Comments on: Poll: Does Your Smartphone Need a Keyboard?

By: John

John — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:14:56 +0000

If you learn proper pinyin a blackberry keyboard works fine.

By: johnkzin

johnkzin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:28:28 +0000

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.

By: Rodfather

Rodfather — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:47:02 +0000

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.

By: Chris Fabri

Chris Fabri — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 18:26:13 +0000

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.

By: bj

bj — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:27:20 +0000

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.

By: cybertactix

cybertactix — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:50:21 +0000

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.

By: Mickey Segal

Mickey Segal — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:06:59 +0000

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.

By: NeoteriX

NeoteriX — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:54:42 +0000

I’ll give up my smartphone keyboard when you’re ready to give up a hardware keyboard for your PC.

By: Luscious

Luscious — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:46:35 +0000

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.

By: johnkzin

johnkzin — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 17:45:47 +0000

I agree about screen real-estate. Hard to watch things done in an ssh session when the screen is filled up by the keyboard.