Poll: Does Your Smartphone Need a Keyboard?
On the current MobileTechRoundup podcast Kevin, Matt and I discussed the physical keyboard, or lack thereof, on Android phones. We pointed out that keyboards (or the desired lack of one) are a personal choice, and everyone has a different opinion. So how about it? Does a smartphone need a hardware keyboard before you’ll consider adding it to your belt holster? Or maybe your smartphone better not have one at all? Take a moment to answer today’s poll — it will be interesting to see what everyone thinks.
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I prefer a hardware keyboard, but I won’t turn down a phone that doesn’t have one.
It would be nice having a HTC Android phone with Snapdragon and a slider keyboard ..
For me the easy answer to that question was to first use a phone without one, then experience the difference with one that does. When you’re pounding out text message after text message, as some folks do, that sliding keyboard makes a world of a difference. It saves you from taking the stylus out and also frees up the screen – a big deal when you’re trying to take down notes and need to see as much of the screen as possible.
The first things I look for in a smartphone are a good keyboard and a 3.5mm jack – everything else is secondary. If I cannot take advantage of the text input abilities and listen to music on my favorite headphones then it’s not a smartphone I need.
James, let me suggest another poll – 3.5mm jacks!
A hardware keyboard is nice to have, but for me, who needs to multi-lingual keyboards (English + Korean, at least), face-plate changing software keyboard works.
That’s a really good point. However, we should be able to have both hard and soft keyboards, right? For example, if you primarily use english, then use the hardware keyboard. When you have to type in korean (etc) use the software keyboard.
These smart phones with hardware keyboards DO still let you use the software keyboard if you haven’t slid out the hardware keyboard, right?
My first smartphone, XV6700, had a hardware keyboard but it made the phone very bulky. My second, Samsung Omnia, is much thinner but has only a software keyboard and not only does the on-screen keyboard really cut into the viewing area but I find that a make significantly more typing errors using it. While a hardware keyboard isn’t mandatory it will definitely be a significant plus factor when selecting my next smartphone.
As for jack size I’m currently happy with 2.5mm since I have an adapter that lets me use a standard PC headset with my phones. This option provides better listening and speaking quality than any phone headset I’ve ever tried. If a phone has a 3.5mm headset jack it had better have an option for a separate mic jack.
I wont buy a phone that doesn’t have a hardware keyboard. I’ve never used a virtual keyboard that I would want to use exclusively, or even predominantly.
I also want a dedicated number area on the keyboard (no requirement for hitting a Fn/Alt/Sym button). There are a few 4 row keyboards that do that, but mainly it means 5 rows.
Last, the best feel I’ve had on ANY thumb keyboard I’ve used or tried, is the one on the G1. With the exception of not having control or escape keys, it’s just about the perfect thumb keyboard.
If you can do more than just talk, ala Bag Phone,
then yes, a physical keyboard for me.
However, I have to use 2 hands to type and dial.
(unlike some of the expert one-handers from the posts below,
I bet they can eat and drink coffee with the free hand–LOL)
Gotta have a keyboard. I did the keyboardless thing once… that was enough! I help people out with their iPhones all the time, and if that’s the best on-screen tech has to offer… then it improved greatly. And still a million times no, no, no. If it doesn’t have a keyboard, it isn’t for me. :)
They make smartphones without proper keyboards? That’s like having peanut butter without banana in your sandwich! Ugh.
The first thing I do when I see a post about a new smartphone is look at the specs and pictures. If there isn’t a proper keyboard I move on past. That’s why I’ve never read a review of your favourite phone. :)
Jam or marshmallow fluff are also good with peanut butter. ;)
peanut butter on toast isn’t too bad either… just take a sip of coffee when you take a bite ;)
After having several generations of Treos with a keyboard I forced myself to go without for over a year. It works, but it was definitely harder without. So I’m back to a Pre with keyboard now and expect to stay that way.
I like my iPhone but I would prefer if it had a keyboard. (Didn’t know how to express this in the poll.)
I’m currently using an hx4700 that normally does not have a hardware thumbboard. I do have one that slides over the bottom, but don’t use it because it adds a substantial amount of thickness that kills the pocketability.
I would like a thumbboard like on the Samsung Mondi, HTC Universal, or Sharp Zaurus SL-C1000/3×00, but other features take priority, such as screen resolution, CPU, RAM, and OS. (And the phone is NOT one of them-in fact, I’d rather not pay the smartphone tax if it means saving a couple hundred dollars.)
As with all things… it depends. Crappy/tiny keyboards are worse than on screen. Bad mechanical designs end up with the top row almost unusable, or the phone very unbalanced. Plus they can make the phone a lot thicker.
In a perfect world I would like to have a good keyboard available when I need to enter text, like replying to email. I don’t do SMS. I mostly use my smartphone for content consumption and a touchscreen is just fine for that.
Current phone is HTC Magic (on screen keyboard) and I am quite happy with it. Interested in the new Motorola Droid as it has both in a thin form factor.
I still haven’t heard a single hardware keyboard proponent explain how one can easily switch between English and Chinese input, which is trivial and easy with a soft keyboard.
How well does a Blackberry keyboard work for entering Mandarin again? I think ultimately, most of the high tech users in the world are bilingual in that they need both English and another language.
Maybe that’s why there are so many black market iPhones in China and Russia. With a soft keyboard, one device and form factor is optimized for dozens of languages and ultimately why soft keyboards will win in the end.
I bet the Samsung Alias 2 could handle that (multiple-language support on its keyboard). I don’t know how ergonomic the keyboard is … it may feel just as awful as a virtual keyboard, except that you can actually where the keys are. You just might not be able to feel the keys (I don’t know if they’re clicky, or just touch sensitive).
The secret? They’re e-ink. They’re intended to change between standard 12 key number pad format for one orientation, and qwerty key format in the other orientation. But, if the concept can be applied to press-able keys, then you could easily have 1 keyboard that’s set up for QWERTY, QWERYZ, AZERTY, and other language formats.
That sounds far more useful, to me (who does a lot of typing on my phone), than virtual keyboards.
If you learn proper pinyin a blackberry keyboard works fine.
A hardware keyboard runs counter to a handheld touch device. As Google and Palm finally get decent software keyboards written, hardware makers will include them more and more. Those who think they must have a hardware keyboard will be disappointed 3+ years from now as there will be a dearth of modern “super smartphones” that have them.
Honestly, I believe those clinging to a hardware keyboard are like those circa 1985 using a GUI without a mouse, believing they could get by just fine with the keyboard. But a GUI derives too many benefits and advantages from a mouse, and a handheld touch device derives benefits and advantages from a software keyboard.
I’m NOT saying there won’t be devices with hardware keyboards a few years from now. After all, it’s easier to slap on a cheap hardware keyboard than to develop a slick software one. But I AM saying there will be comparatively fewer of those devices, and they’ll be less relevant.
Soft keyboards are great for flexibility (like other people have mentioned with language variation). But they suck for ergonomics.
For keyboard _feel_, I have yet to use ANY virtual keyboard that was worth a damn. And I do a LOT of typing on my phone. A virtual keyboard just isn’t up to the task.
One of my big gripes with software keyboards is the major loss in screen real estate. With my Touch Pro2, with an awesome keyboard, I lose no screen real estate at all and can see everything and enter text at the same time. This loss of screen real estate is especially obvious if you use an on-screen keyboard in landscape that takes up even more room. I can use one, but much prefer hardware keyboards.
I agree about screen real-estate. Hard to watch things done in an ssh session when the screen is filled up by the keyboard.
I’ll give up my smartphone keyboard when you’re ready to give up a hardware keyboard for your PC.
I have had keyboards with Windows Mobile devices and ended up hardly using them, and it does add significant bulk, however for anything substantial typing on WM upto 6.1 I guess a hardware keyboard was needed as the on screen needs the stylus.
Now I am using an iPhone I find the on screen keyboard easy to use for typing short messages. I haven’t tried typing anything substantial on the iPhone as I realised I hardly ever used Textmaker on WM.
I would like to see an add on keyboard for the iphone. Same width as the landscape phone and either bluetooth or hardware connected. Not sure about the larger bluetooth ones though.
why wont somebody make a detachable blue tooth keyboard ?? then I can be thin and on the go or have the hardware keyboard luxury depending on how I feel
Or even a detachable micro-USB keyboard. Either one (micro-USB or Bluetooth) would give everyone the choices they want/need. Keyboardless, english keyboard, chinese keyboard, etc.
Though, the first problem I see is: mechanical reliability of the connection. If you break a connector, especially if you break it while attached, you may have just sacrificed one or both of the devices. Or what if the connector is flakey? It might all turn out to be too difficult to do well, and if it’s not done well, it might be far worse than not having the option at all.
HP used to have one of those on it’s H6315 ipaq – small little doodad you would plug into the base to give you a thumb-board. Worked well enough to use on longer IM sessions, but not as practical as the slide keyboards you see now. Still have mine after 5 years and still works.
How about a pen? I’d prefer to send a message from my Tablet PC than from my iTouch unless I haven’t brought my Tablet PC with me.
I’m seeing a lot of good comments here.
I suspect that a number of you are right and that as time marches on the on screen keyboards will get significantly better, especially if manufacturers start to include some/better forms of tactile feedback.
My biggest issue will likely continue to be screen real estate… until some manufacturer decides to add a second slide out touch-screen to their phone.
As for Mickey’s comment about the use of a stylus, although I believe that inking is a far more acceptable social experience than typing, particularly on larger devices, I find the current screens just too small to be truly useful for useful for inking more than a few of characters at a time.
I think the comment about bluetooth keyboards is bang on. I want the most portable device to carry around all the time. Onscreen does that. If I am carrying the gadget bag, with the netbook, I can tether and have a “real keyboard”. I used to have a Palm Vx with a folding keyboard that was very useful. I could see carrying something like that in my pocket in case I wanted to do some semi serious email session at the coffee shop and did not want to bring the netbook. Bluetooth means no hardware dongle or worrying about a fragile connector plus I can use the keyboard for multiple devices.
Of course I am coming at it from an email, terminal, SSH, world. My 18 year old has a HTC Dream and hates my keyboardless phone but he logs more minutes texting than talking. My daughter can text faster on a T9 keyboard than I can type on my phone. I really comes down to how you use the phone.
My experience with anything that folds or slides is that I break it. Maybe that’s because I like to keep my phone in my pants pocket and not in a holster on my belt. Sorry, refuse to look like a geek.
I personally didn’t have any issue going from an 8525 to the iPhone. And I liked the keyboard on the 8525 and didn’t think I’d like to use the virtual keyboard. The later comments about bluetooth are right on – why can’t I just pair my wireless Apple keyboard with my iPhone? Probably because if I’m going to carry around that keyboard I might as well carry around my laptop.
I think this is all pretty personal in the end anyway. I just don’t need to type that much on my phone, so there’s no value in the hardware keyboard. If I used my phone more for that purpose, I could easily see changing my mind. Of course, a broken phone is of no use to me, so that tilts the scales in my experience.
I keep my G1 in my pocket as well. Front pants pocket, no problem.
IMO, phones on belts look worse than being a geek, they make you look like a suit (since that the majority of people I see with phones on their belts). Looking like a suit makes you look like a lawyer … and we all know that’s not good.
As for breaking — not all keyboard phones have sliders or folds. The Nokia E61, E62, E61i, E71, E73 are all non-sliding/folding qwerty keyboard phones. Same with almost every Blackberry.
I like that Android gives you the option of having both now. I know if I had a slider keyboard, it would be annoying at times having to slide it open,, go into landscape mode, and use both hands to type every time. Sometimes it’s nice typing in portrait mode with one hand.