Now that you have the Moto Droid, Your opinion on the Keyboard?

[yoopermjm]

Well I'm coming from a palm 755 and I have a terrible time with this keyboard. I wouldn't think of editing docs on it, which I did quite easily and often on the palm with no mistakes. I hope to get better at using it, but my thumbs are just too big and I do not do well with virtual keyboards. I'm keeping it because of all the great stuff it CAN do, but typing isn't one of them for me. I wouldn't dream of typing this reply on it, it would have taken me about 15 minutes...

 

[J-Buck]

Well I'm coming from a palm 755 and I have a terrible time with this keyboard. I wouldn't think of editing docs on it, which I did quite easily and often on the palm with no mistakes. I hope to get better at using it, but my thumbs are just too big and I do not do well with virtual keyboards. I'm keeping it because of all the great stuff it CAN do, but typing isn't one of them for me. I wouldn't dream of typing this reply on it, it would have taken me about 15 minutes...

Practice makes perfect. ur fingers will adapt

 

[dachere]

Well, the first Droid that I got had a faulty keyboard. At odd times (usually the most inconvenient ones), the "a" and "c" keys wouldn't work at all. Behavior was sporadic.

Went and got another Droid after I complained. Keyboard keys are a bit flat for my preference and I don't feel the tactile feedback is sufficient. But, as someone else mentioned, it's all a matter of practice and getting used to something new.

 

[korky122]

my fingers are too big for those flat keys. 4/10

 

[RLJSlick]

I love it so far I would give it a 7 out 10.

 

[Alcapwn89]

I think the hard keyboard on the moto droid is fine...i can bang out text's pretty quick on it. I wish there was a little space separating the keys from each other, but its fine otherwise.

I installed HTC's softkeyboard and use that more then the hard keyboard anyway.

 

[cgunn82]

How do you get the \ sign on the physical keyboard? I see / but not \.

 

[dean.collins]

Alt, SYM (or space bar) then the symbol library has the \ slash.

 

[rodriguez24]

Alt, SYM (or space bar) then the symbol library has the \ slash.

You can also hold down the '/' key and the '\' will pop up on the screen.

 

[petjakob]

Love my keyboard, seriously the best after 2+ years of iPhone-age. I don't understand why the reviewers have complained about it. Yeah it's not as roomy as the G1's. Big deal. It works AWESOME.

As soon as a multi-touch keyboard comes along as an app I'll buy it as well, as I do like single handed use of the portrait virtual qwerty.

 

[amrov]

I much prefer the physicaL over virtual keyboard. But I like to type with my right index fimger and my other fingers kept hitting the softkeys. I had to learn to type differently. The physical keybaord in my mind sets the droid ahead of the iphone.

 

[RW-1]

I love the KB, and even more responsive after the 2.0.1 update ...

 

[Skizz135]

It's odd. When I was playing with the physical keyboard in the store prior to my purchase, I found it much easier than the virtual. I couldn't stand the virtual . . but now the physical key board is a bit of an annoyance for me. I find the virtual keyboard in landscape view much quicker (especially going b/w letters, numbers, and symbols) I find it annoying that there is not ALT lock key on the physical.

Now I really only use the virtual keyboard in landscape mode (vertical virtual is too cramped). However, I do like having the option of the physical keyboard if I'm browsing and still want to be able to view the entire screen. Other than this, I don't use it much.

 

[mapexvenus]

I really really want predictive text on the physical keyboard. I can't believe it is that hard for Motorola to roll this out or for someone to write an app that does this.

 

[Laurence5905]

I find it annoying that there is not ALT lock key on the physical.

You can lock the ALT key -- just press it twice. Third press unlocks it. Same with the SHIFT key. Works fine on my physical keyboard.

On topic: I'm one of those people who just can't type on a virtual keyboard. I need to feel the keypress. For that reason, the Droid keyboard is the only thing I use when I'm texting or browing the web.

But if I had been part of the design team, I would've left off the D-Pad on the physical keyboard so that the keys could be "streched out" a bit, thereby giving you a little space between each key. Personally, I almost never use the D-Pad anyway, so I think it would work just fine without it.

Maybe I'd have replaced it with a virtual D-Pad that you could pull up on the screen when you absolutely had to have one? Or spread out the touch-sensitive buttons at the bottom of the screen, and sqeeze the D-Pad in there? Or a trackball? But definitely not on the keyboard... It's just in the way...

But I can't complain too much -- like I said, I absolutely MUST have a real keyboard. No matter what drawbacks the Droid's keyboard has, it's still a thousand times better than any virtual keyboard, IMHO.