Keyboard layout is an important factor in making users feel like they have a full touch-type experience. Let’s assume that the keyboard on the Viliv S7 has wonderful tactile feedback, perfect keyboard pitch, and also somehow has ample space for full touch-typing, it still has to have a great layout that makes users feel right at home when typing on the device. While I haven’t yet had my hands on an S7, I can unfortunately report that current pictures of the device show a keyboard which includes a deadly sin of keyboard layouts: the tiny, misplaced right shift-key (see the image at the top of this post). Right off the bat, this will have some people frustrated with the typing experience (myself included).
What can Viliv do to fix this? There are a few simple ways to go about fixing these issues; unfortunately it may be too late process to do anything about it. Taking a page out of the Sony playbook, Viliv could have attempted a chiclet style keyboard. While Sony didn’t come up with the idea, they certainly executed on it well by providing the
relatively small Sony VAIO P [Portal page] with an excellent keyboard which we loved. Chiclet style keyboards allow the user to feel their way around the keys which helps to type without having to look down at the keyboard, even though the area of the keys might otherwise be larger with a standard design. As for the tiny right shift-key, several layouts have found ways around this. The most simple must be cutting the up and down arrows in half, allowing them to fit on one row while allowing the tiny shift-key to be expanded to nearly twice its size and putting it in a position that feels natural to the typee.
I’m afraid to say that without a solid keyboard, I feel that the Viliv S7 will be looked over in favor of a similar device with a larger keyboard such as the Asus Eee T91 [Portal page]. I’m almost certain that it is too late for Viliv to make changes to the S7’s keyboard, but one can always hope right?
I don’t want to put the S7’s keyboard down too much before it is even out of the gate. If you look at it another way, the S7 has an additional input option over both the S5 and X70 which is something to be said in itself. There is a chance that it will work just fine for some people, but there is also the possibility that it will fail to garner main-stream appeal if the typing experience doesn’t meet consumers expectations for a mobile device, which have precedents set by netbook keyboards. Luckily the S7 has strong points going for it even if it had no keyboard at all, including great battery life and portability. I suppose we’ll just have to wait and see how people react to the device that is sure to break hearts while at the same time being the perfect dream machine for someone out there.
If you’ve read through all of the preceding: thank you for sticking with me for a long article about a keyboard!
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Nice article, Ben.
Silly season FTW !!!
Well, it is true that other devices with such a screen size haven’t been exactly the ones with better physical keyboard, but in this case, I think it all depends on what can a design team do with the available space, and it is true that we are used to a certain degree of excellency from Villiv, so the impact on the brand could be big if this doesn’t work.
BTW: mobile theme for iPhone rocks! The things you can do with WP.
Actually, I think part of the biggest gripe with the original 7″ screens was the huge bezel around the screen – wasted space.
It seems the S7 hasn’t learnt that lesson. Either make the keyboard smaller to a commensurate size with the screen, or make the screen bigger.
There are optical illusions you can do by making the screen seem flush with the device thus making the screen seem bigger. Hence less criticism.
The S5 and X70 also dealt with the problem by having useful buttons besides the screen and therefore it is no longer wasted space.
I am using an SX3 with 8.9″ screen. The decvice could easily have a 10″ screen without changing the external dimensions.
The S7 could have an 8″ screen like the Vaio P, and probably even 9″ screen.
Of course this would reduce battery life a bit. But the S7 is no longer my dream device. An S5 with Keyboard or an S9 in the same size shell as the S7 would be better.
Heh. I wonder if that idiot primass still thinks everyone wants pocket sized screens/keyboards
He probably does. I personally would like one like the UMID, shame there are a few issues with it. If it had a full size USB, a mini USB link (like the S5 has) and for me LAN then I could put up with its other failings.
Anyone who has owned a Psion 5, still waits for a proper replacement – the keyboard was that good!
Agree with Vakeros – a UMID or Psion 5 type device would be a dream, especially if it ran Mac OS and was touch enabled. Too much to ask?
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