Video: Xtreme typing challenge pits iPhone vs. Netbook

• iPhone vs netbook rally challenge
• |
• CNET UK

When Crave UK gets bored, odd things happen. We'll fly RC planes through the streets, we'll dress up in costumes and expose our cleavages, hell, we'll even drag a big-ass 20-inch laptop through the London Underground--just for kicks.

We think you'll agree our latest stunt continues this tradition of recklessness. In the video above, we decided to pit an iPhone against a Netbook to see which is the true king of mobile productivity. Rather than attempt this stunt on a train or in a coffee shop, we thought we'd do it in the back of a $1.47 million rally car. Yup, that's how we roll.

Our challenge was pretty simple: hop into the passenger seat alongside 14-time European Rallycross champion Kenneth Hansen, hurtle around Lydden racetrack in Dover, England, and attempt to type, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"--a pangram, or holoalphabetic sentence containing every letter of the alphabet--onto each device.

It might sound easy enough, but Ken's Citroen C4 does 0-60mph in 2.39 seconds --quicker than some Formula 1 cars--on gravel. Then there's the fact the car can generate three times the force of gravity in a corner, and has a passenger cabin so hot and so inhospitable it could put Texas to shame.

So what'll it be? The Netbook with its full Qwerty keyboard, or the iPhone with its touch screen and clever auto-correction feature? There's only one way to find out!

Correction: We stated in the video that Kenneth Hansen is Swedish. He's actually from Denmark. Our båd.

(Source: Crave UK)

[Firehazel]

neat.

[JadisOne]

That was pretty cool regardless of the outcome.

[bopeterson]

Kenneth Hansen is indeed Swedish, from Götene, Sweden (http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Hansen). Swedish flag on his car, helmet, coverall. And Swedish accent. There is a Dansish speedway driver with the same name though (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Hansen).

[deftdrummer]

I call BS on that one, there's no way you could type that sentence that fast on the iphone while going around corners. It's hard enough to type while sitting at a stop light. I agree with JadisOne that the video was still awesome regardless.

[dexgen]

I agree with the BS too. Absolutely no way he could type with not one error on the iphone in that situation. Maybe there was spelling errors that the iphone fixed and he failed to report. Misleading in every way.

[The_Voice_of_Reason]

If you type something, and at the end it doesn't have any errors, does it actually *matter* if the phone fixed the typos? No, because it doesn't have typos at the end of the test.

If you type something, and fix the typos with spell check, should your boss still be upset with you for submitting a document that had typos? No, because it doesn't have typos any more.

[trickytrumpeter]

I think the point was to include the auto-correct of the iPhone (the article mentions "So what'll it be? The Netbook with its full Qwerty keyboard, or the iPhone with its touch screen and clever auto-correction feature?").

I think that is an interesting comparison. It certainly isn't scientific and its accuracy can certainly be questioned, but it's an interesting comparison.

The iPhone has a lot of advantages in this situation...a sentence full of words (that would be in its auto-correct database) as opposed to names/proper nouns.

I doubt anyone is planning to write a doctoral thesis on their iPhone.

[Ali Pervez]

Agreed iPhone's auto-correction would have been a help in this test. But the real reason why iPhone won (IMHO) is because the netbook is sitting in lap while the phone is in the hand. While typing, Laptop and hands/fingers are moving at different planes and frequencies. So their movement is very unpredictable for good hand-eye coordination. While with iPhone, devise is in the same hand withwhich he is typing. So the job becomes much easier.

[Ali Pervez]

Agreed iPhone's auto-correction would have been a help in this test. But the real reason why iPhone won (IMHO) is because the netbook is sitting in lap while the phone is in the hand. While typing, Laptop and hands/fingers are moving at different planes and frequencies. So their movement is very unpredictable for good hand-eye coordination. While with iPhone, devise is in the same hand withwhich he is typing. So the job becomes much easier.

[The_Voice_of_Reason]

Exactly. The iPhone's position is fixed in relationship to the position of his hand. The netbook's keyboard isn't.