Touchscreen contact lookup??

[JDBull]

I've always liked smartphones with hard keyboards like the Treo or Blackjack. Can anyone tell me how Windows Mobile 6.1 touchscreen phones without hard keyboards (HTC Diamond, HTC Touch, Samsung Omnia, etc) handle contact lookup? I am not a fan of the "flick" scrolling and I want to be able to type a name on a keypad and find the contact through letter input.

For example, can you type on the soft number keypad and it will look up a contact alphanumerically or will it only search for the phone number? Is there a QWERTY keyboard available for this purpose?

Thanks

 

[Androktasie]

Enter the Phone menu, start typing away on the numpad as if you were typing T9 (no double or triple presses). Both the numbers you enter and names (first and last) matching the possible combination of letters you entered will appear, and you can hide the numpad by pressing it's icon at the bottom to flick through the results if there's a long list.

For example, typing 4 (GHI), 6 (MNO), 7(PQRS) will show me Gordon and Insurance. I could then just tap the name I want to place a call, or continue dialing as normal for a regular number then press SEND. There's also the standard Windows Mobile contacts list sorted by last name with a search bar up top, and the addition of an alphabet on the right by HTC for even faster thumb scrolling.

 

[Insp_Gadget]

Enter the Phone menu, start typing away on the numpad as if you were typing T9 (no double or triple presses). Both the numbers you enter and names (first and last) matching the possible combination of letters you entered will appear, and you can hide the numpad by pressing it's icon at the bottom to flick through the results if there's a long list.

For example, typing 4 (GHI), 6 (MNO), 7(PQRS) will show me Gordon and Insurance. I could then just tap the name I want to place a call, or continue dialing as normal for a regular number then press SEND. There's also the standard Windows Mobile contacts list sorted by last name with a search bar up top, and the addition of an alphabet on the right by HTC for even faster thumb scrolling.

Just to add...once you narrow the list (using the dial pad), you can use the navigational pad to highlight a particular contact and if that contact has more than one number, you can press left or right on the pad to choose which number to dial. Or you can choose Menu|Open Contact to list all the contact information (and subsequently choose a number, e-mail address, or text message option).

Basically, there are multiple ways to contact someone. And don't forget, Microsoft Voice Command is built-in (no voice training or tags necessary). I was even able to use my headset and call someone while my phone was sitting in another room. Very cool!!