Chat-addicts often have this question before buying a smartphone – “Should I buy a smartphone with a physical QWERTY or go for a full touchscreen one?” To be very honest, it’s always better to go for a full touchscreen phone, for the following reasons.

To begin with, there’s a difference in the form factor. A full-touch phone will give you more screen per rupee, than a touch-and-type smartphone. The latter kind usually has a square orientation screen, and it cannot be emphasised enough on the fact that a square screen is the worst kind when it comes to multimedia consumption. In short, there’s a lot more that one can do with that extra screen space with a full-touch phone that’s available when the on-screen keyboard is not needed.

Moreover, on-screen keyboards also incorporate some of the most interesting technologies. Smartphones with Android Jelly Bean come with a swipe-gesture-based keyboard by default. Sony has been giving this feature away on its Xperia smartphones even before Jelly Bean was introduced. There are also apps such as Swype that one can use for swipe-typing. And having used swipe keyboards, we would definitely say it is one of the fastest ways to type on a smartphone.

However, there is a downside to this technology as well – for new words or names, the words have to be tapped out. Also, a millimetre away from a key can lead the keyboard to predict a totally different word. And it’s not like it takes time to re-swipe that pattern – it just feels a bit tedious. That said, like most other things, practice makes it perfect.

On-screen keyboards also come with great prediction features – if you’ve ever typed out on a BlackBerry Z10 or an HTC 8X, you’d know what I’m talking about. These OS (and manufacturer) features not just suggest the correct word when you begin typing (hence eliminating typos to a large extent), but also suggest the probable words that you might use. So a simple sentence like “See you at home for dinner” hardly takes any time to type out.

Moreover, phablet users who have devices with good stylus integration, can also use handwriting recognition technologies. The Samsung Galaxy Note II is one such device where handwriting recognition works amazingly. Yes, it comes with some minor drawbacks. It takes some time for you to get accustomed to scribbling on the screen, and the device takes its own sweet time to get accustomed to your handwriting. But it’s worth the trouble considering all the other stylus related features that you get with the phablet.

And in the end, one of the main reasons why new users even ask if a physical keyboard is an option is because they are apprehensive about the adaptability levels with an on-screen keyboard. Even for someone who claims to be ‘technologically challenged’ it takes just a few days to get used to the on-screen keypad.

But then again if you must use the QWERTY, you have to use the QWERTY. The tactile feedback is something that bests all the other features, for some die-hard chat addicts. But the options are quite limited – the only good smartphones with physical keyboards are BlackBerry devices.

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