Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

Ok, this is the last update on the keyboard, I promise.

I was using it for sending SMS and found a couple strange issues. Namely some people were complaining that they were receiving blank messages or that the message was some garbage with a strange triangle in the middle. I didn’t really understand why it was happening and later noticed that as I was typing, every now and again the counter would drop by about 100 characters. This didn’t seem to make any sense as it seemed to occur completely randomly. Also, keep in mind this only happened when I was using my keyboard, and has never happened before.

So as I was typing up yet another message, carefull watching the counter so as not to send another screwed up message, I found the culprit: Shift + Space.

Don’t ask me why, I really have no idea, but I would really like to ask Nokia as to how that got past testing and just what is causing this. So, if you know why, please do let me know and I will make sure to give you the appropriate credits.

-Nokia Fan Boy
Posted from Nokia N95 8GB

Posted by Wordmobi

So I decided to write a little update on things that I didn’t necessarily know during the first review of the Nokia SU-8W keyboard.

Missing row:
This seemed to be a minor issue considering the size of the rest of the keys and of the keyboard itself. And it is. However I’ve found that when I need to write something with a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols, my typing speed is turtle slow compared to what it would be given that extra row of keys.

Battery:
After using the keyboard for countless hours, I’m still on the original bettery that came in the packaging. Needless to say batteries will last you a while. Of course by the same argument we could consider why Nokia didn’t include a small Li-Poly battery, which would be able to power the device for the same amount of time in a smaller form-factor, thus reducing the size of the keyboard, but seeing as how its been ages since they first introduced the keyboard its safe to say that a number of issues have changed

Final thought:
Nokia, great job on the keyboard but its Old! Make something New already!

-Nokia FanBoy

Posted by Wordmobi

So I figured that its about time to review the keyboard, and since I haven’t really had a chance to look over the posting software I guess its the only thing I can do

There are a couple parts that I would like to touch on, some things that I found to be very useful and some things that I think can be improved.

Starting with the most basic: Keyboard
I found it to be a lot more usable than I expected after I first saw it. Granted, there is a little bit of a learning curve, and the numbers/symbols aren’t positioned entirely perfectly (this is where that extra row would come in useful), the keyboard is very quick to pick up and you end up quickly getting to a level where you make very little mistakes.

The keys have a very nice tactile feedback to them that I found to be very similar to a keyboard of a laptop. The keys are big enough that hitting several at a time becomes a very minor issue. The divided up space bar takes a little getting used to, but overall its not bad at all.

I do find the keyboard to be a little on the narrow side, so it won’t be comfortable to type up books or essays, but I guess we’re going to see what its like to write a blog on it when I’m done

Surprises:

• Something I wasn’t expecting was shortcuts.
• Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V, Ctrl+X even, all work.
• you can hold down Atrl or Alt and press the arrow keys to control the built in music player
• Shift+arrow keys will select text
• Ctrl+Alt+Del brings up the profiles menu (same as pressing the power button)

I’m sure there are more, but thats what I found so far without really trying to look for them.

Physical size/weight
Taking into account the age of the keybaord, I found the size to be very impressive. I like to carry mine in my jacket pocket, and while its a little on the heavy side, its really not that bad.
In the next iteration I would definitely expect to see something much thinner, and lighter.
To build on the keyboard being very narrow, I think it could have been greatly improved if the keyboard had a hinge that could let it “scissor”. This would allow you to keep your arms at a more comfortable and ergonomic position and I think would improve typing speed as well.

Connection
I found the bluetooth connection to be very quick and stable. It takes maybe a couple seconds to connect, and I haven’t noticed any lag between keystroke and screen change. The connection hasn’t had to buffer and type sentences later, and really it seems as if it was a hard connection to it.

Overall Usability
I think the biggest downturn of this keyboard is the screen size and resolution of the phone. This makes sense why keyboards like this one haven’t taken off yet, but I believe that they will be in higher demand as cell phones’ resultion and screen size improves.
Typing on it is very easy and very fast, and even after typing up this long post my hands only a little tired, I could probably type up twice the length without having to take a break. That said, however, it does seem like typing for hours every day would create some wrist problems.
I was debating betwee this keyboard and that virtual laser keyboard, and I’m glad that I picked this one because having the physical feedback from the buttons makes it much easier to type.
While the size and weight could be greatly improved, as well as ergonomics, I think for when it was created, and compared to what’s out there, its an excellent choice.

Word of warning though, I’m not sure how many of the keyboard shortcuts were designed for Symbian specifically, so if you use a different operating system you may run into problems with the dedicated keys and shortcuts listed here. Take a look at some bluetooth speicifications for the HID profile and some compatability charts, before you make the purchase. I was lucky to get they keyboard for $60 from Amazon, and it really is worth twice the price.