New to Android: Is there a comprehensive review of the different keyboards somewhere?

[SweetBearCub]

Greetings.

UPS will be delivering my Optimus S sometime tomorrow, yay! I'm coming from a Moto Q9c and an HTC Touch Pro 2, which both have very good/usable physical keyboards.

Considering that the Optimus S has no physical keyboard, the choice of which soft/on-screen keyboard to use seems to be a very important factor in determining just how enjoyable the phone is to use over the long term.

Is there is a comprehensive (and preferably, regularly updated) site where I can find out what options I have for keyboard input?

Thanks!

 

[vel7wil]

Do a basic search in the forums for keyboards and they will all come up or go to the market and do the same search....im using better keyboard right now and Its pretty good. Allows u to change the skins on the keyboard to match what theme ur using on ur phone

 

[c1phr]

This site was quite useful to me when making my decision, but it is really a personal preference type thing.

Tested: Five Android Virtual Keyboard Alternatives - Tested

Smart Keyboard pro has a trial in the market, and I would highly suggest you look into that one (over better keyboard). Both BK and SmK are very similar, but Smart Keyboard has a trial and a pretty good calibration tool (not sure if BK has this).

Personally for me, I used the Smart Keyboard trial, Thick Buttons, Swype (comes on the v9 OTA update) and SwiftKey for about two weeks before I made up my mind. Thick Buttons is free, and Swype comes with the phone on the first update, and both of those seem to suit one handed-portrait mode typing very well, so keep them around for that.

For landscape mode, SwiftKey works if you are using lots of simple words, so it can guess what you want to type next, but Smart Keyboard can really just get out of your way, and just be a keyboard without you realizing that you actually have a keyboard app downloaded, which is very nice. I just skinned mine with the Android keyboard skin (it defaults to iPhone skin) and I don't even realize that I have it installed.

 

[SweetBearCub]

Do a basic search in the forums for keyboards and they will all come up or go to the market and do the same search....im using better keyboard right now and Its pretty good. Allows u to change the skins on the keyboard to match what theme ur using on ur phone

Thanks. Once I receive my Optimus, I'll check it out, though themes mean very little to me (at least right now) over how accurately/comfortably I can type.

 

[SweetBearCub]

Once my Optimus S is actually in my hands, I'll check out the keyboard apps you've mentioned, and I'll also be checking out the site you linked, thanks! I have a relatively minor (but present, nonetheless) loss of hand/eye coordination from a birth disability, so it will be interesting (to me) to see exactly how well I can adapt to using a soft keyboard full time.

This site was quite useful to me when making my decision, but it is really a personal preference type thing.

Tested: Five Android Virtual Keyboard Alternatives - Tested

Smart Keyboard pro has a trial in the market, and I would highly suggest you look into that one (over better keyboard). Both BK and SmK are very similar, but Smart Keyboard has a trial and a pretty good calibration tool (not sure if BK has this).

Personally for me, I used the Smart Keyboard trial, Thick Buttons, Swype (comes on the v9 OTA update) and SwiftKey for about two weeks before I made up my mind. Thick Buttons is free, and Swype comes with the phone on the first update, and both of those seem to suit one handed-portrait mode typing very well, so keep them around for that.

For landscape mode, SwiftKey works if you are using lots of simple words, so it can guess what you want to type next, but Smart Keyboard can really just get out of your way, and just be a keyboard without you realizing that you actually have a keyboard app downloaded, which is very nice. I just skinned mine with the Android keyboard skin (it defaults to iPhone skin) and I don't even realize that I have it installed.