No, because words that use repetition of the same series of letters requires a delay between each letter input

only if you were typing letter by letter instead of using the built-in dictionary. you could just press 8-2-5-5 and it would offer both “talk” and “tall”, for example.

I’m very much a tech person and can confirm for me personally: T9-Word in combination with physical keys was a much faster, one-handed, and even eyes-off experience. Even when I upgraded to a phone with a slide out full physical keyboard (Samsung Intensity), T9 was still faster. For any word that had repeated keys back-to-back, my hand knew to press the right arrow which would move the cursor to the next position.

I’m purely talking about typing while not looking at the screen (for instance in a pocket like OP mentioned). Not sure why you brought screen resolution into it or media players. I’m not a vintage tech apologist–I’m typing this on an S22 with SwiftKey and it’s fine minus a few mistakes. But there was no way I could do this blindfolded. I’d have exited the app and be typing something regrettable into Slack by now.

No, because words that use repetition of the same series of letters requires a delay between each letter input

My flip phone just let me press arrow right to skip the delay for repeat buttons.

I have needed a new phone every 2 for the last 6 years because my old one physically broke. Battery might be good, but the screen is cracked: new phone. My last phone quit recognizing the SIM, and so new phone it is. In theory I can buy the parts to repair the phone, but in practice either the parts are obsolete and not stocked, or I can get them special order from China if I’m willing to wait weeks and pay half the price of a new phone. Then hope I actually manage to get the phone together again.

I live in the US where we use many weird by world standards frequencies. I’ve looked into various repairable phones, (fair phone, pine phone), but I quickly realize I often travel in parts of the US where they won’t work. Thus I’m stuck with what my carrier offers. (Apple might be more repairable, but apparently more locked down)

Yep. This 8 year old phone does absolutely everything I need it to do (well, haven’t had to deal with AV1 videos yet, so software decoding those might show its age), but the battery is on its last legs.

I’d just replace the battery (involved but not too difficult), but I also want a newer phone with better support for some of the LTE bands near me. I figure 8 years is a good run for a smartphone as a daily driver lol.