[anon3700711]

Does anyone have a Dev Device along with a BlackBerry 9900? Can you tell us how your typing speed compares when using the BB10 touchscreen keyboard versus 9900 physical keyboard?

I'm completely unsure which BB10 device to get. See, I primarily use my BlackBerry for communication. I'm talking BBM, Whatsapp, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, IM+ Pro and texting. I don't write small 140 character messages, I write walls of text and I'm pretty sure the longest message I have ever wrote is about 9 pages. I commonly send paragraphs of text daily to people through Facebook Messenger or text. I use my BlackBerry more than my laptop.

I do know that Swype on Android was a painfully slow experience and BlackBerry QWERTY is extremely faster but I"m curious to know if I will need a physical keyboard as the BB10 touch screen keyboard is apparently "great". I would love a L-Series device as I want a 4.3 inch screen for a comfortable web browsing experience but ehhhhhh what matters to me is typing and keyboardin'.

[Zach Gilbert]

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the on screen keyboard featured on BlackBerry 10. I'm still a strong believer that the physical keyboard will be a win for those who are heavy communicators. But tbh I'm a die hard physical keyboard guy, and since using BlackBerry 10 i'm actually pushing toward the all touch.

[Taigatrommel]

I for one choose physical QWERTY not only because of speed, but mostly because of the feeling it gives while typing. No glass plate with vibration motors can replace shaped buttons, the tactile feedback or the actual sound of the keys being mashed.
However there aren't really much details known about the N-Series. While there are some poor quality leaks out there, we haven't gotten even nearly as much information as we got about the L-Series, the later one is pretty much covered.

The best thing to do is just sit and wait till both devices are available. Then you can compare them at a store and buy the one which suites your needs best. I am a die-hard QWERTY guy too by the way, yet I will still of course have a very close look at the L-Series. However I somehow doubt I'll go with the full-touch for the very reasons stated at the beginning.

[anon3700711]

This choice is difficult, haha.

[Xopher]

Personally, Swype on Android wasn't that painful, and since other keyboards started adding in swiping and predictive text, it has made using a virtual keyboard better.

Between my 9700 and the Dev Alpha, they work completely different. When I had my 9630, it was my primary phone, and I typed out everything on it, all the time. It got to the point where the tips of my thumbs got sore by the end of the day.

One of the things I notice between the two is that I still type faster on the physical keyboard. Between feeling the keys, and all of the text shortcuts I have set up, I can type things out pretty quickly on my 9700.

On the Dev Alpha, I have to pay attention to the keyboard area while I type. The predictive text is pretty cool, and when the right words are displayed, you can pump out text quickly. It's kind of fun to flick up the words from the keys. I don't think it is quite as fast, but it makes for a nice experience. It was easy to learn.

This is one of those things where personal preference will definitely come in. That being said, it's important to go in with an open mind. Don't expect the BB10 experience to be exactly the same as BB7, and don't expect typing on glass to be the same as a physical keyboard.

[LiamMontana]

Physical ftw

[Toodeurep]

Another factor worth considering is your use of shortcuts.

Paging through documents, twitter, email, etc with the space bar or using "T" to go to the top or "B" to go to the bottom are some "like to haves" for me. Refreshing browser pages with "R", launching the BBOS7 Hub (unified inbox) with the tap of the "M" or replying/forwarding messages all the while having my fingertips stay on the keyboard.

Some days, I don't touch my screen at all. Don't get me wrong, touch devices are great and I love having one but I also like not HAVING to use it. All touch gives you no choice. The sacrifice to a smaller screen was worth it to me.

That said, I can't wait to get my hands on the Z10 to see if it can change my mind.

[Mercury]

I have a 9900 and got to play with a Non alpha Z10 and I will be the first to admit, I absolutely hated touch screen. I had an ipod touch that was given to me from a friend, and I hated the touch screen. I had the torch 9800 and I kinda warmed up to touch screen a bit, but still used the physical keyboard on that, then I got the PlayBook and it took some serious time to actually like typing on that, then got the 9900 and I'm using the touch screen more (minus the keyboard lol) and now I'm loving typing on the PlayBook and then got to use the Alpha B device and now the non alpha device and I must admit, I love typing on the z10!! I can't wait to get my own Z10.

Typing on the Z10 is very fluid, and it adapts very quickly to your typing style. I was starting to type right around the same speed I type on my 9900. Fast and accurate and I only got about 3hrs total time with the Alpha B and Non Alpha device and I'm hooked.

[peter9477]

I just tried a little typing test to compare. Note that I'm not the world's greatest 9900 typist, though I've had it a year. I've typed quite a bit on the Dev Alpha but I do wipe it with each upgrade (so it loses some of the learning) and it hasn't fully "learned" my vocabulary yet.

Note that "word" in a typing test means exactly 5 characters, including spaces, by convention, so 244 characters is 48.8 words.

On the 9900 I was doing 37 words per minute. I made two mistakes which were not corrected: "BB10" came out "BBw0", and "me" came out "mw".

On the Dev Alpha with one thumb I managed 25 words per minute. I made no mistakes (actually I made several and it quietly corrected them). I could tell I was fumbling a bit out of nervousness too, since I didn't want the results to be "too slow" and that threw me off. :-)

I could also tell that I still have room to improve in using the predictive ability, since about 1/3 of the time I typed at least one character more than I really need to. The prediction is so good it often comes up before I expected it to, and my finger's already typing the next letter. I could see this situation being improved with the release hardware and software, since it may all relate to the timing of animations and such. Too soon to draw any firm conclusions.

With both thumbs on the Dev Alpha, I managed 33 words per minute. I made one mistake, with "the" coming out just "he". I'm actually surprised it's that good, since I've basically never two-thumb typed on the Dev Alpha before now!

A note of caution about this last one too: using the predictive ability while two-thumb typing is interesting. Your tendency is to ignore it, and just type (relying on auto-correct). You could probably do about as well as the 9900 that way (I'm guessing from this limited test). If, however, you can learn to pay attention to the predictions, especially as you type larger words, I suspect you'll be able to improve significantly. I'd guess that with another few weeks of two-thumb typing and the mental adjustment it may to start use the predictions, I could manage over 45 wpm without major difficulty when typing sentences like these ones.

For those trying to compare with my results, note that I didn't do a "classic" typing test reproducing what I see on a paper: those tests are interesting for speed competitions but not that much use for checking your speed on a phone. I just tried to think of useful things to say, real sentences, and type them. My last one was "Okay, and one more time. This time I'm doing two thumb typing and it seems to be going pretty well and I can even use the predictive keyboard pretty effectively." for what it's worth. :-)

[Rello]

I know a lady that said she hated the keyboard on BB10. I asked why and she said she felt the keyboard keys were too small for here liking. It should be known too that she has been a keyboard users for 5 years. I think its just gonna come down to personal preference. I'm gonna pick up the Z10 just because it'll be the first one out, but I'm gonna look at the X10 when it comes out as well to see which experience I like better.

[AlexAllen]

How are you at looking away from the virtual keyboard? I could touch-type on my 9780. For whatever reason, I can't manage that on my 9810, but I can briefly look around: at what I'm responding to, at a source I may be copying from, at a person in the room who may be involved in the email I'm writing, at where I'm walking.

I imagine the virtual keyboard will require more focus.

[Spencerdl]

I've been using the Blackberry physical keyboard for over five years, but I think its time for a change. Just like anything new, the ALL touch Z10 will take some getting use to. This is the first All touch Blackberry that has caught my eye, I think I will give it a try. Since my purchase of the OEM PlayBook Keyboard, I rarely use my 9930 to type anyway.

[Thunderbuck]

For a lot of BB fans, the BB10 keyboard is going to be a compelling alternative. Even if you lose a little typing speed, it could prove worth having the extra screen real estate.

[knowledge_6]

the BB10 keyboard i will go out and say is the best touch screen keyboard .. i have the nexus 4 had the S3 and the S3 all with swiftkey 3 and various other touch screen keyboards cause i just couldn't find the right one that'll a) keep up b) fix my mistakes everytime and learn and predict based on what i type and use (i.e. short form etc).

swiftkey 3 comes the closest but on the android the one pet peeve i have is that when ur typing a word and it auto completes and it's not the word u want... when u backspace the word that u started to type does not appear again... from the dev alpha i saw the word returns back to it's original spelling..

i think the touch will compete with qwerty users

[peter9477]

On the 9900 I was doing 37 words per minute.
...
With both thumbs on the Dev Alpha, I managed 33 words per minute. I made one mistake, with "the" coming out just "he". I'm actually surprised it's that good, since I've basically never two-thumb typed on the Dev Alpha before now!

Since I'm a nut for measurements, and because RIM was offering $100 per app during the portathon, I decided to write an app. :-)



Note that, with only a little extra practice, I appear to be beating my speed on the 9900, although I don't have this app on the 9900 to make it an entirely fair comparison, and it was only a very quick test.

Look for the Flying Thumbs app in BlackBerry World around the launch of BB10, provided it gets approved in time. It's FREE!

[SlcCorrado]

Since I'm a nut for measurements, and because RIM was offering $100 per app during the portathon, I decided to write an app. :-)



Note that, with only a little extra practice, I appear to be beating my speed on the 9900, although I don't have this app on the 9900 to make it an entirely fair comparison, and it was only a very quick test.

Look for the Flying Thumbs app in BlackBerry World around the launch of BB10, provided it gets approved in time. It's FREE!

Awesome! Can't wait to try it out I'm all about the kb but if the Z comes before the X I'm going for it

[Admorris]

It's all in what you get used to really. I have used primarily touchscreen keyboards since smart phones came out and have gotten quite fast with them. I had the 9900 for a couple months and was not happy with it at all...the keys felt awkward and as a result I typed much slower.

Sent from my SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

[Taigatrommel]

It's all in what you get used to really. I have used primarily touchscreen keyboards since smart phones came out and have gotten quite fast with them. I had the 9900 for a couple months and was not happy with it at all...the keys felt awkward and as a result I typed much slower.

Sent from my SGH-I317 using Tapatalk 2

That's the great thing about RIM:
The customer has the choice wether he prefers a physical keyboard over the largest screens or vice versa just wants that only screen real estate. We can choose whatever we want.

For Apple we have just that one device. The same goes more or less for those Android manufacturers, though they also offer QWERTY models, the hardware of these devices is often rather outdated and can't be compared to flagship devices or, in many cases, even mid-range devices. On RIM you get, at least now, both a high-end full-touch as well as a high-end QWERTY device.

[Crisdean]

Yes very interesting question indeed and I'll definitely wait after Jan 30th to see what floats my boat. I don't mind touchscreen but it needs to have a good keyboard. Will wait and see. It's either or for me this time. If I go BB10 it'll be either or. Nor two devices. I'm starting to count the days now

[Tre Lawrence]

I think that those who give the virtual a try will be pleasantly surprised. For those who can't/won't, there are options. Win-win.

BTW, I swype one-handed fairly fast, and type two-thumbed just as fast now as i did on a physical kb, but I have to look while typing. The fastest people on Swype type faster than those on physical keyboards.

[Rickroller]

I've been using virtual keyboards for close to 3 years now, and I can type pretty much just as fast on them as I can on an actual laptop keyboard (i've gotten as high as almost 90wpm on virtual). The biggest issue i've had with any virtual though, was it being able to keep up to me. Whether it was on iOS, BB (Torch), or even Swiftkey for Android, once I really get hammering out sentences, they always seem to lag a bit. Hopefully with BB10, it'll be able to keep up

[peter9477]

The fastest people on Swype type faster than those on physical keyboards.

How close is it? There may be some "selection bias" in that data... some of those using Swype may feel they need to prove themselves to justify using it, so they work extra hard at getting good and proving that "it's better". (I have no idea... never even seen Swype really.)

[Tre Lawrence]

How close is it? There may be some "selection bias" in that data... some of those using Swype may feel they need to prove themselves to justify using it, so they work extra hard at getting good and proving that "it's better". (I have no idea... never even seen Swype really.)

You're not that far off... professional texters in the GBOWR. So, not everyday people.

I willingly admit that if not for Swype, I would never have switched platforms. I communicate A LOT on the go for business.

[peter9477]

Sounds like once we've heard some honest comments (and preferably numerical data) from Swype users who really give the BB10 keyboard a shot, we'll have some solid evidence of just how well it really does.

[Tre Lawrence]

Sounds like once we've heard some honest comments (and preferably numerical data) from Swype users who really give the BB10 keyboard a shot, we'll have some solid evidence of just how well it really does.

Anecdotally, I use Swype for shorter entries. For longer entries, I use Swiftkey with my device in landscape. Now, Swiftkey is FANTASTIC.

The version I've seen leaked on BB10 adds some really cool stuff to an already great keyboard. I have no doubt that the keyboard will be well received.