Telus adopts fast-typing ZTE D90

Canadian carrier Telus has adopted the D90, a phone by Chinese maker ZTE. Its most heavily promoted feature is its typing capacity, which works as a combination of elements. It firstly uses translucent, backlit keys, illuminating all the letter options as a person types. But D90 also adds extra letter and punctuation keys beyond the numeric pad, and uses software called eZiType, which attempts to autocomplete words and phrases in both English and French. As a user continues to type, it eventually memorizes common phrases to eliminate repetition.

The rest of the phone is mid-ranged, sporting features such as Bluetooth, dual-band EVDO, a 1.3-megapixel camera and a microSD slot. It has a talk time of three hours, with a standby time of five days. The D90 is now on sale for $230 Canadian without a contract, but is also available in plans ranging down to $80 with a three-year contract.