Friday Poll: Attack of the QWERTY phones

CNET News Poll

The QWERTY question
What will a preponderance of QWERTY keyboards on cell phones lead to?

BlackBerry Thumb Syndrome will be renamed Thumb Syndrome
T9 phones from early 2000s will find their way to "Antiques Roadshow"
LG will introduce a high-tech phone with T9 called "The Nostalgia"
Anti-QWERTY demonstrations in London will grow increasingly violent
Whatever, dude. I still refuse to get a cell phone

View results

(Credit: CNET)

A large number--if not the majority--of the phones we saw at this year's CTIA trade show in Vegas featured some sort of QWERTY keyboard instead of (or in addition to) the traditional T9 numeric keypad most phones have had for years. The HTC Snap and Samsung Impression pictured are just two examples of QWERTY phones.

(Credit: Samsung)

We think QWERTY might replace T9 entirely within just a few years. As T9 fades into memory and QWERTY becomes the default, a few things might happen. What do you expect to see?

As always, if we missed anything, be sure to let us know in the TalkBack section below.

[jh54]

i miss my nokias with T9 + autotext feature. it was so much faster not having to type complete words.

[calvinglenn]

I completely agree tha T9 with autotext is much faste than full qwerty, on a mobile device at least. I can't imagine a world without T9, and I'd most likely send a lot fewer text messages.

[EbsanU]

I think the best keypad for phones is a mix between QWERTY and T9, like the T-Mobile Shadow has. It's fast like the T9 with a lot more keys, and it keeps the phone slim. Unlike the QWERTY phones coming out which are all mostly bulky. I don't plan to change my phone for a long time to come because the Shadow's keypad is so awesome.

[pickles319]

@ EbsanU
I have the T-Mobile Shadow, and I find the keyboard a little annoying. I'd much rather have a QWERTY keyboard phone.

[Tech Diva XXX]

Some QWERTYs have auto-text too. I have a Blackjack 2 and I use the auto-word suggestions all the time.

[mediocrates--2008]

Am I the only one that misses the old Palm OS's "Graffitti" handwriting recognition input method? Far superior to any keyboard (T9 or QWERTY, physical or virtual) I've yet tried.

[jd_in_sb]

Yes, you are the only one. I used Graffiti for two years and a keyboard is much easier and faster. That's why Palm dumped it.

[grinningevild]

I'm still running the Palm and using Grafitti... good enough at it I can write w/o looking and get reasonable accuracy. I think it was just dumped because too much of a learning curve.

[ejhayes76]

I would prefer to have a QWERTY keyboard, but my number one priority for a phone is size. I have yet to find a QWERTY phone that can match normal keypad phones in terms of thinness.

[txtfastr]

By thinness, do you mean width or depth?
Google Fastap or AgileText for some new ways
to have compact qwerty-like keyboards with big buttons
on a normal size phone

[paulimusmaximus]

I agree that a lot of qwerty phones are too big. I settled on the LG env2 because of its small size compared to something with a touch screen. I keep my phone in my pants pocket, and I didn't want something big. It's still a little bigger than my old flip phone, but I was terribly slow at texting with the numeric keypad, so the extra size is worth it. I definitely would have been unhappy with anything bigger than it though.

[ihackmore]

I see my Nintendo DS scores improving.

[itworker--2008]

I don't know about anyone else, but my phone is used to make and recieved *phone* calls. Why text or email when it is so much easier to just call and talk....

Strange concept isn't it.

[sythara]

Not always. Its much more time consuming to make a call when someone may or may not be busy. When I'm in a meeting its much easier to talk via text than by voice.

[Ah_knaa]

Probably because not everyone checks their voice mail as much as they check their inbox.

[Tech Diva XXX]

Because it's often inconvenient or disturbing to those around you to talk. I really hate listening to others' business. Texting is much more private.

Although one could also ask, whatever happened to waiting until you're outside to talk or wait until someone is on their break to call them? Are you that impatient? LOL! Things sure have changed.

[Holly Klug]

Looking for something to replace our ancient Clie, and Sony out of the market, we settled on the HTC/T-Mobile Wing, mainly because of the drawer style keyboard. It also has the "letter recognizer", and stylus.

And as a bonus, the antenna plug matched our old LG phone.

Texting is only one of many applications for a keyboard. What about keeping lists, appointments, notes, etc?

[J-Hawaii]

High tech devices still based upon the traditional typewriter key-set that might have been created to slow people down. Is innovation dead, or are people just too afraid to try something out like Dvorak?

Dvorak is nice, but QUERTY had become an international standard. Standards take a very, very long time to change. Just look at English v Metric. Even in countries that have adapted metric the English system is often given in conjunciton with the metric measurement if that country had once been under the English system.

Ick... i spelled QWERTY phonetically. >.<

[paulimusmaximus]

We used to have this debate in my Multimedia classes at college. It would be too hard for everyone that already knows qwerty to switch to something better, so the only realistic way would be to start teaching the new keyboard to children. But then you'd have mass confusion because half the keyboards would be in one format, and half in another.

I did data entry for the post office for a few years, and they had specially made keyboards that made it so you'd use the home row about 80% of the time if you wanted to, or you could type the traditional way. After all that time I still never got the hang of it completely just because you become so used to typing one way, it's hard to change.

[dhavleak]

dude!! T9 and Qwertys do not have to be mutually exclusive!

There's no reason you can't have predictive text even with a qwerty keyboard. Even with a full qwerty, typing on a cellphone is painful at best. Predicitve tech. still has a lot of enhancements to offer over the satus quo.

[Michichael]

Or, you know, you could learn how to type by touch and be good to go... Hell, I type about 80 WPM on my Sidekick...

[Byteme2009]

Agreed - I have the Samsung Eternity and it has the option of numeric/T9 if you hold the phone upright, or the QWERTY style keypad if you hold it landscape, and if you want you can enable T9 on that for either input method. I always used T9 on my standard numeric pad phone, but to be honest I can type in so much quicker on the QWERTY that I end up with three or more SMS size messages at a time as it is! Enabling the T9 in conjunction with the QWERTY keyboard at the moment is actually more time consuming for me, but with practice it might be beneficial.

[dhavleak]

@ michichael -- you can't touch type on a phone keyboard (in the traditional sense of the phrase) 'cos it's too small for you to use anything other than your thumbs. The need to move your thumb from key to key is what makes it impossible to type at the same speed (and with the same accuracy) as a regular keyboard. Not to mention that the haptics of phone keyboards are absolutely terrible compared to regular keyboards -- mostly because they have to deal with being put in pockets etc., so their keys can't be 'too easy' to press.

@byteme2009 -- you're right. But that's not the end of it. There nothing to prevent predictive algorithms from suggesting what word you want to type next. If I type "I'm running 10" and the algorithm could suggest "minutes". I accept minutes (1 key stroke), and the algorithm suggests "late". If I wanted to type something else, I just ignore the suggestions and keep typing. AFAIK there are already on-screen keyboards for windows mobile that do this.

So to answer Matt's question -- that's what I expect to happen. Full qwerty + touchscreens + continued evolution of predictive typing technologies. Might not be T9, but it will be some relative of it..

[JimbobRuskin]

Phone numbers won't be able to come in letters.

1-800-AIR-MILES

[gopireddyatcomcast]

After getting used to the soft keyboard on iPhone, QWERTY already feels outdated.

[ihackmore]

I don't actually have an iPhone to check, but doesn't the soft keyboard still use the QWERTY layout, or can you set DVORAC or ABC or even T9 instead?

[ihackmore]

Blackberry Thumb Syndrome will actually be renamed Thumb Thyndrome.

[nickclark567]

I like my LG Dare, which offers T9 or QWERTY on the same screen. The soft keyboard is much faster than a hard keyboard in my opinion.

"by JimbobRuskin April 3, 2009 4:03 PM PDT
Phone numbers won't be able to come in letters.

1-800-AIR-MILES"

Seriously? Even with a hard QWERTY keyboard, it still has the numbers on the actual keys and if a regular keypad does really become obsolete, you don't think manufacturers would work their way around that? That's a ridiculous argument.

[cooki4casey]

I love having a QWERTY keyboard, but I'm not gonna lie, I tend to text while driving (no, I have not caused any accidents) and its really difficult with one thumb and a wide keyboard. I miss my Helio Ocean, if only it weren't so buggy!