T9 vs QWERTY

Thursday, November 22, 2007

My E61i died in the middle of a firmware upgrade. A friend in Nokia confirmed fixing it will only take fifteen minutes given the appropriate adapter (apparently they don’t do it over USB like end users do), but the service centre wanted fifteen days! So I walked into the nearest mobile shop and bought the cheapest phone they had to serve in the interim. A Nokia 1200.

In half a day using it, I’ve confirmed something long suspected: I’m actually faster on T9 than on a QWERTY keypad. The only time T9 slows me down is when typing a word that’s not in the dictionary or a word interlaced with punctuation or numbers.

Maybe for my next phone I’ll look for something with a better camera, connectivity and responsiveness than a messagepad form factor.

derherr — Nov 22, 2007 12:39:24 PM — # ↩

I’m actually faster on T9 than on a QWERTY keypad.

That is the reason I chose the E70 over the E61 or E62. It has the same features but a T9 keyboard which could also expand to a QWERTY.

However, after a bit, the Nokia T9 implementation starts making the words its learnt as default which causes a lot of strife! For example, my home address starts with "MF" and so I added that to the dictionary on my phone and then instead of "OF" which I use more, or "ME", the dictionary defaults to "MF".
vinit — Nov 23, 2007 11:58:03 AM — # ↩

The kind of special adapter the are talking about is a pseudo-SIM that actually sits where the sim card should be and is connected to the computer.
You can go to shops in SJP road or Gandhinagar and get them to do it for you ... a few hours, tops!
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Nov 23, 2007 12:02:32 PM — # ↩
  
  I tried another centre and they said one day. With any luck, I'll have my phone back this evening.
  
  Incidentally, when are you in Bangalore? Or are you here already? We should meet up.
  - vinit — Nov 23, 2007 12:06:58 PM — # ↩
    
    Got back this Tuesday ... for a pretty long trip this time around!
    We should speak offline ... got some biz. news to share!
    
    Lemme call you sometime today!
vaibhav — Nov 23, 2007 12:17:50 PM — # ↩

On the topic of typing, I was talking to this guy on #hamradio -
http://youtube.com/watch?v=tD5FsD-2eZo

50 Words per min Morse Code! I don't think I can do that even with a T9 keyboard. Well, with some practice, maybe I can.

This one is him listening at 100 wpm - http://youtube.com/watch?v=uiJBwaK2ftQ
quickgun_kc — Nov 23, 2007 6:26:39 PM — # ↩

Try a Sony Ericsson. I have become a fan of their phones. They are not as application-rich as Nokia, but whatever they provide is smooth. It is almost like using a Mac as opposed to a Windows PC.
- Kiran Jonnalagadda — Nov 24, 2007 8:31:30 AM — # ↩
  
  That's true, but I more or less live off third-party apps these days, so I'm tied to Nokia until a suitable replacement becomes available.
  - teemus — Nov 25, 2007 7:53:11 PM — # ↩
    
    The iPhone, anytime soon?
    - irq2 — Nov 25, 2007 10:56:20 PM — # ↩
      
      Sucks big time. Stay off it for a long time.
    - Kiran Jonnalagadda — Nov 25, 2007 11:02:03 PM — # ↩
      
      Nice UI, but that's about it.
      
      I'm not at all comfortable with Apple's notion that end users are consumers and nothing more and deserve to be punished (bricked iPhones, etc) for stepping out of line.
tushar — Nov 28, 2007 6:35:58 PM — # ↩

potential replacement
Nokia E51. All the same features plus HSDPA, new S60, much faster processor in a size small enough to swallow. Expected at around 12k sometime in the next few weeks.