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Why do so many people care about physical keyboard?

solidkevin

solidkevin

Android Enthusiast
Ive never had a physical keyboard on a phone, that will change when my milestone gets here, but with that being said, Ive had phones of all screen sizes and Ive never had a problem typing, whether on the N1, Hero, or X10 I can type fast and easy on all of them.

So will I get even better with a keyboard? I will admit though now I will be able to play some emulators thanks to the keyboard, god...using the screen buttons was horrible and imo unplayable, not to mention now with the keyboard the games will be in full screen as well.
 
solidkevin said:
Ive never had a physical keyboard on a phone, that will change when my milestone gets here, but with that being said, Ive had phones of all screen sizes and Ive never had a problem typing, whether on the N1, Hero, or X10 I can type fast and easy on all of them.

So will I get even better with a keyboard? I will admit though now I will be able to play some emulators thanks to the keyboard, god...using the screen buttons was horrible and imo unplayable, not to mention now with the keyboard the games will be in full screen as well.
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While obviously typing is important it is not everything. I am sure there are more but two distinct benifits that you get is more screen space with a physical keyboard. Secondly you can utilize short cuts. These benefits can come in handy for every day use and games but in some case is an absolute must when using emulators or remote desktop.

Bill
 
solidkevin said:
Why do so many people care about physical keyboard?
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For some a physical keyboard works better. That doesn't mean it works better for everyone.

solidkevin said:
Ive never had a physical keyboard on a phone, that will change when my milestone gets here, but with that being said, Ive had phones of all screen sizes and Ive never had a problem typing, whether on the N1, Hero, or X10 I can type fast and easy on all of them.
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Well, try one out. You can't beat first hand experience. If you've never had one you won't know until you give it a shot. I wouldn't put much hope on the Milestone's keyboard though.

solidkevin said:
So will I get even better with a keyboard?
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Not necessarily. See my comments at the top of this reply.
 
I have to agree with Tekeshi. Is more of a personal preference then anything. So for my personal experiance, I've had many touch screen phones that I've never had a problem with. But when I got the Hero first I had trouble with the all touch screen funtion because of the "heat" sensitive screen. I was so used to using my nail a lot. So it got very annoying.
 
Easy, I can hit 50 wpm on my moment. Try that on a virtua board.

EDIT: Why do you care what other people prefer?
 
IOWA said:
I suppose you can... but I'm wondering why your wondering :D
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well I'm wondering why he's wondering what you're wondering...hmmm I wonder.

With the screens getting bigger and more responsive, I'm not sure if I'll care if I have a kb or not. Especially with HTC's virtual keyboard. However, I do love that my Droid has a keyboard especially since size isn't really impacted.
 
IOWA said:
I suppose you can... but I'm wondering why your wondering :D
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Well because I would (and still do) see posts of people saying things like "man I would get it if it had a physical keyboard", "no keyboard, no buy" and just always wondering why so many people wanted keyboards so much, I was just curious about it, I wasn't saying anything in a bad way, and sorry if I was rude.
 
The physical keyboard makes a few things easier. I can type fairly quickly with swype, so just your average texting or e-mailing isn't a huge deal, but any time I need to use special characters or type in stuff that isn't an actual word the physical keyboard makes things go much more smoothly. It's also nice to be able to use the entire screen when typing on occasion.
 
Unfortunately, the number of new phones on the horizon with physical keyboards seems to have taken a severe nose-dive lately...
 
a properly designed physical keyboard that can accomodate the normal human fingers of men (since they are generally bigger than women's), can be a wonderful thing. Sadly the overwhelming majority of physical keyboard in smartphones don't do a very good job of this (and a great many do a horrible job of it). I really had high hopes for the Moto Droid in this respect, but IMHO, they missed the boat by making the keys flat. On the plus side, virtual keyboards are getting so good that the only time I find myself using an actual keyboard is for typing passwords and editing (the thumb pad is great for moving that cursor around).
 
For me the only thing I really use the physical keyboard for is playing games on Snesoid, and honestly I probably wouldn't even bother if I had to use the touchscreen for emulators.

For typing I'm loving Swype on the virtual keyboard at the moment, really cool stuff.
 
Personal preference. I like having an on-screen keyboard since it's a little easier to be inconspicuous when replying to important texts or e-mails in class without the clickity-clackity key pressing. :D
 
I've gotten carpal tunnel from my last phone with a physical keyboard. Just a few minutes would be painful. Switched to my ipod touch until the INC arrived.

IMO the best physical keyboards can be found on RIM Blackberrys. The Q9 ran a close 2nd.
 
How much do you actually type? Just a few searches and SMS?

What about users who use their email on there? Exchange email too etc?

I guess it's preference, and if people really didn't care that much they wouldn't make it.

And how well can you type without looking at even the screen?



Saying all this, I don't like physical keyboards, and neither I have that much need for one. I do have an iGo Stowaway (I think that is the name) which I used ALOT for a few months and it was so much easier to type massive emails on it.
 
It's all a matter of preference. I use the physical keyboard for posts like this, emails and long-winded texts. I use the virtual one for just about everything else. I prefer having both so that I have that choice. I've tried full touch phones and ended up with massive amounts of typos, lol.
 
You know, I sometimes wish that touchscreen only phones could have custom keyboard accessories made to work with them.

To clarify, I basically am saying I wish that if I decided to get one, I could just buy a custom made keyboard that is specifically designed to function with the phone from the Sprint Store, Ebay, Best Buy, etc. Just like we can by protector cases made specifically for our phone.

I know this probably will never happen but it would be nice if it was possible, thats all I'm saying.
 
I used to have an LG Rumour. I loved having the physical keyboad. It had the little dots for the home row and I could tell what buttons I was hitting without having to keep my eyes on the keyboard. Unfortunately, I typed faster than the phone was capable of recording. Which meant that I had some serious typos if I was particularly excited about whatever I was typing.

On my Spica I only have the virtual keyboard. I use Swype but it seems I "type" strangely for it. Which means that I can't type any much faster than I could on my Rumour. Having said that, trying to type on the stock keyboard, was terribly painful. I have serious issues with OP-KL/delete-NM/enter. For whatever reason I can never seem to hit the right button for the word that I want (ie. Mother = Other) - it can make for some very interesting sentences though!

I don't like that I can't look up from the keyboard to type. Maybe that "talent" will come in time (this is my first virtual keyboard on anything) or maybe it won't. I'll definitely have to give it some more time typing before I'll really be able to say "like" or "dislike" on it.


All I hope for is that there are phones with physical keyboards still in three years. My mom has been roped into another contract with Bell (boy was *that* a fiasco) and she hates the phone she currently has. For her, the lack of a physical keyboard would be a "no deal" on any smartphone.
 
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Lars said:
I've gotten carpal tunnel from my last phone with a physical keyboard. Just a few minutes would be painful. Switched to my ipod touch until the INC arrived.

IMO the best physical keyboards can be found on RIM Blackberrys. The Q9 ran a close 2nd.
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No way. Htc ftw. The touch pro 2 keyboard can't be beat(IMO)

The keyboard on my moment is really good too. Neck and neck with the tp2 i'd say.
 
Eazail70x7 said:
You know, I sometimes wish that touchscreen only phones could have custom keyboard accessories made to work with them.

To clarify, I basically am saying I wish that if I decided to get one, I could just buy a custom made keyboard that is specifically designed to function with the phone from the Sprint Store, Ebay, Best Buy, etc. Just like we can by protector cases made specifically for our phone.

I know this probably will never happen but it would be nice if it was possible, thats all I'm saying.
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I have seen a few touch screen phones with detachable keyboards which you could get separately. It comes with a special case which closes like a book. Rather cool.

I've only seen knock off chinese phones which do this however.
 
There is a keyboard calibration utility in the settings. Sure helped solve my intermittant Space bar.
 
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