[Hatchy001]

I've now had my Passport for exactly 6 days. I'm coming from a Q10 and I love BlackBerry.

I've read how everyone says they get used to the keyboard on the Passport, but I just can't seem to do it. The keyboard isn't at all like any of their previous devices, and I keep mistyping all the time. It's really getting frustrating because I'm finding it to be a much slower typing experience. I really want to love this device but this is making it hard. It's hard to touch type like I can on my Q10 (I don't look at the screen for the predictive text in order to swipe up). The space bar is all wrong, and the layout of some of the virtual keys is puzzling (the location of the comma, the number pad without the zero below the 8, etc.) I can type way faster on my Q10, with it's conventional 4 row keyboard. It's not even close.

I love the 10.3 OS and the ability to use the keyboard as a giant track pad, I just wish I could type FAST on it! I know it takes getting used to (just like I had to get used to the small keyboard on my Torch back in 2010 when I was coming from a Bold), but how long does it take?

Thanks,

[anon(5956773)]

Yes you'll get used to it.

[deiop]

I have the passport for a couple of weeks now, and tried to use my Q10 yesterday. I can not type accurate on the Q10 any more. So yes, it is only a question of time...

Posted via CB10

[unbreakablej]

It is still feeling pretty weird to me coming from a z30 I actually need to put in an effort to hit the keys now!!

Posted via CB10

[austriker]

Yes. It takes a few weeks I think. Give it time and it's the greatest ever.

Passport is heaven

[zoomlink1]

I am waiting on my Passport to be delivered tomorrow. I hope to be able to get used to the layout quickly.. But with anything new or be it a new way of doing "anything", there is a learning curve.

[netwerx1]

It takes 8 times longer to unlearn something than it does to learn something new, to break old habits than to learn a new one...once you "unlearn" typing as you did with the Q10, you'll quickly pick up the Passport way of typing. It's not wrong, it's just different.

[Joey Vajda]

I too had a tough time getting used to the keyboard, still seems as though I am getting better each day, and I've had this for a month.

I'm at a point now where I feel faster and more accurate on this keyboard then any of the bb10 devices I've came from (Z10, Q10, Z30). I still look back at my old one 9900 and loved every minute of it, just the feel of the keys were superb! And I am leaps and bounds above it now.

The spacing in the keys make for it very difficult to misspress, unless you're way off, or used to a different layout.

Goodluck man!

Posted via CB10

[kwakster928]

I feel your pain brother. But hang in there. Your muscles will do the work for you in a short while.

Posted via CB10

[gocanucks99]

Three weeks in. Much better but no 9900.

Posted via CB10

[aha]

A little more than a week in, I am getting used to this now but probably still slower than when I was on Z30. The thing is, I can live with it and can't go back to Z30 's screen or performance anymore. As a whole package Passport definitely is better for me, if we only talk about keyboard, the answer is barely.

Posted via CB10 with PassportSQW100-1/10.3.0.1418

[Sarek1701]

There is a learning curve, but it will come. After a few weeks in I already find myself using flick less frequently as I type the correct letters by feel.

It does take some getting used to (especially the placement of the space key and the lack of an Alt key) but it's very worth it once you get used to experiencing the power of this beast.

[tigrute]

I absolutely hated the keyboard on the Passport for the first couple weeks I had mine. While I still think having a traditional 4 row, touch-enabled keyboard would be the best solution for the Passport 2, I find the current three row keyboard to be just as effective as the keyboard on the Q10 when symbols and strange punctuation aren't needed, to the point that I now find typing on my Q10 to be awkward. I'm very much slow to adapt to new keyboards, but I hope you find a way to make the keyboard work for you while taking advantage of the much better specs and screen of the Passport.

[kwakster928]

Only negative thing I can comment about the keyboard is that using the Passport in the vertical position is rather challenging.

I can type faster and more accurately when the phone is held on its back by my two index fingers.

When I hold the phone in the vertical position, too much weight of the phone gets rested on my poor pinkies.

So when I am typing in the bed, like I am doing now, I usually pull myself up a bit so I am not holding the phone vertically.

I do agree that the symbol and numbers could have been placed within the keyboard. But I find the virtual keyboard more than acceptable. Once in a while my left thumb has to travel all the way to the right to press a key while the right thumb is holding the symbol key. Other than that, I really don't have anything to complain about.

Posted via CB10

[chaddeus]

I have the same problem as the OP. But I used this for only 2 days so I hope it will get better in a week or two

- Charles

[gocanucks99]

I was having trouble learning at an acceptable rate until I turned off autocorrect. Sink or swim baby. Helped a lot!

Posted via CB10

[dna47]

That keyboard might not be your thing. But I'm sure after a while muscle memory will kick in. I haven't bought a passport yet, but I was playing with one at future shop and after 5 mins I was getting used to it.

Posted via CB10

[Thunderbuck]

I've said it repeatedly: the Passport's "hybrid" keyboard is more closely related to the virtual kb on the Z30 than it is to the physical one on the Q10. This is a new input method, and it will take time to adjust.

I still contend that a user migrating from a Z30 will have an easier time with the Passport than a "traditional" BlackBerry keyboard user. I view the Passport more as a full-touch phone with three rows of dedicated letter keys than I see it as a "keyboard" phone.

[rolojr1]

Yes you most definitely will.

Posted via CB10

[thymaster]

Getting used to is different then getting to like it. It's your preference either virtual vs. physical keyboard. iPhone users will probably say virtual is better and Crackberry addicts will persuade you to go for physical keyboard.

For me I went out to the store and play with the phone before I made my purchase and on my first attempt with the keyboard it felt so natural because it felt familiar to my old BB Bold keyboard. That is what drove me to get the Passport. I love it!

[nbaliga]

I assure you it will get better!

I too had the same doubts a week in, but many on the forums kept saying that it took them a couple of weeks, so I hung in there.

What I did was use the memopad app throughout the day to bang out long soliloquies and soften the keys up, as well as get used to the new layout.

I sometimes miss the alt key, but with the fourth row having the common punctuation, I can't imagine using the alt key anymore!


Posted via CB10

[alan510]

I found that as soon as I got used to the "down" swipe I got more accurate and comfortable with the keyboard. I thought of the down swipe as my ALT key. I've now got comfortable with my most frequently used symbols such as the dash "-" and the quotation marks and I use the I and L keys instead of the screen for those symbols now. It's helped me with my speed. More importantly though is my accuracy. I'm way more accurate than I was on my Z10. That has been the huge plus for me as I've always been a terrible typist.

Posted via CB10

[tomsobon]

YOU WILL

[Hatchy001]

Thanks for all the feedback, I guess I just have to stick with it and hope I adapt. It's good to see that I'm not the only one who is finding it slower to adapt to, but I support it depends on the devices you're coming from. I started with a 950 BlackBerry in 1999 and have gone through almost every model since (including the Pearl and Flip which I wasn't too fond of - two letters/key just didn't work).

There's too much other good stuff about this device, and I really want to love it, but until I can type accurately and quickly, I won't be feeling the love.

Is there a "wish list" thread for the passport anywhere? And why doesn't the CB10 app let me scroll up and down the message list and postings using the touch keyboard?

Thanks,

[Tim Heard]

I won't say that this happens every time I pick up the Passport, but I regularly think about how much better it would have been if they had offered a different keyboard. ... And I have had the Passport since a couple of days after it was released. Basically, the time it took to ship the phone.
I hope for your sake that your experience is more like that of the people who have grown to love it over time.
Sadly, there's no other viable option offered by any other device manufacturer, so regardless of whether one like's it, this is it. If you want a phone with a large screen and a keyboard, the Passport is your only option.