You will have seen the pictures of the Lenovo MID recently and wondered why it has the numeric keypad instead of a ‘real’ keyboard. The reason is that numeric keyboard input is popular in Asia and they prefer it to the two-thumbing method that would be required on something like a Gigabyte MID or even a Blackberry. It makes a lot of sense when you think about it. One hand, easier to learn, smaller keyboard, more mobile. I use T9 a lot on my mobile (my old 6280 is far faster than my N82 for this) and although I can’t type blind, I’m not far off.
Dotsix, over at Symbian-Guru, has written a great article about why T9 is better than a QWERTY keyboard. The article is phone-focused of course but it’s worth thinking about.
Unfortunately, MIDs are generally too heavy and simply the wrong shape for one-handed use and I’m wondering how well it will work on the Lenovo. It appears that you’ll still need two hands. The right hand to type and the left to steady the device. Also note that blind typing only works on physical buttons as you continually feel and adjust your position on the keypad according to physical feel.
