The T-Mobile Google HTC G2 Keyboard
The keyboard on the T-Mobile Google HTC G2 is pretty cool.
First of all, it is a wide qwerty keyboard. There are only three rows of keys but it feels like everything needed is available. They do this by adding the ALT key and an additional character to each key on the board. Just type ALT once to access the alternate character for a key, or type ALT twice to keep the keyboard in ALT mode.
The @ sign is in a much better position than it was before. It is located at the top left as the main character for that key.
Directly below the @ sign is a “.com” key, which has its alternate character as “www.”. Pretty clever innovation.
The comma and the period are on opposite sides of the space bar.
There are additionally 3 quick keys, which you can set as one click to open email, an application, or a bookmark.
They managed to fit in 2 shift keys and 2 ALT keys which is really helpful.
I think it will take some getting used to the location of the alternate characters which are typically on the numbers keys, since on this keyboard the numbers keys are alternate characters on the top row.
There is only one menu key on the keyboard, but there is an additional one on the edge of the screen.
The search key is also another useful touch, which makes searching on many applications that much faster.
An interesting feature of the keyboard is the light sensor. If it thinks there is not enough light it back lights the keys. At first, I thought there was a loose connection, because the back light kept turning on and off while I was typing. Then I noticed that if I shaded the phone it turned on and if it gets direct light it turns off.
I am more of a hard keyboard kinda guy, but I imagine some people may be into the on screen keyboard SWYPE functionality. SWYPE takes away the need to lift up your fingers when typing letters. It drastically increases your potential typing speed. Instead of pressing the letters of the word individually, you place your finger on the first letter and then drag your finger across the letters of the word. If there is more than one possibility of what you meant, it will offer you options. The first option is the most likely and if it is the correct one, you do not need to even click it – just move on to the next word. Also, there is no need to press the space bar between words. Each word you SWYPE is automatically followed by a space if you SWYPE the next word.
Check out more about SWYPE at swypeinc.com.