Add Comment
Qwerty keyboards
This topic was created by Caleb Cox.
Qwerty keyboards
Where are all the phones with Qwerty keyboards? Are manufacturer's phasing them out for a particular reason? I know lots of people who still prefer physical keyboards, but the same people steer well clear of BlackBerry.
Is interest in them dying, or are manufacturers veering towards touchscreen-only devices because of production costs? If it is the former, could that be part of the reason for RIM's recent struggles?
Re: Qwerty keyboards
Its seems they are plenty in the US but non seem to make it over there, Epic 4G, Droid 4, etc etc, So they are being made, but not for the UK, now why is this?
I have to use a phsyical Keyboard, I can not use a touch screen to type, I have a Xperia Pro at the moment as that seem to be the only phone in the UK with a QWERTY keyboard.
I have no idea what I'll replace it with in the years to come......
Re: Qwerty keyboards
In the phone space and given a large enough screen, an on-screen is just as good for bashing out texts and short mails as a miniature keyboard. It also has the advantage of not either chewing space on the phone itself or adding bulk as a slideout.
This makes sense, although those reckoning that actual keyboards (i.e. desk or laptop) are on the way out are just spouting mindless bollocks for the sake of it. When it comes to tying larger documents there's no contest. I must get an order of magnitude faster in typing rate on a real keyboard over the best I can achieve on a touchscreen.
I've been holding out for a Nokia WP7 with a QWERTY keyboard
There have been a few rumours that one it in the works, but my Xperia X1 is getting very poorly. The display dies if I slide its keyboard out, and the mic doesn't work so it's Bluetooth-only for calling. Not only that but the registration on the touchscreen drifts about from day-to-day.
I'm already unhappy with not being able to replace it with a resistive-screen model, c'mon Nokia, pull your finger out! I don't trust LG, or Dell to make a decent phone, nor HTC after this X1 got AIDS, and no-one else makes a Windows Phone with a keyboard!
>:¬(
Touch screens stealing the market of qwerty keypads.... Slowly but surely qwerty keyboards are going out.....
Works OK on a full fat tablet, although it is like using one of those old "slablet" things that used to have a real keyboard and a few lines of LED or LCD display above. You end up with your tablet screen being mostly keyboard with a bit of screen visible above. If you're really lucky and the software writer doesn't have his thumb up his arse, it may even be the bit you're trying to type in.
On a phone screen it's rather less successful. Typing is out, "point and peck" too often results in hitting the wrong character and you really need something like Swype to make it usable.
As things stand right now, if you want to type more than a few lines (phone) or a couple of paragraphs (tablet) or, god-forbid, you need to be able to see the full format of what you're typing, a full-fat computer with a keyboard is an infinitely better option.
Having said all that, I find that the on screen keyboard with Swype on my Xperia Arc S is eminently usable for texts and short mails of a few lines.
There aren't many phones with actual keyboards anymore.. not when it comes to Android phones anyways. I had to give mine up with my last update. Still getting use to a touch keyboard
BB Torch
I've got one of these, and I've generally been pretty pleased with it, typing wise.
I can type pretty quickly on the physical keyboard, and being a slider phone the screen itself is still a high proportion of the phone's surface area. However, I've also got a BB Playbook (so no physical keyboard), and I find typing on that to be fairly good too, especially with the word hinting.
Thus I find myself in a quandary about whether to go for a physical keyboard on my next phone. If I were buying a keyboard-less device the on screen one would have to be at least as good as the Playbook. If I were buying something with a physical keyboard it would have to be slider phone - I don't want to lose that much screen space. No one is doing slider phones these days, not even RIM :-(
So I guess if the on screen keyboard were as good as or better (add Swype?) than the Playbook's then I'd go with no physical keyboard. Which opens a lot of choice - Android, MS, Apple and BB10! Unless someone reproduces the keyboard arrangement that the Psion 5 had - best ever, never repeated (Psion owns the patent on it...).
i like qwerty keyboards very much and i also have qwerty keyboards
waste of time
I think any type of keyboards on a phone are a waste of time in this day and age. Using a smartphones touch screen is so much more responsive and easier. Save money nokia and keep with touch screen.
____________________________________
Live and breath gadgets......
