Android, iPhone, Blackberry Storm, Typing and Interface

A few days ago I had a chance to check out a few mobile devices that I have had my eyes on. That is, the top three touch-screen smartphone competitors, the iPhone, Blackberry Storm and the G1. Now, I didn’t exactly get to test these things out for any length of time, but merely got a chance to simply play with them a bit and get a feel for the phones. I’d like to cover a few things here, largely revolving around the interfaces and screens, and largely the ability to type on each phone.

To start with, I had a look at the iPhone, which is unquestionably the top competitor. The iPhone’s screen was very nice – although all three phones had pretty looking displays. It just felt rather good using it over all. The interface was well designed and very intuitive and it doesn’t surprise me that the iPhone is a top seller – it is a nice piece of hardware. Of course, when I went to type on the thing, I could barely form words. It was extremely difficult for me to type anything and I had to be extremely careful of how I was touching the screen. My friend had a different experience, finding it very easy to type with, so your mileage will vary. Still, given that I specifically plan on doing a fair amount of messaging with a smartphone once I get my hands on one, I wasn’t too impressed.

The Blackberry Storm was next. The interface on this one didn’t seem terribly special, but it wasn’t terrible either. The Storm is notable for how its screen reacts when typing – it clicks. When the keyboard is up, you can move your fingers over it and the keys you are over will glow blue. You then press on the screen so it actually does click (luckily it didn’t feel like I was going to break the thing) and you type that letter. I found myself hugely more accurate with the Storm and I was able to type at a decent enough pace, although still fairly slow. The biggest problem I felt that this phone had was that pressing down on keys was just a little too hard. It didn’t take much force, but I could see my fingers wearing out after any real significant use.

Finally, I checked out the G1. The interface on the Android phone felt a little clunky, to be totally honest. It wasn’t terrible, but it didn’t seem as unified or solid as the other two phones. Still, it wasn’t terrible getting around and figuring out what to do with it. I didn’t miss multi-touch much from the iPhone, but I could see a few instances where it would be nice. While it is bigger for it, the physical keyboard on the G1 is the major selling point for me. I was a little worried how it would feel typing on it, but I was surprised. While I wasn’t nearly as fast as I am with a normal keyboard, I could type outmessages at a pretty good pace without any real worry of hitting the wrong key. I took to it quite well.

So, I still foresee myself picking up an Android, but it was nice to get a feel for all of the phones. I really have no comments on the Blackberry, but if the iPhone got a physical keyboard or something a bit more usable for me, I could actually see myself using one easily enough. The Android wins out as is, but also could use a little more work on the interface, unity, and usability – still, I liked it quite a bit.