a digital keyboard. The keypad additionally has bodily navigation keys, permitting shoppers to seek out their approach by way of the working system with out utilizing the touchscreen.
The brand new Android telephone additionally provides useful options like a devoted {hardware} key for summoning Google Assistant, the same old TalkBack function when utilizing the touchscreen, and a number of imaginative and prescient instruments. The latter features a banknote recognizer, gentle detector, coloration detector, navigation app, and display screen magnifier.
Raz Mobility’s telephone additionally contains wi-fi charging (albeit at 5W), which could simply be the primary time we’ve seen wi-fi charging on a telephone with a T9 keypad. This might however be a useful addition for the goal market, as you don’t must search for the charging port and cable.
In any other case, the remainder of the telephone is squarely mid-range. Count on a 2019-era Helio P70 price range processor (no 5G right here), 4GB of RAM, 64GB of storage, and a 3.5-inch 640 x 960 display screen. You’re additionally getting a 3,500mAh battery, which ought to offer you first rate endurance in live performance with the smaller display screen and 4G connectivity.
It’s additionally price noting that the SmartVision 3 provides microSD growth (as much as 128GB) and a 3.5mm port, two options we don’t see fairly often on fashionable Android telephones.
Different notable options embody dual-SIM help, the Google Play Retailer, a 16MP+2MP rear digicam pairing, a 5MP selfie shooter, and a rear fingerprint scanner.
SmartVision 3 worth and availability
These anticipating a mid-range worth to go along with the telephone’s mid-range core specs are sorely mistaken, although. Raz Mobility is promoting the SmartVision 3 within the US for $539. That’s a fairly penny, it have to be mentioned.
The corporate can also be promoting a $599 variant which comes with a wi-fi charging pad, telephone cowl, display screen protector, lanyard, pedestrian GPS app, and guide/doc reader.
Would you return to a telephone with a bodily keypad?
22 votes
There clearly aren’t many Android telephones on the market with a keypad and particular enhancements for visually impaired customers, so we’re glad this telephone exists. Toss in options like wi-fi charging, a 3.5mm port, and microSD help, and it’s a singular proposition.
In saying so, you would possibly wish to contemplate keypad-toting telephones just like the Unihertz Titan Pocket and older telephones just like the BlackBerry Key2 LE if all you want is the bodily enter. Many Android telephones additionally ship with options like TalkBack, magnification, Choose to Communicate, and audio description performance. So that you would possibly wish to attempt these options first earlier than shopping for one thing just like the SmartVision 3.