Versus Monday – Cell Phone Keyboards

Today I’m starting a new weekly post called Versus Monday. Every Monday I will compare two things, it can be phones, accessories, services, game, etc… I will compare both and declare a winner. To start things off lets look at the classic full QWERTY keyboard compared to the virtual full QWERTY keyboard.

Ever since the inception of the Blackberry, QWERTY keyboards on cell phones have been extremely popular. The design of these keyboards have ranged anywhere between raised keypads to flat keypads and keys that are spaced to keys that are next to each other. The downside of the classic keyboard is that it takes up key real estate on the cell phone and is not always easy to “type”. This is especially true for keyboards that have small buttons and people with big fingers!

On the other hand the iPhone made the virtual QWERTY keyboard popular. With the virtual keyboard you can type right on the screen without having a seperate area for a classic keyboard. This saves space on the cell phone and allows for either a smaller phone or a larger screen. However, virtual keyboards have problems of their own. Often times the screen does not recognize when you “touch” a key. There is always the potential of finger smudges on the screen.

WINNER: classic keyboard

I have to give it to the classic keyboard. I find that overall they are easier to use and when it comes down to it that’s what matters most.