Flat/Raised keyboard (pics)

[herki]

If your signal strength is -90 dBm, that is not a strong signal.

Really? I'm not used to the system to measure strength.

One bar's about normal for where I live, so I'm not sure how it is in metro areas. All I know is that I don't drop calls or have service failures, which is all that matters.

In my dorm room, which equates to a concrete bunker with windows facing away from the towers, I get 101 dB, but I still get service. Which is more than my roommate with AT&T can say. When I see my friend who also has a Droid in a few days, I'll compare strength to see if it's area or phone.

EDIT: When I have 4 bars of service, I get 76 dB. So I think it's just the area.

 

[xliderider]

I got my Droid replaced last week and the keypad is the raised one. I thought I was imagining it at first, but I did notice it was slightly different.

Almost posted it at the time, but I figured some would say it was BS.

Post a pic! Is it easier to type on than the old one?

Pic would look the same as in the OP's post. The difference is very subtle. I hardly use the physical keyboard.

 

[bonfilio]

49/09 flat keyboard

I made a simple little diy fix to raise the keys. I cut small little squares of black gaffers tape and stuck on each key. Gaffers tape doesn't leave residue, has a textured surface and is very durable. Guessing, about 3mm square patches.. enough to fill the center of each key with minimal overlap on the letter and alt symbol.

 

[WarER4X]

I bet the oils from your fingers (and baking/steaming in your pocket) will start working on that tape quicker than you might think.

We should start a forum pool to bet on how long it will be before one of those pieces of tape gets stuck to the back of your screen slider. Hey, we could bet one which key is the first to go, too!

I'll take the letter "S" by this time in two weeks.

-SR-

 

[droidmike]

I bet the oils from your fingers (and baking/steaming in your pocket) will start working on that tape quicker than you might think.

We should start a forum pool to bet on how long it will be before one of those pieces of tape gets stuck to the back of your screen slider. Hey, we could bet one which key is the first to go, too!

I'll take the letter "S" by this time in two weeks.

-SR-

I say lower left shift key in about 3 days. That's where my thumb always ends up once I slide the keyboard open.

 

[pstinger]

If those are raised keys, then I have raised keys, too...

 

[johnny99]

I bought my Droid a few weeks ago (build date 50/09). My keyboard is not as "bubbled" as some of the photos I have seen, but when I run my finger over the keyboard, there is a definite bump for each key. I can tell when I'm pressing the center of a key without having to look at the keyboard.

 

[bonfilio]

I bet the oils from your fingers (and baking/steaming in your pocket) will start working on that tape quicker than you might think.

We should start a forum pool to bet on how long it will be before one of those pieces of tape gets stuck to the back of your screen slider. Hey, we could bet one which key is the first to go, too!

I'll take the letter "S" by this time in two weeks.

-SR-

I did it back in early Feb (during all of the US east coast blizzard fun.. was bored) and it's held on pretty well so far. Granted, I use the on screen keyboard far more than physical one, but I'm not really worried about it. I went with gaffers tape primarily because it's very tolerant with all things heat (it handles the abuse of huge wattage stage lighting). Also, there's a little over 1.5 mm of clearance between the sliders halves, so no chance of it snagging.. unless of course you pick at it first.

Attempted with clear electricians tape also.. no good! That stuff definitely caused a mess.

 

[gamecocks524]

My droid has a raised keypad and it is a 42/09

 

[nox]

Like I posted in the other thread:

Mine has bubble keys and has had them since launch day.
46/09

 

[ikith]

Was it necessary to necro bump this thread?

 

[Eric Sorensen]

My wife likes the flat keyboard

It works better with her nails. I find the virtual display one easier to type on, though.

 

[androidinosaurobot]

Raised Buttons

My best friend bought a Droid after I talked it up as the Motorola Sholes months before being released. Only after it finally hit the market, I ended up getting a Blackberry Bold 9700 instead. Heres why: I have had 4 different Android phones in the past couple years (G1, imported HTC Hero, 256mb HTC Magic, and Motorola Cliq). I have come to realize that the most important thing to me is the keyboard on a phone because it is what I use the most. The G1 was perfect, but horribly slow. The Hero's keyboard was so tiny that my small hands couldn't even accurately type on the onscreen keyboard. The Magic was better, but not great, which brought me to the Cliq, which was just okay. The Droid was going to be my dream phone because it had power, a sharp design, and a QWERTY.

However...when I went to examine it on display in Best Buy, my dreams were immediately shot to hell when I realized how bad the keyboard sucked. It felt horrible. The keys were completely flat and totally unresponsive. I actually thought it was broken. Fortunately, they had another model on display...the exact same situation. I was extremely disappointed and ended up getting the Blackberry.

So when my friend asks me why I didn't get the Droid, I tell him. He proceeds to tell me that his was like the ones I tested, only it had stopped working a week ago, so he brought it in to Verizon, who simply replaced it with a new one. The new one was the model with the raised keyboard. He noticed it, and showed it to me, and it was very obvious. I could tell a major difference - of course, because this was the most important point to me in my selection. So let me just say this: for the people who say that the raised keyboard thing is just B.S. - it's not. I have witnessed it first-hand. And for the people who don't know whether or not you have one or not, you don't. You will know if you have one, because there are very distinct bubbles under the keys that give the sensation that you are actually pressing a button, rather than just mashing on something flat.

So now this raised keyboard has got me wanting a Droid again, only I have AT&T, so my whole intention from the get-go was to get a Motorola Milestone, which is the equivalent and works with my specific frequencies (except 3G, which isn't available in my area anyway). The only issue is that as far as I can tell, there hasn't been a version with raised keys released, only the version like the original Droid. So it looks like for now I'm out of luck.

 

[pstinger]

The original Droid had two build versions, it seems. One with raised keys, one without. I bought mine retail WITH raised keys.