I did this poll a year or two ago, but more and more high end phones are going touch-only so I want to know what you guys prefer. I’ve never had a touch-only device and I’m hesitant to try. I’m sure I could learn to type quickly, but accuracy is more important to me than speed and the first thing I do when get a new phone is turn off autocorrect. When I type OMGWTFBBQ I don’t want it to change it to ostrich.
Incoming poll.
I was right there with you on hesitancy over touch only keyboards. After a month with the Droid X I can’t imagine ever going back…it’s sooooooo easy on that screen!
I had an Iphone up untill march, then switched to a keypad phone. and miss the touch screen… as they are intelligent they make up for your fat finger mistakes that a real pad dosent. takes up less space makes the phone smaller, being able to flip the iphone sideways to type was awesome, one of the biggest keyboards on a phone then 
hands down want a touch screen board again. Im looking at a few droids now.
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I have both and I use the physical keyboard 90% of the time. Especially if I’m doing any other form of multitasking where I can’t give the phone my undivided attention, I can type by feel on the keyboard but not on the touch screen. Not to mention, my only foray into virtual only was 2 weeks with the first iPhone when it first came out, and my messaging varied between mediocre to downright horrendous when drunk.
What he said ^
I really liked the actual keyboard on my old Samsung and was very hesitant about getting the Droid X with only touch. It only took me 2 days to get used to it though. It works so well and wouldn’t want to go back to a real keyboard anymore.
I prefer an physical keyboard since I like being able to use key combos for shortcuts, cut & paste, etc.
wheres the option for both? touch pro 2 and I love having both options…
The new Droid 2 will have both.
Touch screen keys obviously for me, but I love autocorrect. On the few occasions I want to type some stupid internet meme I just do it and click the little “x” to cancel the autocorrect.
Eventually once you’ve sworn enough and canceled the autocorrect the iPhone will learn your swears and stop changing things like “fuck” to “duck”. BTW, iPhone will not try to autocorrect omgwtfbbq. It simply underlines it because it has no idea what you tried to type. 
auto-correct is a life-saver…it picks up on most of my mistakes. I am faster on my droid than I was on my Palm Centro. I really liked the keybaord on my LG Env though.
Once I started using the capacitive touch screens where I never need to push down, I have gotten really accurate and can never go back. I had treo’s and other phones that had the physical keyboard but now I can never not have a touch screen.
It takes a while to get used to. Also, people I know that have the Droid say they don’t even use the keyboard anymore which may explain the reason its not on the Droid X.
Auto correct is a huge plus and nice but does take some learning. Typing words a few times will add them to the dictionary and you wont get them auto changed again.
I was pro physical keyboard until I started using Swype on my X
Swype is sweet but it makes my Tilt 2 lag for some reason. Also added words were reluctant to pick up
this…
but i have an evo…same shit
A friend swears by Swype on his Evo. I might get to try it on the iPhone soon though:
I was adamant the only thing I would use was a keyboard until I got the iPhone. I was very fast on the old phone. Now, I’m as fast or faster now that I’ve gotten used to the iPhone which I didn’t think would happen. The autocorrect is so good, that is what makes all the difference I think. I’m pretty accurate, and any misses, it will catch (most of the time). With the old phone when I had a miss, I had to go back and fix it myself, which I think gives the slight edge to the touch in my personal experience. I am very fast with both.
I do think typing with one hand was a bit easier on the physical keyboard though, but I haven’t done that as much. I think until you spend serious time with a touch screen phone it will always be something your against.
I haven’t tried swype, think that may be a good solution to the one finger method, although it is hard to believe it will really make me any faster, must have great algorithms. I think it would be more awkward to use…
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IME, phones that have both typically have pretty shitty virtual keyboards which promotes this type of reliance on the physical keyboard.
Jeeze if an old codger like walter prefers touch…
Fry you just need to get an iPhone, realize how awesome it is, then you can stop with all your iHate in every thread that mentions the iPhone.
I just want to add that I’m far quicker and more accurate using the landscape keyboard. Thankfully almost every app supports landscape keyboard mode now.
Naw I’ll never stop that 
Besides I’m about to leave AT&T. After a year of trying to love it I’ve conceded that Symbian sucks and I may replace my Nokia with an Incredible or something.