[negative1ne]

I don't really understand the need for a keyboard anymore.

speed doesn't matter.

accuracy does.

with a hardware keyboard, i can type more accurately than anybody i know with a touchscreen.
and i can type longer, with less mistakes, and not have any issues with people trying to understand my texts.

swiping is useless, unless you know what you are doing. i tried it once, and it was terrible. it was very hard
to do words with double letters in them, and was constantly reading the wrong letters. maybe with some
practice it might be ok. but why should i have to learn yet another way to type, when the older ways work
fine, and are easily useable on any keyboard that is QWERTY.

there's a reason every computer in the world has keyboards on them. if you do a lot of texting,
or have longer replies than a few letters. you need a real hardware keyboard, and not a touchscreen
which obscures your view of the screen.

later
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[Bobvfr]

I actually do see your point, I have a laptop and Surface Pro, I use the laptop for most work style usage, actually using it to type this, I tend to use the Surface for more leisure style activities so viewing, listening, playing games etc.

However I am sold on swiping, and double letters are easy, I tend to slow or almost stop on double letters and let the software sort it out, the suggestions from the software are very accurate.


Bob

[Bobvfr]

And to prove the point this is swiped on my 1520 and I will see how many double letter words I can get in spotted popped topped bottom, I could go on.

And I am not an expert, I have so far sent about 10 swiped texts, this is my second forum entry using it and I have demonstrated it to a few mates (Who have all been impressed by it and the speed).


Bob

[Loco5150]

Problem what I have with swipe is that I use two languages, about 50/50. At least when it came out it wasnt working for a user like me.

[skstrials]

A Blackberry Q10 user here. My Q10 was produced in May 2013, no double type so far.

I also consider myself to be a Microsoft fan, and I own multiple Windows 8.1 computers and a Windows tablet, and I rely on Microsoft office, outlook, and Onedrive everyday. Logically, I also wanted to get a Windows phone, but couldn't because no Windows flagship has a physical keyboard and a user replaceable battery. One thing I learned from owning various mobile electronics is that the current rechargeable lithium batteries still have a long way to go, and they are usually the first ones to fail if you own a phone longer than a year, so the lack of user replaceable battery in a Windows flagship was an immediate turn off.

Then there is the physical keyboard, it is absolutely essential in a phone for me. Here is why.

1) If you spend long enough learning the physical keyboard, you could actually type without looking on the keyboard. This also means that I can type when I walk, or when I am talking to other people. My fingers can do their own work, and I don't have to look at the phone when I type. This does not come over night, so you would not get this point if you are just trying a physical keyboard phone at a store.

2) Shortcut keys. The OS has to optimize this, but since the keys are always available, the user can use the keys as shortcut functions in apps and in the main screen. Actually improves the user efficiency quite a bit here.

3) Accuracy. Typing is not all about speed. Even though the touch screen can be faster for some people. Touch screen also creates more errors, and that means people have to go back to the paragraph and fix errors every couple sentences, whereas people with physical keyboard might be negligibly slower when they first type, but they do not have to go back and fix error. And Swype can only go so far, because we actually use a lot of words (brandnames, slangs, person names, town name, etc) that are not actually in the dictionary to be predicted by the software.

All in all, unless there is a Windows phone with a physical keyboard and a removable battery, or at least one of the two. I unfortunately do not see myself ever considering a Windows phone, which is a damn shame because I am an ex Nokia Symbian user, and I would definitely like to try some Nokia phones.

[SteveNoza]

A Blackberry Q10 user here. My Q10 was produced in May 2013, no double type so far.

I also consider myself to be a Microsoft fan, and I own multiple Windows 8.1 computers and a Windows tablet, and I rely on Microsoft office, outlook, and Onedrive everyday. Logically, I also wanted to get a Windows phone, but couldn't because no Windows flagship has a physical keyboard and a user replaceable battery. One thing I learned from owning various mobile electronics is that the current rechargeable lithium batteries still have a long way to go, and they are usually the first ones to fail if you own a phone longer than a year, so the lack of user replaceable battery in a Windows flagship was an immediate turn off.

Then there is the physical keyboard, it is absolutely essential in a phone for me. Here is why.

1) If you spend long enough learning the physical keyboard, you could actually type without looking on the keyboard. This also means that I can type when I walk, or when I am talking to other people. My fingers can do their own work, and I don't have to look at the phone when I type. This does not come over night, so you would not get this point if you are just trying a physical keyboard phone at a store.

2) Shortcut keys. The OS has to optimize this, but since the keys are always available, the user can use the keys as shortcut functions in apps and in the main screen. Actually improves the user efficiency quite a bit here.

3) Accuracy. Typing is not all about speed. Even though the touch screen can be faster for some people. Touch screen also creates more errors, and that means people have to go back to the paragraph and fix errors every couple sentences, whereas people with physical keyboard might be negligibly slower when they first type, but they do not have to go back and fix error. And Swype can only go so far, because we actually use a lot of words (brandnames, slangs, person names, town name, etc) that are not actually in the dictionary to be predicted by the software.

All in all, unless there is a Windows phone with a physical keyboard and a removable battery, or at least one of the two. I unfortunately do not see myself ever considering a Windows phone, which is a damn shame because I am an ex Nokia Symbian user, and I would definitely like to try some Nokia phones.

Hey skstrails, I'm an ex Q10 user that just switched to Windows Phone because of the double typing issue. I agree with you on all points, except I never got good enough to type accurately while not looking at the display, maybe about as good as typing on an iPhone. I'm to the point that's it's break even for me between the Q10 keyboard and the modern virtual smart keyboards on BlackBerrys and Window Phones. Right now with BlackBerry struggling would be prime time to have a physical keyboard Windows Phone, especially if BlackBerry is stupid and migrates the double typing failure to their new Passport and Classic.

[negative1ne]

A Blackberry Q10 user here. My Q10 was produced in May 2013, no double type so far.

I also consider myself to be a Microsoft fan, and I own multiple Windows 8.1 computers and a Windows tablet, and I rely on Microsoft office, outlook, and Onedrive everyday. Logically, I also wanted to get a Windows phone, but couldn't because no Windows flagship has a physical keyboard and a user replaceable battery. One thing I learned from owning various mobile electronics is that the current rechargeable lithium batteries still have a long way to go, and they are usually the first ones to fail if you own a phone longer than a year, so the lack of user replaceable battery in a Windows flagship was an immediate turn off.

One other big plus about LG optimus phone, besides the hardware keyboard.

It has a user replaceable battery. In fact, after the battery that came with it died. I was able to order another battery from amazon,
and also get another one from a battery store, and open up the back, and put the battery in myself.



Another reason NOT to switch to a windows 8 phone.

later
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