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Texting on a touch-screen?

A

Ashton

2[H]4U
Joined
Nov 13, 2004
Messages
2,514
I'm going to have $300 loyalty cash come March and I'm thinking of trading in my dumphone for a smartphone. I was planning to get a QWERTY phone for texting and web-browsing, but I'm thinking seriously of getting a netbook for web surfing instead (since the eee 900s are <$100 now) So that leaves me with Texting...

How difficult is it to text on a touch-screen phone? I've tried using on-screen keyboards on my Axim and it just doesnt work --- but the hardware is several years old and wasnt designed for finger-tip use...

Is it worth the extra $100+ to get a phone with a QWERTY or has the useability of on-screen keyboards improved enough not to need it for short messages?
 
You can't beat a hardware QWERTY, but it's easy to get used to a nice capacitive touchscreen like a modern Android phone or iPhone. If you're really concerned I'd go with a blackberry of some sort.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
You can't beat a hardware QWERTY, but it's easy to get used to a nice capacitive touchscreen like a modern Android phone or iPhone. If you're really concerned I'd go with a blackberry of some sort.
Click to expand...

I'm looking at a phone with WM and Wifi so I can share my unlimited data using WM WiFi Router.

I'm acctually thinking about the Touch Diamond (?) since it has a TrueVGA screen. I plan to use this for media as well when I dont have the time or space to get out a laptop.
 
Touch screen typing on a winmo phone can be brutal depending on the rom.
Posted via [H] Mobile Device
 
After 4 years with Blackberries, it took only a few days to get very comfortable texting/e-mailing on my iPhone. Now, I'll never go back to a hard keyboard. There are several new touchscreens on the way. Definitely check'em out.
 
I don't miss hardware keyboards at all. I'm using WM 6.5 on my original Omnia from VZW and love it. FYI, there are a bunch of different keyboards to try out also to suit your taste for WinMo (and Android, I'm sure).
 
It really depends on each person. I grew accustomed with capacitive screen (iPhone, Pre, Droid, N1, etc); resistive screen (most Nokia/Symbian and WinMo phones) on the other hand is a chore since I can only input one letter at a time. I suggest you do a test drive on the new phones at your local phone stores and get a feel for it yourself.

If you're a very heavy text person though, you might want to consider looking at Blackberry or the Nokia E series. My friends are insanely fast with those type of qwerty phones!
 
Like all changes it will be frustrating for the first bit, but touch screen keyboards are far better, and personally I much prefer the iPhone's over Android 1.5 (haven't used 2.0+)
 
I cant say I dont miss my hardware QWERTY on my tilt, but texting on my iPhone is cake. It takes a bit to get used to but its not bad at all. I still prefer the tactile feel of a keyboard.
 
On my Droid, if it's a quick 3-5 word txt message or entering a username or something, I use touch screen. If it's going to be a longer text message, I use the keyboard.

Both work fine... I prefer the hardware keyboard, but it's not a big enough difference to open up to it sometimes.
 
Only TRUE advantage to a touchscreen device is no noise of "tap tap tap" as you type something out.

Hardware QWERTY cannot be beat :)

That said, I'm looking at a new all-touchscreen phone now. Why? They're generally smaller form factor since there's no keyboard to hide (which usually adds size or thickness)
 
TechieSooner said:
That said, I'm looking at a new all-touchscreen phone now. Why? They're generally smaller form factor since there's no keyboard to hide (which usually adds size or thickness)
Click to expand...

I carried a bag-phone for 2 years, size isnt much of a problem ;) Today I still carry a (dumb)phone + my Axim PDA. (After using it's touch-screen for several years I'm not as concerned about keyboards now except for texting.)
 
As a side note, if Internet sharing is your only rationale for getting a WimMo phone then you will be disappointed with all the other features you are missing. WinMo 6 is truly ancient and I found that even basic tasks like browsing using Opera mobile were just painful.
 
WinMo has scarred me for life. :D I really don't want an HT2... It looks very slick, but I know underneath all that is the old clunky WinMo.
I hope Microsoft hits it out of the ballpark again with 7.
 
Depending on how much surfing you're planning to do away from your desktop/laptop, you might find that using a phone is a pretty good way to do it.I would only consider using a phone with multitouch because pinch to zoom is awesome. I think that would limit the choices to an iphone or android phone.

I do it on my iphone 3gs routinely and it's a pretty nice experience.

edit: I find that texting works very well also, partly because the phone is smart enough to know what I meant to type.
 
Last edited:
TechieSooner said:
Only TRUE advantage to a touchscreen device is no noise of "tap tap tap" as you type something out.

Hardware QWERTY cannot be beat :)

That said, I'm looking at a new all-touchscreen phone now. Why? They're generally smaller form factor since there's no keyboard to hide (which usually adds size or thickness)
Click to expand...

Yeah, my old Voyager was loud as hell when I would text on it, there was no way I'd get away with typing on it in the middle of a meeting or something unless I did it reeeeeally slow like, hah.

But with my Droid, it actually really quiet to type on. It doesn't make any clicking sound at all. Also, I'm with earnstaf on this issue. If it's a short text, I'll use the on screen, but most of the time I go ahead and use the physical keyboard so I can still read previous messages while I type and it's a bit faster for me to type. The physical keyboard is prolly one of the crappiest out there as far as size/feel, but I got used to it after a day and am pretty proficient with it. So I feel this is an area where Droid gives the best of both worlds because its on screen keyboard is stellar, also, esp. with the word guessing list across the screen that's extremely accurate.

You didn't say what carrier you're using. I'm guessing it's a GSM carrier though, if so, I'd try out the iPhone and/or Nexus One, I'm sure you could get used to either pretty easily. If you're on CDMA (Verizon), definitely try out the Droid.
 
I'm thinking I'll get the iPhone, as much as I hate Apple. The only reason being that the NexusOne isn't on ATT yet.
 
i've seen people type on an iphone stupid fast, I think its just a learning curve.
 
I'd recommend just going to various stores and trying out the phones and seeing- it really does depend on who you are and what you like.

Like someone else mentioned as well, with my Droid I do all of the heavy texting with the physical keyboard, and any quick short replies or replies I have to do one-handed with the virtual keyboard. I've tried typing out full texts on the virtual before, but the accuracy for me with the autocorrection and my anal-retentiveness when it comes to spelling means I'm spending way too much time correcting mistakes.
 
-=Antimatter=- said:
As a side note, if Internet sharing is your only rationale for getting a WimMo phone then you will be disappointed with all the other features you are missing. WinMo 6 is truly ancient and I found that even basic tasks like browsing using Opera mobile were just painful.
Click to expand...

not to mention, a rooted android phone can do this as well.
 
Gabe3 said:
i've seen people type on an iphone stupid fast, I think its just a learning curve.
Click to expand...

Yea I have too. I prefer physical keyboards myself but honestly, on my personal phone... Web browsing, applications, "fun" time wasting stuff is my goal and honestly the iPhone is the best at that kind of stuff.

Android is great, but Nexus One ain't here where I'm at!!!!!!!!!!
 
Its took me about a month to get used to texting on my g2, Hated it at first and wanted a keypad or keyboard back, but now Im not much slower really, its just a learning curve thats all.
 
I'm with Sprint.

I do very little web-browsing on my PDA because (1) it's slow, (2) it's tiny and/or hard to read and (3) most of the time I'm online I'm typing so that doesnt work well with touch-screen-only (especially a PDA who's entire virtual keyboard is like 1cmx2cm)

I have a half-dozen things I do that make me want WinMo:
#1 First and Foremost is internet sharing. I got this plan SPECIFICALLY for cellular 3G
#2 Music - Mostly MP3 but some MP4 and ever a few FLASH (I use TCPMP)
#3 Video - AVI mostly, but I'm amassing a collection of MKV files...
#4 Web Browsing - I use Opera Mobile, but really any browser that supports some FLASH works
#5 Gaming - rare now a days since I have my own car and dont have all that time riding next to somone that has almost no communications skills, but I still play SNES roms, a rare PSX rom (if I can find one that will run smoothely), and a Worms knock-off

I can live without #5 easily (though I would like to be able to play some form of Worms game) #4 I can use whatever is avalible. I surf forums like this one and ebay, if I get insanely desperate I might visit Gaia but that's extremely rare. #3 anything that plays AVI works. I'd like MKV support (I dream of DVD-ISO support, but I dont think ANY phone-os can handle that) Music is what I use the device for most. I have a large ever-changing selection of music that I rip to SD card it's 99% MP3 though so it's not a problem - My only issue is a dozen MP4s and about 30 FLV that I like to listen to and/or watch. Really the only reason I _require_ MS is I want to share my internet connection (wirelessly if possible, but if wired-only is $200 cheeper, I dont mind going that rout)

I _do_ require a card slot though. SDHC/MiniSDHC/MicroSDHC is prefered but I can live with CF.

Now, if Android (or BB OS) can do Internet sharing and ofer me a card slot, I can live without or work around everything else
 
I used to have physical keyboards such as the tmo sidekick 2 and the vzw lg enV which were pretty nice and convenient. But since then I decided to go with the iphone and I find it fine for me to text on the touchscreen after I got used to it for a few months. It just takes time to learn the new stuff
 
Ashton said:
INow, if Android (or BB OS) can do Internet sharing and ofer me a card slot, I can live without or work around everything else
Click to expand...

Android phones take sd cards and someone earlier in the thread said they have internet sharing.. don't think Android is an option on Sprint tho.


edit: and I don't think any phones take CF
 
Yep, "Wireless Tether for Root Users" will host an AP and share the 3g connection over it, it supports 128bit wep and Access Control (MAC Filter that shows when a users attempts to connect and you can choose to allow or deny). It does, as the name suggests, require root access to the phone.
 
If it's a high quality touchscreen phone then you shouldn't be afraid of getting one. Doesn't take much to get used to...unless you have fat thumbs.
 
Gabe3 said:
i've seen people type on an iphone stupid fast, I think its just a learning curve.
Click to expand...

No, it's good recognition and correction, paired with a capacitive screen. Try doing that on a WinMo phone (like the aforementioned Diamond) and you'll be throwing your phone on the ground within 5 minutes. The only thing that comes CLOSE to the iPhone is HTC's messaging client on their android phones.
 
GhostDog said:
don't think Android is an option on Sprint tho.
edit: and I don't think any phones take CF
Click to expand...

Sprint offers the HTC Hero and the HTC Impression(?) which are touch-only and touch+qwerty, respectivly.

What's hilarious is they're the SAME PRICE!

I figured no phone used CF, but I have CF cards for my PDA and the camera I'm looking at uses CF, so I wanted to make sure I left that option open just in case.

The sad part is both are 320x480 (Hvga) so I'm not looking at them unless they drop into the "free" price. The best think about my Axim is I can load it into "TrueVGA" mode 1:1 pixel mapping and can display 2x-4x as much data as most smartphones/pdas (the TouchPro/2 can do this too)

It's becomming clear though that if I get a WM phone, I'm gonna need a QWERTY vs a google-phone doesnt.
 
Ashton said:
Sprint offers the HTC Hero and the HTC Impression(?) which are touch-only and touch+qwerty, respectivly.

What's hilarious is they're the SAME PRICE!
Click to expand...

The Samsung Moment, actually. Why exactly is it hilarious that they're the same price?
 
With my old iPhone 3G i was crazy fast typing. On my Droid I'm equally as fast on both the touchscreen and the keyboard. Same with my wife's Blackberry curve.

Nice thing about Android though is there are keyboard replacements so you can find if you don't like the default one. :)
 
I am not familiar with WM TS keyboards but on Android and iPhone I think it is easy to get used to it and even start to enjoy it.
I went from 3 QWERTY phones to a MyTouch then N1 and haven't looked back. I just enjoy it being thin though....I still think I could always type WAY faster on a QWERTY but the added bulk wasn't worth it. If they had a N1 with a hardware keyboard that only added a few mm I would be on board :)
 
Texting or writing emails on my Hero kinda sucks, sure the screen is nice and responsive but the lack of tactile feedback makes it a requirement to watch what i type as typo's are very easy to do.

I wish the droid was on Sprint, I would of gotten it over the Hero.
 
I found texting on Storm 2 to be far more easier than on Bold 9700.

Dunno why. I have big hands and found it harder to use qwerty on the bold.
 
entropism said:
Errr... No it doesn't? They're two different devices, with two different targets, and two different hardware setups.
Click to expand...

I was under the impression they were identical minus the QWERTY, sorry. In the past (like Touch vs Touch Pro) it made a large $$$ difference.
 
With the Diamond Vs the Touch Pro, there were other differences as well. Removable storage vs a set flash "hard drive", a smaller device, etc. The Hero is a small, relatively thin touch screen only device with an extra UI layer on top of Android. The Moment is a huge brick with an OLED screen, straight Android UI, a touchpad instead of a trackball, and a keyboard. Also, they have different CPUs as well.
 
I've never been a fan of touch screen keyboards, been using a blackberry curve 8520 for about 5 months and I love it. The keyboard setup is awesome and pretty easy to use, I also don't have small fingers. I use it mainly for email/texting/web browsing.
 
It really is a try in person kind of thing because it can vary so much. For example I found typing on the iPhone to be awesome, LG Dare pretty good, and whatever LG I had before that was just awful.
 
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