Touchscreen vs. "Real Keys"

[KUKitch]

Just had a quick question for the iPhowners around these parts. I was in a Circuit City recently and playing with some of the phones at the Verizon kiosk as I've had some interest in checking out the Voyager and the Venus just to see what they were like. My roommate also has the Viewty, which he basically got because I was interested in checking it out, and it is a pretty decent phone. I do think the touchscreens on those phones are a significant cut below the iPhone however.

Anyway that's not the question, the question is this: How many iPhone users feel like they could/want to get used to using real keys again?

I personally had a Samsung U600 before the iPhone, and it quickly became weird to use call and end buttons that weren't touch-sensitive on others' phones. I also found that I don't particularly like the Voyager's qwerty keypad, or keypads in general anymore. I'm sure I could get used to real keys again, but would I want to? I don't think I would honestly.

 

[PJF13]

I am no longer a fan of real keys, I really like the touch screen experience and the way it keeps the design of the phone very sleek and stylish.

 

[kdarling]

To me, it's like driving an automatic or a manual shift... I can do either one just fine.

I've been using both touch and real keyboards for many, many years, and have no difficulty switching between them. The only problem I run into is the differing locations for punctuation and numbers.

I will say, that if you had to always use a touchscreen keyboard on your desktop or laptop, your fingers would hate you ;-)

 

[Vegeta-san]

I believe one can only answer that question accurately IF you consider software.....Would I be okay with going back to regular keys if the only other touch screen alternatives were NON multi-touch? Yes, you're damn right. But, with multitouch and OS X, superior software runs on the iPhone. It can still be improved, of course, EVERYTHING can be improved. That's the root meaning of "optimization".

After recently playing around with my dads Blackberry Pearl and its keys, I can firmly say I feel much better around the iPhone's multitouch keyboard. I mean, for everyone online that can make the claim that touchscreen phones were out in the wild far before Apple's, no one can make the claim that touchscreen phones using a GLASS interface instead of plastic (implying PRESSURE sensitive) was used before the iPhone. And here in lies the critical difference.

I haven't found someone who labels themselves as a "really fast typer" on their Blackberry or I'd honestly challenge them to a duel as I am inherently convinced that, with use and practice, the iPhone's keyboard > all other phones keyboards.

 

[iSamurai]

i like touch keys. you actually press less 'buttons' with it. i dont like the automatic spell predictor thing, as it can't guess half the words that i'm typing lyk my sms lang that u cant udstnd so nvm 2 that spel prdictr.

i type really quick on a standard qwerty keyboard so im really familiar to it on the iphone, even with my thumbs or index finger.

 

[yoman]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

I personally enjoy the touch keyboard. It feels more elegant and is amazingly quiet. Just the faint sound of the pad of your finger pressing on the glass surface. Its great.

 

[JCastro]

I do not have any experience with a standard Qwerty keyboard but I know that I hate having to type out emails or even SMS messages on a regular phone keyboard. The touch keyboard is so much nicer!!

Like someone before me said, it is quieter too. I hate audible keypad tones.

 

[BOSS10L]

For the phone, I prefer the touchscreen on the iPhone. If I had the keys like on a Treo or some other smartphone, it'd get real ugly, real fast.

Anything else, and I prefer a regular keyboard. Mainly for the 'spacing' of the keys and the tactile feel. Old habits die hard I guess.