I Hate my HD2 Capacitive Screen and Keyboard
I have a Tmobile HD2 and I hate some aspects of the phone. I love the processing power of the phone and I love the size of the screen but here are the things I hate relating to the screen.
I really hate the fact that it does not have a physical keyboard and I hate the capacitive screen. I really miss not having a stylus and I miss having the fine control and precision pressing that I had with the stylus. One place where I really miss this precision and accuracy of the stylus is when I am watching youtube videos and I want to go to a certain time in the video. It is almost impossible to get to that certain time on the capacitive screen with my fingers.
I also miss being able to write down notes on my phone. I miss being in a class or a meeting or just writing a grocery list and quickly pulling out my stylus and jotting things down. Also having a stylus was cool, people were always “Wowed” when I pulled it out and started to write or draw on the screen. I can live with this problem but typing on the screen has me really pissed.
Another thing I hate about the capacitive screen is the fact that if there is even a small drop of water on the screen it starts freaking out and going spastic and I can not use the keyboard till I wipe down the screen. This just gets annoying because even if my fingers are slightly wet it is almost impossible to use my screen. I send about 3000 texts a month and use Palringo on my phone almost 24/7 so I use the keyboard on the screen a lot. I thought I would get used to keyboard when I bought the phone but NOPE!!. I miss the physical keyboard and every phone I buy from here on out will have a physical keyboard.
On a side note, someone want to explain the benefits of resistive vs. capacitive screens? I know I can look it up but I would much rather have the readers educate me and tell me I am a moron for hating capacitive screens. 🙂
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I feel your pain with this, I have a lot of trouble make lots of mistakes with the typing on the
all touch screen. I also thought I would have gotten use to typing on it but it only aggrivates me how much I got got to delete and rewrite. My Next phone I want to be one with the physical keyboard too maybe the Dell Venue Pro WP7 device. What do you think about that?
Dell venue pro is my next device too. I am just waiting for tmobile to get the stupid device and for more people to have it. So I can buy it off of craigslist (haha) but yes the Dell venue pro is a great device from what I hear and if HTC does not come out with anything GREAT with a physical keyboard then I am getting the venue pro soon.
I too do miss the resistive screen and the stylus. I feel the resistive screen is way more accurate than the capacitive screen. I wish the capacitive screen would be compatible with a stylus.
They do have a stylus for the capacitive screens but it can not be stored in the device and you have to remember to carry it separate and it looks dumb with like a little hook.
Yeah HTC needs to do something with physical keyboard, or Samsung, I am loving those Super Amoled screens, very pretty. But all in all I want a physical keyboard.
Well, pick one of these Android phones with resistive touchscreen:
LG InTouch Max, HTC Tattoo, Vadafone 845 and the Acer beTouched E110
The LG InTouch Max actually have slideout keyboard.
If it has a physical keyboard then I can live with a capacitive screen. I dont think I will be switching to android anytime soon. I will just wait for a good windows phone with a keyboard.
or get swype. i think NRG cooks them into his ROMs:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=591784
i would not be able to use an on screen keyboard without swype. it is by far the best input method for a phone (minus a real keypad).
also i couldn’t help but lol at the “stylus wow factor” line.
I really thought I would never be able to get used to a capacitive screen and virtual keyboard. That’s one reason I hoarded three (yes, three) Tilt2’s this past summer, preparing for a long period of WP7 discovery (by someone else) any maybe someday a resistive/capacitive screen (the technology already exists) combined with a hard keyboard of course.
But then I played with the WP7 devices on launch day and realized that it was not all that bad. Moving to a new platform, all of my old reliable apps, which could only work with a stylus, were out the window already. So I decided to give the new stuff a try. Aside from the awesomeness of WP7 I have adjusted to capacitive touch and no hard keyboard.
Do I miss not being able to tap between two words in a sentence. Yes I do. Sometimes it takes me 4 or 5 tries but I do eventually get it, or at least get close. I tried one capacitive stylus and it sucked. Going to try the HTC stylus after Xmas (once I get credit for the stuff I returned) but the tip looks huge so I don’t know how much use it will be. While I am still only at about 75-80% accurate with the vertical virtual keyboard, when I turn to horizontal I bet I am in the high 90’s with almost no errors, so I honestly don’t miss the hard keyboard that much, but still wouldn’t mind having one. It’s not a show stopper for me though. Not anymore. I sort of have mixed feelings about the resistive/capacitive screen technology. For example, I really like that now I can clean my screen anytime without putting the phone to sleep. And I don’t have to worry about my phone turning on in my pocket or case and then the lock screen constantly being woken up by soft presses of my belly or whatever.
So I guess you can say I have adapted. Pure resistive screen are history. The hybrids, that would permit accurate stylus touches as well as things like pinch and zoom are probably right around the corner, but only if there appears to be a demand by consumers for such an animal. And I am not sure if there will be.
Yeah I have NRG rom on my HD2 and I could use swype but that still involves me putting my finger on the screen for long periods of time. Another problem I have with swype is that I dont always type in English. Well, I type in English but i dont type English words and that confuses the hell out of swype as you could imagine.
Yeah i understand where you are coming from Jim, but still I think not having a physical keyboard is a deal breaker for me after my HD2. Yeah I have gotten really used to using the on screen keyboard and I am pretty accurate and fast at it but I do occasionally make the mistakes more than I would want. I also hate how it does take me multiple tries to usually get tap in between two words as you said.
And actually it is funny that you say you dont have to worry about the phone turning on in your pocket and things like that but that is not true. I have had several instances where my phone was in my cycling jersey in a pocket on my back and I forgot to lock the screen and it called someone three times. Similar stuff has happened on a few occasions.
@jimski – that is why i am soo glad to have an optical trackball. even on my htc desire with a fairly large screen, it it still difficult to use my finger to get the cursor between two letters. with the trackball, you just tap the word to get the cursor somewhat close, then dial it in with precision accuracy.
@vikram – swype will remember words once you enter them. i have all the usual slangs saved (f-bomb, s-bomb, etc.)
@ Stefan, Yeah swype will remember them but can u imagine adding a whole new language?? the number of words I would have to add and time it takes for that and if for any reason I have to hard reset or flash a new ROM I am F’ed. lol Yeah track balls or dedicated arrow keys are not that bad either. Both of those options are better than tapping on a screen multiple times just to get close.
@Vikram: With WP7 the screen is always locked as soon as you power down so no chance to forget. Surprising that your phone made calls though. I have tried every which way to wake up/interact with my screen, short of using my finger, and it does not respond. But I did just try your water trick using the tip of a wet tissue and I was able to move the screen all over so I guess you need to sweat less. Ha ha.
Yes, navigation arrows would be very nice.
I’ve gotten past it and am happy to not have to slide out a dang keyboard to type a short phrase. I used to love Swype…now on my Focus I am good with the on-screen KB but nowhere near as fast as I could Swype. I held a Venue Pro today- felt good but I didn’t get enough time to judge the KB…it does look awesome though. But if you want a bigger keyboard, HD7 Pro time. It will have CDMA andGSM bands;)
what I really miss about the Tilt2 keyboard? hold down the Shift key and select multiple emails. Really miss that feature.
Vikram, I totally agree that you should wait for Windows Phone 7. My contract will expire next month so I am getting the Samsung Focus. If you are still lock in a contract, you will probably see a next generation of WP7 devices with much better hardware.
LOL, hate on a capacitive screen? I can see how using WinMo with one would be iffy at best, but on a newer OS like Android, iOS or WP7, capacitive is amazing. I’ll never buy another resistive screen device ever again.
@jimski and Stefan: On WP7, if you press and hold in a text entry area it brings up a cursor that you can drag to the point you want to edit. It’s not perfect but it’s the closest I’ve found to the arrow keys I used to rely on with my Fuze.
I miss the hard keyboard for sure, but I’ve been more than happy with the tradeoff for the slim size. I think WP7’s onscreen keyboard far outshines anything I ever saw on WM.
Try Touch Pal it is from CooTek. I used it on WinMo 6.5 and miss it terribly on WP7. It works one hell of a lot better than individual qwerty keys. Swype means too much time with your finger onthe screen.
I have two phones, one of each. I will say the capacitive is smoother and more predictable than the resistive when you use your finger. However, I actually like my resistive better. It lets me respond to texts, e-mails, or fill and forms by simply writing with the stylus. I can sign my name on documents. I can have small fly-out menus like you have on your PC. I’m not stuck with 3/8″ squares for everything because it can’t use a stylus. I can also use my finger for the 3/8″ squares. I really don’t need a stylus for small things either because you can touch with your fingernail instead of your finger pad. I predict resistive will all but disappear, but will then come back in its current or another form that allows the use of a stylus. The current capacitive situation is like having a 4 dpi mouse on a PC.instead of 800 dpi.