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Unscientific text entry speed testing reveals surprising results
I have a lot of friends that own both a Blackberry and an iPod Touch. When I ask them why they didn't just get an iPhone, I often hear that they "need a real keyboard". I have to admit that when I started with my iPhone, I wasn't sold on the idea of a soft-keyboard (one that exists only in software through the touchscreen), but it took only a short time to be convinced. I feel reasonably fast when typing on my phone now, which is something that I can't say about my years using a Windows-Mobile based PDA.
In fact, if I was to venture a guess, I'd say that I'm as fast typing on my phone as I am writing. It's a revelation to me to be able to take notes digitally at the same speed as I used to be able to write them.
Phil Gyford was even more curious than me about input speed, so he set himself up a test between handwriting, an Apple Newton MessagePad, a Palm Vx, a Palm Treo, an iPhone, and a laptop, using each's primary input method:
- Pen and paper
- The Apple Newton MessagePad 2100's handwriting recognition (1997)
- The Palm Vx's Graffiti (1999)
- The Palm Treo 650's hardware QWERTY keyboard (2004)
- The Apple iPhone 3G's software QWERTY keyboard (2009)
- A full-size QWERTY laptop keyboard
I'm particularly interested in the comparison between handwriting recognition and the iPhone's software keyboard. The results (scroll down!) might surprise you, as they did me. Do they match up with your experiences?
Comments
3
Subscribe to commentsLeisureGuyJan 25th 2010 2:05PM
I don't think you have the best tool for single-stylus typing: the FITALY keyboard, which is optimized for this sort of input. You can get awesome speeds with it, and it's easy to learn just by using it. Common letters grouped, dipthongs grouped, etc. Take a look.
BTW, I have no connection at all with the company, just a very happy user.
smokingplatypusJan 25th 2010 8:20PM
Surprising results, but I need a physical keyboard to txt while driving. I rely on the feel of the home keys to keep from crashing lol
kojo87Jan 26th 2010 12:06AM
this is all fine and good but i still find any sort of touchscreen keyboard to be pretty useless. the learning curve is too steep. it took me about a week to be fairly quick on my BlackBerry while i'm still trying to get the hang of the keyboard on my Zune HD.