T-Mobile wants to keep QWERTY alive through LG Optimus F3Q smartphone

Just when we thought that QWERTY smartphones were about to fade away for good, a new leak suggests that T-Mobile will keep the segment alive through the LG Optimus F3Q. The previous Android handset with a physical keyboard was the Samsung Gravity Q which went official back in July. Then there are the Blackberry Q10 and Q5 smartphones which run on the BB10 OS.

The new device headed to T-Mobile in the US was made known by EvLeaks and an image of the phone was also posted (see below). What’s interesting is that the render isn’t a press shot or of the actual device. Instead, it looks a lot like a mockup that you’d find in service and user manuals.

Nevertheless, it does give us a look at the LG Optimus F3Q. As seen in the image above, the handset will have a 4-row QWERTY keyboard. The Korean conglomerate normally uses a 4-button configuration below the screen for dual SIM devices, while single SIM models usually have a physical home button. While nothing has been provided in terms of specifications, the handset is likely to be a mere variant of the Optimus F3 where the letter ‘Q’ obviously denotes the existence of the physical keyboard.

If this is the case, the Optimus F3Q should share the same features as the original. We could be looking at a 4-inch WVGA IPS display with Gorilla Glass 2. The device is likely to be powered by Android Jelly Bean, but version 4.1. Apart from these, you can expect it to have a 1.2GHz dual core processor, a 2,460mAh battery, a 5MP rear camera and 1GB of RAM. Also, the F series smartphones are deployed with 4G LTE.