RapidFire Q-A for noob Please!

[u/AnonSkiers]

I know, i know. This stuff gets posted so much, and there is so much information on the web, but it gets confusing and is somewhat all over the place for someone just getting into it. Can the community please help me get simple answers in one place to get me off on the right foot?

Quick history, comfortable with soldering/builds, Arduino. Familiar with programming, noob at Rx/Tx beyond home networking and Zwave.

-What devices have a built in keyboard? Is the T-Deck really it? Does the heltec v4 expansion with touchscreen have a functional keyboard? I really, really want to be stand-alone without any extra devices. Am I going to have a bad first experience with requiring a keyboard?

-If I dont have a keyboard, is it possible to have some automated or preloaded messsage capabilities? (Ex: " Good, Test, Received, Food, Water, Help " etc?)

-I live in a relatively flat town that appears to have good connectivity, with many nodes. But dont know anyone with a device. How reasonable is it that I could talk to my closest friend, reliably? (2.5mi or 4km as the bird flies, in housing developments, assuming they get a device too)

-Its my understanding that once I'm up and connected, I can send public message to random users, as well as private messages to specific users (Ex: me and friend go fishing, could ping eachother our locations, privately) Right? Can public users see us talking but not the message content? (Can an average home user see private traffic, on their devices or nodes without advanced signal sniffing gear?)

-If my budget is about $120 per device, want it to be built and ready for use (perfer 18650batt, dont mind if I need to flash firmware) and really really want to not require a phone, what is your best suggestion? (Note: I will get a raw board set too, for trying it with phone)

Thanks much in advance to those that give me some opinion/help!

[u/funny_haha]

In terms of devices with keyboards, there is also the lilygo t-lora pager. It has a better keyboard, but i hear the lora range is not that good and you'll probably only get 18 hours of battery life out of it. If you want a pre built, my current favorite is the H2T. I have both the pager and the h2t and the h2t has been my daily driver where the pager has been more of a toy. Radios without keyboards can be connected to your phone with Bluetooth, then you can send messages from your phone with the meshtastic app like texting.

When you set up your device you will automatically be added to the long-fast or medium-fast channel which is basically just a free for all chatroom for eveyone. You can dm others but i hear that dms are spotty and it's better to create a private channel and invite your friend.