How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I previously owned a Sidekick 2 and the keyboard on that was excellent. How's the keyboard on the N810? How's the feedback on the keyboard?

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

It's no where near as comfortable as a BB Curve or a Sidekick. The keys are very shallow and close together. I always figured I'd use my bluetooth keyboard for typing out emails and such but I have found myself using the biult in keyboard more than the BT one. It grows on you but it's still not enjoyable.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

Yes, it's definitely usable but not as good as just about anything else. I get a very strong impression that someone at Nokia designed a keyboard that looks nice, without giving too much thought to how it feels. As a result, while the N810 keyboard is half again the size of what a 5000-series Sharp Zaurus had, it's much harder to find the keys.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I think the important thing to realize, IMO, is that it is way better than an On Screen Keyboard. I find myself being able to type relatively fast on it (despite using only thumbs, don't go thinking you will be using you other fingers on it!). To the point where I do not dread using it at all. The back light is a nice feature as well. The one thing you will hear people say over and over again is that it does not have good feedback, which is kinda true. I like it though. If you are in a spot where you need to do a lot of typing and you have a BT keyboard I would use that, but on the go, it is way better than having a Touch Screen keyboard. Way better! Again, IMO.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I think it is pretty good, i little hard to press with minimal feedback, and also a little flat. But I think it would be hard to make it better, since the N810 is quite thin. Personally I can write much faster with the HW keyboard than with the onscreen keyboard, with only minimum wrong presses, it just need some time to get used to.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I'll chime as a brand new user this week and say that yes the keyboard could be better by adding a little bit of depth/height to them but for the thin-ness of the device it works. Like any micro sized keyboard, it just takes a little getting used to. There is no way you'll ever be able to type as fast as a larger size/full keyboard or even as fast as on a blackberry type device but hopefully youre not trying to write a book on it :)

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

It's not bad... At first I really didn't like it, but as mentioned previously it really grows on you! It's not perfect by any means and I usually make one or two typos, since it's waay too easy to hit two keys at once. Also, I would really appreciate a reference bump and greater tactile feedback. If I had these I think I could type at about three quarters of my normal speed. (right now it's about half)

I really like it though. I wouldn't have gone with the Nokia instead of the iTouch if it hadn't been for the keyboard :) But definitely, bluetooth keyboard is way faster

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I heartily dislike the keyboard. I practically never use it. I use the screen keyboard instead. The only problem with the keyboard (IMHO) is there is no way to tactically center each finger. All they need to do is provide a tiny concavity or even a tiny bump to each key. As it is, I constantly touch multiple keys. It is frustrating!

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

Yea, pretty much what the others have said. Too flat, too little space between top row keys and the screen. Multiple key presses are annoying, but you do sort of get used to the keys. In any case, it is WAY better than the horrible onscreen keyboard. Way, way better. The onscreen keyboard obstructs your view of the screen, has no tactile feedback, and results in a much lower accuracy as well as speed.

Bluetooth is an option if you are typing a long document or email, but I never get why people would carry a BT keyboard everywhere they go. Must be typing some serious documents. I just use the thumb keyboard to type emails, forum responses, and most importantly - IM's. I use my device on the go, so a BT keyboard is out of the question for me.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

Ah. but there's the rub. That's pretty close to what I did already with a Psion 3A and my M.Sc. thesis, a dozen or so years ago. Over the years I've got into the habit of keeping a copy of my work in progress on whatever my pocket-sized mini-laptop happens to be. Because of this, for me the critical features are a keyboard, Emacs, Unison, and at least a half-way decent web browser and calendar. I realise I'm not even close to the kind of customer Nokia is aiming at.

For my purposes the N810 works well enough even if it's by no means ideal, but especially the keyboard is a clear step backwards from my previous palmtop. Still, it's the best compromise currently available, and like others have said even the keyboard feels a bit better now than when I first got the tablet.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

Keyboard is very good expect one thing that kills it: top row is too close to screen edge. So keyboard is quite bad because of this one design flaw.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

The idea of having a hardware keyboard for IT was very much debatable on this forum prior to n810 release with about 50/50 split between users.

I was sceptical myself, until I tried and used the keyboard for a while. And it turned out to be a very useful and much missing feature.

HOWEVER, the implementation as it turned out to be is far from perfect. Here is why:

1 [-] As many pointed out, each individual key is sitting too close to each other and hard to distinguish from each other by your fingertips.

2 [-] The keys are flat and hard to press quickly.

3 [-] The keyboard is asymetric - the round navigation button takes 20% of the valuable keyboard space - you end up having less keys that are jammed together, AND not having the navigation round button next to the screen ruins web browsing or e-book reading experience alltogether. You have to have the keyboard open for navigation whether you like it or not.

4 [+] Having keyboard is very convenient and addictive! And I think the keyboard should become an integral part of IT.

5 [-] Typing long messages on asymetric keyboard will eventually give you carpal syndrome - guaranteed.

6 [-] Personally, I want to see keys for '|', 'Alt', and '`' since with have XTerm as a standard utility application.

7. It would be cool to have a couple of function keys as well so that applications can assing custom actions to them.

8 [-] Integration of hardware keyboard gets in the way of on-screen keyboard with that horrible 'shift-notifies' black back that is so annoying and takes so much of the screen realestatet. I know that you can disable it via Settings, but as of today, this setting is flaky and some applications manage to restore it! If you absolutely need to have convey that information to the user, then use a half-empty Task navigator area. Show the mode of the functional keys there. Better yet, provide a clean API (unless I missed it) to the application developers so that they can embed that information in their own toolbars. As for the 'word completion', it you absolutely have to show it, then make it transparent so that the entry dialogs are not jammed and resized all the time.

9 [+] I like the way keyboard slides out and feels well-attached to the unit. And I appreciate very much the fact that an addition of the keyboard raises the unit above, making it easier to read from it (it gives greater degree of view angle you can adjust to).

The bottom line: I praise Nokia hardware engineers for taking a step in the right direction. The implementation, however, needs more thought and work and I hope that we will get a better keyboard (and perhaps a better GPS chip) with n900.

--Vlad

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I Hate the keyboard! The force required to depress the keys is WAY too high. I just measured it: 10.3 oz for the n810, vs 6.5 for my Samsung. Keys that touch each other = typos. No "nubs" on the keys = typos.

Somebody at Nokia really STP on this ...

I use it when I have to - it's handy for ctrl-c , ctrl-v.

BTW - Did I mention I hate the keyboard? <grrrr> :mad:

Steve

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I'm becoming used to it. Initally I disliked it but like everything I found what works for me and that's to type only with the index finger of one hand rather than trying to use both hands. I can type fairly quickly now on the unit and don't have any issues with the keyboard being close to the top of the unit as mentioned previously.

I do, however, have issue with the sliding mechanism. I have had my N810 for about a month now and two of the keys are scratched by the top half rubbing against the keys when it slides back and forth.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I really like the keyboard, it's useful for writing emails, and a lot better than using a touch screen (like the ipod touch). People who haven't seen the n810 are blown away by the flip down keyboard.
Yes the keys are close together, but that's the compromise between form and function. I get a few typos, but i have sausage fingers (i'm sure I'd get more with a touch screen)
I do agree that the navigation key should be on the main unit, but I barely use it anyway.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I love the keyboard, which surprised me coming from my Palm background. I think it's properly sized (I hated the keyboard on the treo's) and subdued tactile response hasn't really been an issue.

It's certainly not perfect for everyone, but I use it all the time.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I like the keyboard, particularly that it works where the on-screen one does not. However, I have a lot of trouble when writing comments and the like. Somehow, I often end up with the cursor shifting to the Submit button thanks to those arrow keys, and it always happens when I am about to press Enter. Not fun. Then again, I think the web browser is partly to blame here; selecting items via the arrow keys is rather unnecessary here (really only works in a text-based browser), and should be made trickier with large text fields.

The keyboard saving screen space is pretty good, too. As well as just giving me more room to see while typing, it also makes the autocompletion far easier since the suggestions are not replacing an existing key and are easily thumb-sized.

That said, I really like the on-screen thumb keyboard. Too bad it takes so much fiddling for it to appear, but it's great to type with thanks to the key spacing. Even the writing recognition is growing on me, although it is pitiful compared to CellWriter. (By the way, I just ran CellWriter by tunnelling X over SSH and it fits perfectly, although this window manager doesn't seem to understand its setting of struts. May just by the X tunneller's fault. Has anyone tried compiling it for the NIT?)

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

Trying it out today (first time seeing an n810 in the wild and I saw it at MicroCenter). The keyboard is surprisingly small (and I found it hard to type). Though I was also suprised that it was notably smaller then the n800.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I do NOT hate the keyboard, but I do not like it either. I use the onscreen keyboard 99% of the time, and use the keyboard when I have to use the dpad, i.e., the keyboard would NEVER be called on to duty by itself, except when it is already out by coindence. I am not quite sure I got my point across, let me repeat........ ;)


bun

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

My biggest problem is that its actually too long to thumb type effectively. All that other stuff people have said goes too, but it gets quickly uncomfortable to type using thumb-style because its a little long. Also I end up crossing over my fingers (then I really can't see what I'm doing) when "two-keying" some FN/CTL key combos, etc due to the fact that the FN and CTL keys are only on one side of the keyboard.

I wish that the | key and TAB keys were there though. I have to use xmodmap to get that function right now. Who decided the yen and Euro deserved a permanent spot rather than TAB?

That being said, its decent enough given the space they had to put it into.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

This is exactly why I went for the n800 instead of the 810. A thumb keyboard is just not worth $200 to me, especially when I just got a Think Outside 5 Row BT keyboard for 55 bucks and can now type 100wpm on this sucker as opposed to what... 20-30wpm on a thumb kb?

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I really like having the thumb board, I can't imagine a device without it. This is part of the reason I went w/ the n810. I do dislike that the d-pad is on the same place as the keyboard, as it requires my left hand to stretch further than my right hand. This makes it difficult to type for extended periods of time. I do find myself having tired fingers after typing a lot, because it takes a bit of pressure to press the keys.

I haven't run into that many typos, and I have tested the OSK also. The hardware keyboard beats the OSK hands down.

Re: How's the keyboard on the N810?
 

I like the keyboard a lot. Emails and txt messages just fly out.

Also to note, when I actively try and use both the word completion and the keyboard, I can type almost as fast as a standard laptop keyboard, if not faster.

For no thought typing, or running around in any terminal session, it just doesn't cut it.