Qwerty on Symbian - the options

[slitchfield]

In which I reprise my 'Gotta have QWERTY' theme and explore the currently available options for anyone wanting Symbian OS and a 'proper' keyboard... I look at Eseries, Nseries and numbered S60 phones - it's safe to say there's no runaway winner either. (Oh yes - and I promise not to mention 'Psion'!)

Read on in the full article.

[jah]

You may not want to mention Psion but I will! It seems to me that Nokia no longer have passion and vision! Given the massive success of RIM we know that people want keyboard devices with fast and simple software (remember Psion, this is what they did). This is not a journey too far for Nokia - it just needs some teams with passion and vision (okay the E71 was a good product).

[rvirga]

Considering that the 6760 won't be available until late September, you could have included the E72 (to be released about at the same time, apparently) in the list as well.

[jApi NL]

It seems like you have been listening to the added music at the festival ?
I liked the Review and also the comment of upgrading the E90 ! Usefull/less time will tell ...
The full C: disk is 136MB and the full RAM is 106MB on E90 .

Regards jApi NL

Sorry .aac file refused attaching

[ashu]

With the current crop and current as on date state of all these, I would go with E75 being top of the pile. Once you get used to the layout, it's incredibly easy to type. It's optimum for the thumb use whereas I find E90 slightly stretched for two thumbed operation.

Nice article. Someone at Nokia should be reading this article.
I wish Nokia made a bigger screen+better resolution on the e71 type of body. But Nokia make it my best non-touch s60 QWERTY device.

[malerocks]

With so many people demanding bigger screens recently, hopefully Nokia will finally give in and introduce a phone soon with a bigger screen (I mean a non-touch screen one). I would really like one of those.

Hi Steve,
A small error in your grid.
E63 is 3G not 3.5G.
Thanks!

The m600/p1 did have individual keys.. A designchoice connected the keys - but they were individual!!

[malerocks]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

The m600/p1 did have individual keys.. A designchoice connected the keys - but they were individual!!

I agree... The ends of the keys were raised and hitting 1 side keyed in 1 letter and hitting the other side keyed in the other. I found the keyboard on teh P1i pretty fast to use. And sometimes, the word suggestion software and the touchscreen also helped...

I think its unfair to ignore these phones in all of your keyboard / typing speed articles...

[slitchfield]

@Horia: thanks, corrected.
@rvirga: yes, the E72 is almost in the frame for this piece too, I'll probably do an update to this table and opinions in September.

E72 ftw! Fast CPU and a couple of new tricks. Same small keyboard tho.. can't decided if I go for it or remain with a T9 layout.

i still have my e61i, and for me it has the best keyboard around.

It is an ideal mixture of the size, very good qwertz (!) keyboard and the tiniest display that i am able to bear in 2009. Shame that e71 and e72 are so impractically and unergonomically shrinked.
P[t]R/sk

Hi Steve,

THanks for the comparison. I have a Nokia E90 (being a previous and current user of Psion 3a/revo/5mx) and you're absolutely right that it could have been brilliant. It simply is too slow and unresponsive to really work well.

But, it's still useful!

Duncan.