Thread: [IGG Live][Slider Keyboard] Keyboard Mod for Moto Z
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chenliangchen is offline chenliangchen
2018-01-30 , 22:39
Posts: 1,478 | Thanked: 9,871 times | Joined on Dec 2008 @ Shanghai / London
#306
Originally Posted by Feathers McGraw View Post
Chen, I've been watching more videos on youtube about your slider mod, to get a feel for how robust the mechanism is. I have to say it looks great in all of the videos!

One thing that surprises me is how in so many of the videos, the youtuber puts the phone on the table and makes like they are going to type on it like a proper keyboard - very few people actually try thumb typing whilst holding it in both hands.

Did most people that came to your booth do that? Were people discouraged from handling it, or has everyone just forgotten how to use a slider? It's bizarre!
This is a nice spot. Actually I had the same question...

The purpose of this keyboard is handheld, like all the previous sliders, it's meant to type with both thumbs while holding in hands, like I did in the CNET video. And the ability to tilt the screen is to make the device a bit like N950/E7 to make a comfort typing angle, and can make it a stand on the table to watch videos. (I always did when I eat at home alone)

But to my surprise, a lot people perhaps the majority somehow thinks this is a mini-PC and complaining about the keyboard being too small for 10 fingers and not as enough key depth as PC keyboard. This even includes some editors from big named websites, such as Android Central. It's quite frustrating as I did tried to make the keys comfortable and make overall as thin as possible, but they expect to have something similar to a PC.

My personal speculation is that iPhone has dominated the market for so long, the real landscape slider that was released last time was around 2011/2012 and there wasn't a single successor since then. People started their smartphone life directly from "all screen" phones, might not have an understanding of how landscape slider works and how to use them.

Plus Moto Z is significantly bigger the last slider, (5.5" compared with 4.3" Photon Q), which may break the boundary of being a "phone" and might belong to "PC" category in their expectation.

I'm not complaining or disrespect them, they have actually brought up a very interesting point of view, which I haven't thought of myself.

And it's to my surprise to see landscape slider now becomes an absolute rarity and niche nowadays, and a significant amount of users don't know how to use them properly. And users started with iphone will probably never know the benefit of a landscape QWERTY and how to use them.

I wasn't at the CES booth all the time, but in my limited time there I have already explained a few times that it's meant for hand held.

Reminds me of a comment from IGG: It's like a vegetarian reviewing a BBQ Joint unfortunately.
 

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