Predictive Text vs. QWERTY .... I'm amazed.

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dani the great

New member
I've always been a user of Predictive Text... no matter which brand of phone I've had, whether it be Nokia, SE, Samsung or Motorola. I've also always been a HEAVY texter and HEAVY emailer. I can literally FLY when using Predictive Text.

I just picked up my first QWERTY phone (Nokia E61) ... I really love this phone (one of my most favorite phones ever...) but it DID take me a while to get used to QWERTY....WAY longer than it would have taken to, for example, change from Predictive Text to iTap to T9 or whatever. It took me at least two FULL weeks to learn it.

What I have NEVER been able to understand is that in 99.999 % of reviews, people make claims, for example, that "they don't think this phone would be good for messaging since its not QWERTY..." or "the absence of a full keyboard will prevent serious users from sending many text messages or emails..." I don't really CARE that people say this nonsense but its sure gotten old over the last several years. Are people still using Tap Entry or something? Its crazy! I love my E61 and can type pretty quickly with it but its a toss up as to whether its faster at all. In fact, I would STILL say that Predictive Text is at LEAST a little faster and most likely.... WAY faster! The QWERTY keypad wasn't designed for phones (and thumbs)... it was designed for home row typing. I can type over 90wpm on a PC keyboard, so its not that I don't know QWERTY. I just think that if people learned how to use predictive, they would find it faster than QWERTY.

Sorry, my rant is over..... I've been wanting to ask this on the forum for a while now. Finally did it.

But does anyone else share the same sentiments?
 
You've got a point - On my E70 I kind of have both worlds (QWERTY when I want it, and predictive when the keyboard is closed).

Predictive is great when I'm composing SMS or email, but I've found that I'm doing more and more web-browsing type stuff where I'm typing in web addresses, usernames, and arbitrary passwords that aren't words. For that stuff the QWERTY is sooooo much nicer than having to cycle through the alphanumeric options.
 
I agree with you on that.... I mean, symbols and non-words go quicker on QWERTY but the simple fact remains (at least for me, YMMV) that composing emails and text is faster on predictive, yet people still rave about QWERTY.... honestly, I don't understand it. I went for the E61 for its WIDE screen rather than the accompanying wide keyboard.
 
I don't see how it's possible you can be faster on predictive text than a QWERTY keyboard. Do you mind taking a video of your blazing thumb speed?
 
Wirelessly posted (The Eliteness: Mozilla/5.0 (SymbianOS/9.1; U; en-us) AppleWebKit/413 (KHTML, like Gecko) Safari/413 es65)

I'm faster on qwerty than t9. I miss my amazing super duper E70-2
 
This pretty much sums it up. That's why the E90 (and the e70 seems although never tried it) look fabulous.




I have also had some T9 and some qwerty nokias and i have always been much faster on T9.
 
haha ... um... you're serious? Hm... I think its much easier to learn Predictive Text since there are only 12 keys to learn.

Oh well, thats why I started this thread ... surprising answers, I guess.
 
my blackberry pearl is the fastest of them all. Suretype combines qwerty and T9 like functions for blazing speeds. The speed is more like computer keyboard in regards to speed. Too bad the phone sucks and i've got it up on the bay.
 
I have a few friends who are texting pro's, but none use predictive. I guess I've never seen someone use predictive all that fast.

Personally, I probably don't text or e-mail enough with predictive to ever get good at it. I've only really started texting and e-mailing a lot on QWERTY keyboards, and have gotten pretty fast on them (probably somewhere around 30-35 words per minute).

I honestly can't even imagine someone typing faster than that on predictive, but you guys probably can. I mean, the kings of predictive texting are probably on this forum if anywhere though.
 
I think what it really comes down if you are talking about speed is on your own level or understanding the language you are typing on.

If you are typing grammatically simple words then yes, T9 is quite the tool. However if you are writing messages that require a higher understanding of the language, or words with more than one or two syllables, then well, QWERTY might prove more useful.
 
I've also had a few different QWERTY devices and it's REALLY hard to switch back and forth. I'd still love to carry an E70 or E90 around for a few weeks. I've always been a huge fan of both designs for the exact reason posted above. It's the best of both worlds.

However, I'm MUCH faster AND MORE ACCURATE with T9. I had a Blackjack and E62 and on BOTH I'd misspell words all the time and whatnot. Plus, I've had T9 for so long, I'm pretty freakin fast on it, as well. I think the best thing is there's so few keys, and it's something I can do without having to concentrate, most of the time. I can spit out a text message without even looking at the phone.

However, for web addresses and whatnot, QWERTY is DEFINITELY better.
 
I prefer a qwerty for writing on the notepad and entering in web addresses, but I prefer T9 in almost all other circumstances.

I hate writing notes with T9, because it take slonger to add symbols and punctuation...
 
Now that's funny.....if only my wife liked cell phones

For me I think it all comes down to keypad while using the T9. I can type faster on my N80 than I could on the N70 or N73 simply becuase the keys are bigger and wider. I can hold the phone with two hands just like on my Pearl, which makes a big difference for me.
 
i can do only 30wpm (estimate) on my n73 but ALOT more on my sharp 903, because the key is so much bigger and there is space to travel.
 
I friggin HATE t9. I use it constantly on my N70 and curse it constantly. In Opera Mini, it will not add new words. In Wirc it will not add new words. In google maps, it will not add new words. If it would add words while in programs, then maybe i would like it. But not having friggin "wifi" or being able to type "N70" or "irc" or user names or passwords is just too friggin annoying. I find myself switching back and forth from t9 to tapping constantly and it frustrates the hell out of me. Also, take my name. My real name. Mike. You know what i get every time i type that? Mile! Every single friggin time. What about if i want to say "me?" I get "of." "Dont," I get "foot." Every single time. I wont even mention how annoying it is to curse using t9. I mean can we get a t9 dictionary/soft that LEARNS? Just a little. Finally, i went the route of spending ridiculous amounts of time programming in all of my words that dont natively exist, and what happened? I updated my firmware and my dictionary was reset.

I've said all this, but in truth, I dont see myself being any faster on a QWERTY thumb pad. But, with my BT keyboard, I absolutely fly. I dont know, just dont even get me started on the shortcomings of t9.

Rant over, everybody start telling me what an idiot i am
 
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