Various form factors, various designs, various brands, various keypads. Almost everyone does some text input if not a lot, be it in sending messages and emails, typing notes, calendar items, edit documents. Many have also started using mobile devices to write books on the go (apparently it’s very popular in Japan). What matters the most in order to achieve a pleasurable experience is the keypad. You would want keys large enough to fit a whole thumb, raised enough to give good feedback when being pressed, but also a device that is easy to grip.
Having had the Nokia 3250 for 18 months, I was blessed with an extremely smooth and thumb-friendly keypad. Now that I got the N95 8GB, I am also very pleased with the ease of use of its keypad, although I have previously criticized it for not being comfortable for long periods of time. That’s how I got the idea to compare the keypads over many mobile devices. Featured are the Nokia 3250, N95 8GB, N73, N76, Nokia 6120 and for the fun of it, I added my Qtek 9100 with qwerty keyboard and the HTC Touch with on-screen keyboard and stylus. How did it go?
The Rules
In order to perform a comparison, there should be a set of rules. I decided I will type the well known “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog” sentence which contains every single letter in the alphabet. Before starting to time a device’s performance, I typed on it for a minute in order to get familiar with the keypad. Then I tried typing the sentence. I counted how many times it took me to get the whole sentence correct (not a single mistake) and the best achieved time over the device. I allowed T9 on the Nokias and predictive text on the Windows Mobile devices because that’s what a user usually does.
RRRR-RRR-Ready?! Fight!
The Results
I classified them from worst to best, judging on the speed of input, the number of repeats and the overall impression.
7th place – N76: 15.24 seconds and 5 attempts to get the sentence correct. I had to type with my nails or else I would always press the key below the one I was aiming at. I can’t imagine using it for more than 5 minutes of texting.
6th place – HTC Touch: 16.71 seconds and 2 attempts to get it right. It went actually smoother than I thought, although I was only typing with a stylus. But still, I don’t think I can use it for more than 5 minutes.
5th place – N73: 13.57 seconds and 3 attempts to get it correct. The keys are too small for my taste and I had to use the tip of my thumb to type, which wasn’t very comfortable. I can imagine doing 10 minutes of texting using this device, but not more.
4th place – Nokia 6120: 12.96 seconds and 2 attempts to get it done. Same problems as with the N73, but I had a little better feedback than the N73. I can also imagine myself doing 10 minutes of texting on the 6120.
3rd place – Qtek 9100: 14.16 seconds and 1 attempt to get it right. The keys are small but they are well spaced which makes the size problem irrelevant. The feedback was right and I can seriously imagine myself doing 50minutes to 1 hour of texting.
2nd place – N95 8GB: 12.05 seconds and 1 attempt to get it coorect. The keys are large and easy to press, but as I have mentioned earlier, the raised sides of the keypad makes it unbearable to type for more than 15-20 minutes. Big letdown.
And ladies and gentlemen, the winner of this keypad championship is the old, the forgotten, the outcast…
1st place – Nokia 3250: 12.23 seconds and 1 attempt to get it done. The keys are basically the exact same size as the N95 8GB’s, and they are well raised and give a nice feedback. I have previously done more than 1 hour of text input on the 3250 without feeling a lot of discomfort. The device has a nice grip and makes texting a smooth experience. I am not the only one to think so, because many of my friends (who use the devices tested over here) have used my 3250 and they all have this first impression “oh my God, the keys are sooooo big!”
The keypad is probably the one thing I am missing from my 3250 during this N95 8GB trial. But as you see, the N95 8GB by itself isn’t so bad. It is the fastest amongst all devices here and very nice to use intermittently. It’s just that for long periods of time, it gets uncomfortable.
