Comments on: Nokia N97 space bar placement may be best of all QWERTYs

By: Antonio

Antonio — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 21:49:31 +0000

The keyboard is nice, i use it and I can type very fast, even the on screen input is nice, it lets me type with one hand only. I wish this phone had more Ram and a better processor. I almost return the phone when i saw that the flash interferes too much with night shots..

By: Rafael

Rafael — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:13:18 +0000

Agreed. Not only was I first a skeptic about the space bar layout, but I was also afraid it would ruin my QWERTY experience on my newly arrived N97… Anyway after having the phone for 2 and 1/2 days now; my take on the space bar is definitely positive. The learning curve seemed very short due to it’s easy access to my right thumb. I find typing both short and long messages a breeze now. Of course the rest of the layout is not perfect, but it works for me and that’s what matters at the end of the day.

By: Dr.Blind

Dr.Blind — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:53:14 +0000

The worst is N97 lacks a version for those European countries whose languages feature frequent umlauts (ä, ö, å etc).This spoils the device for e.g. us Finns.

By: catkeepr

catkeepr — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:40:02 +0000

Does seem odd that the comma at sign and period require fn key to operate since other keyboards on Nokia phones are laid out the way you suggest (E71x for example). Don't know why they would change the layout on N97.

The soft keyboard on the Omnia i910 also has the space bar on the right side. I thought that was quite odd at first but it actually works out quite well for me. I think this should become standard layout on cell keyboards.

By: RobertH

RobertH — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:29:38 +0000

ps forgot to say im left handed so on friday ill be able to say how it works for a “leftie”

By: RobertH

RobertH — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:28:34 +0000

Thank you for that as i see no issues with just moving your thumb to the right instead of centre (people just complain too much about nothing) i dont own the n97 as yet, but did get to play with it for a bit… so there is no shift key on both sides? that may be my only concern so far….

By: lazy child

lazy child — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 14:07:18 +0000

I always have the impression of using more the left hand when typing on pc. I haven’t found references, but a list of left-only words vs. right-only ( http://www.rickwalton.com/wordplay/wordplay.htm ) and left-only dominate nearly 10 to 1.

For this reason i think that the positioning on right for the spacebar is not an issue for left-handed people, it is arguably the “best” position for qwerty on mobile.

By: jason

jason — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 13:40:37 +0000

good call, i too think having the space bar on the right is a great idea. Shame other reviews did spend a bit more time with it.