QWERTY is pretty much the king of smartphone text input. But there’s a new challenger on the horizon. It’s called Swype, it works with one-hand input and, yeah, it is pretty fast.
Yes, the first thing you may notice is that Swype technically uses a QWERTY layout. But instead of pushing each key individually, you drag your finger from letter to letter.
It’s tough to tell if the speed gains are legitimate, given this video has been created by the Swype camp. I will say, however, given that this demo is one hand vs two, the technology certainly holds its own. What do you think? Would you be willing to part with traditional QWERTY to spell words through nonsensical doodles?
Swype will debut in Verizon’s Samsung Omnia II arriving early next month before making its way to an unnamed Android phone next year. [Swype via TechCrunch via http://www.ohgizmo.com/2009/11/24/verizons-samsung-omnia-ii-to-be-first-to-sport-swype-text-input/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Ohgizmo+%28OhGizmo!%29]
Will Barrows
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 7:26 AMThere is already an app. for the iPhone called ShapeWriter that does the same thing. I think the video shows the speed fairly, what it doesn’t show is the corrections you often have to make when a doodle could represent multiple words. There are some words I just can’t obtain without typing!
Nathan
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 8:57 AMI can text qwerty faster than the swipe video guy anyway.
Heinz
Wednesday, November 25, 2009 at 3:23 PMThe two-finger approach to typing on the iPhone in this example is too awkward, uncomfortable and slow for me. I can type just as fast with one finger on my iPhone as the Omnia – the only difference is I’m lifing my finger between each character instead of swiping across. The swype concept is clever, but I think the comparison could have been executed differently.
Keagan Watkins
Thursday, November 26, 2009 at 4:53 PMPoor. It’s clearly an ad geared to show off Swype. While it looks impressive, it would likely be a hell of a learning curve, and doodles would represent many words and get confused.
I thought it was a bit cheeky that the iPhone user clearly types at a consistent pace of two letters per second, while the Swype demo user was madly flicking his finger around the touchpad… Convenient.
I’m with Nathan, I can type much faster on the iPhone keypad, especially with it in Landscape mode, which Swype probably doesn’t have…
stayounique
Wednesday, December 15, 2010 at 9:34 AMIt does have Swype on the Landscape mode.