How Usable is the Keyboard on the Touch??
 

Let's take a poll of people's initial impressions of usability of the onscreen keyboard.

The only downside I see to the keyboard is the fact that you lose 60% of your screen. As for typing I think it's great.

I can deal with that.. How fast can you type....fast enough to keep up in an instant messaging convo?

Thanks!

Yeah once you get used to the keyboard. It takes a bit of practice to get it down fast, plus teach the TX9 words you want, but yes with the little bit of practice I've had I'm almost as fast as I was with the Mogul full keyboard.

good to hear. is the TX9 any different than the predictive text on other WM6 devices?

I don't remember any XT9 that was a winmo default. It works really well similar to the Blackberry's Predictive text on their keyboards that had two letters per button. To type a number or symbol in predictive text mode all you have to do is hold the button for about 2 solid seconds till it puts it in.

Does anyone know where I can get the Touch Keyboard so I can try installing it on my Mogul to see if I would like the Touch or not?

There's a thread on the software forum where you can find it. Don't forget to search ;)

I'm running the keyboard on my Mogul.

I'd say its average. I extremely dislike the two letter per key suretype-style board... the XT9 on 12 key isn't TOO terrible but its NOWHERE near the speed of me typing on my Mogul.

I've been using Touchpal on my Mogul (it's posted on the software forum). I believe it would be an option to people that want to switch but do not agree well with the Touch keyboard.

Well I've rethought my sentiments on the Touch keyboard.

I've now sent about 50 messages with it via text and its really not bad at all with the 12 key on XT9. I'm actually enjoying using it now.

I'd say speed-wise, I'm actually almost as proficient with it as I am with the hardware keyboard now that I've trained it on all my slang and foul language I use LOL.

I'm still not too sure on the web browsing side though... The keyboard sucks up 60% of the screen, the toolbar sucks up another good bit... so you really can only see about 4 lines of text on a web page this way.

Anyone know where the dictionary for the Touch keyboard is stored? I want to flash back to WM6 but I don't want to have to teach XT9 my words all over again lol.

How does the learning work? I'm using the Touch Keyboard for a little bit now and I'm no where near as fast as I am on the hard keyboard.

Poll results aren't looking so hot for the Touch keyboard =/

To Teach a word when you're in XT9 code just start typing then there is a little + symbol on the line that shows the possible words. It'll change that line to "Add Word:". Then it switches to the ABC mode. You type in your word using the standard double taps to get to the second letter, then click on the word or just put a space after it and hte word is now saved.

BTW you really have to try the keyboard out for yourself. My brother who is coming from a Q actually likes the Touch's keyboard. He used it for the first time this morning and was able to type pretty easily without any practice.

I'm gonna try using this Touch keyboard for a few days.. I'll report back at the end of the week with my results. FYI I can pound away like 30 wpm + on the regular keyboard. I'll be amazed if I can with the Touchscreen.

After salivating about the Touch for so long the Sprint store in my area finally had one on demo. Verdict, i'm not buying, main reason is keyboard input.
No matter which keyboard i chose (12 or 20), i couldn't stand it and typing on it was nothing to write home about.

Now if someone can come up with an EXACT soft keyboard replica of a Treo, then i'm sold. Even the TouchPal keyboard was tiresome after a while.

Nice device and super responsive, but give me a Treo with 320x320 and Win mobile 6 and i'm dandy. Will stick with my 700Wx until then.

I'm leaning towards staying with the Mogul now... on top of the keyboard the battery is also less :(

Did anyone try this Qwerty keyboard from Targus? Looks very interesting...

http://justamp.blogspot.com/2007/11/...mbpad-for.html

it's taken me 5 days of using it constantly, but i've finally gotten back up to a usable speed with the 20 key + XT9.

it's definitely not something that was easy to learn to use after using a full kb like on the mogul, but after a reprogramming my brain, i'd say it's only a little bit slower.

IMO, a trial of 30 mins at the sprint store IS NOT a good indicator of how easy it is to type on.

Verdict - I'm buying the Touch :) you can't make a judgement on this thing til its in your hands... so beautiful

Liking the Fullscreen Keyboard. Works very well. The only thing that I would change is to add a keycaps/magikblite function to it.

just like everything else, you get used to it and your speed will increase the more you use it. not sure why people don't understand that.