Hi, looong time lurker, first post.

with all the threads on N9xx possibilities, I was wondering about actual physical aspects.

Having just handled my 770 for the first time in a long time, putting HE on it for it's current owner my gf, I remebered that when the 800 appeared I, along with many others, though it looked "Retro" compared to the 770. Now the reverse is true. The 770 looks like something from, well, the 70's!

The thing that most impressed me though was that with just a little extra width, the 800 centred the screen.

Now, one of the reasons I haven't dived on a 810 is te lack of the d-pad on the shell itself - I like to use it for scolling webpages, games etc.

So I was wondering what others thought? I'd like to see the d-pad back on the main body of the next gen, keyboard or not.

In fact I'd go one step further - 2 d-pads, one each side, configurable to user, thus giving lefties choice, gamers options etc.
The "pandora killer" idea?

Even more, if we're really looking at a mini-mobile pc, how about a mini-trackball at the centre of the d-pad, then the possibliies become immense...

It may not be the final design, but it looks like all the hardware buttons have now moved to the keyboard.

This pictures are *NOT* the representation of any future hardware

Yes, those pictures are not any final hardware design. In general, for a finger touch UI the value of the d-pad is much reduced. Finger touch UI gives scrolling directly from the screen, and it does not really rely on the style of having a focus which the user moves around to select items.

Yeah, but I'm not actually scrolling around all the time... So, some kind of always accessible navigation, different from a finger is welcome (for me)...

There seem to be indications that the next screen will have haptic (i.e. touch) feedback, that might make hardware buttons less necessary.

also, the iphone doesn't have a d-pad, so of course we don't want one, either.

benny1967, what would the iPhone do with a d-pad? What would you control in the various screens?

I want my 770-style dpad back. That's it

Sometimes it is easier to navigate with direction buttons, than to find something and click on it on the screen (or worse - making finger gestures)... Tactile feedback is an improvement, yes.