The idea of having a hardware keyboard for IT was very much debatable on this forum prior to n810 release with about 50/50 split between users.
I was sceptical myself, until I tried and used the keyboard for a while. And it turned out to be a very useful and much missing feature.
HOWEVER, the implementation as it turned out to be is far from perfect. Here is why:
1 [-] As many pointed out, each individual key is sitting too close to each other and hard to distinguish from each other by your fingertips.
2 [-] The keys are flat and hard to press quickly.
3 [-] The keyboard is asymetric - the round navigation button takes 20% of the valuable keyboard space - you end up having less keys that are jammed together, AND not having the navigation round button next to the screen ruins web browsing or e-book reading experience alltogether. You have to have the keyboard open for navigation whether you like it or not.
4 [+] Having keyboard is very convenient and addictive! And I think the keyboard should become an integral part of IT.
5 [-] Typing long messages on asymetric keyboard will eventually give you carpal syndrome - guaranteed.
6 [-] Personally, I want to see keys for '|', 'Alt', and '`' since with have XTerm as a standard utility application.
7. It would be cool to have a couple of function keys as well so that applications can assing custom actions to them.
8 [-] Integration of hardware keyboard gets in the way of on-screen keyboard with that horrible 'shift-notifies' black back that is so annoying and takes so much of the screen realestatet. I know that you can disable it via Settings, but as of today, this setting is flaky and some applications manage to restore it! If you absolutely need to have convey that information to the user, then use a half-empty Task navigator area. Show the mode of the functional keys there. Better yet, provide a clean API (unless I missed it) to the application developers so that they can embed that information in their own toolbars. As for the 'word completion', it you absolutely have to show it, then make it transparent so that the entry dialogs are not jammed and resized all the time.
9 [+] I like the way keyboard slides out and feels well-attached to the unit. And I appreciate very much the fact that an addition of the keyboard raises the unit above, making it easier to read from it (it gives greater degree of view angle you can adjust to).
The bottom line: I praise Nokia hardware engineers for taking a step in the right direction. The implementation, however, needs more thought and work and I hope that we will get a better keyboard (and perhaps a better GPS chip) with n900.
I Hate the keyboard! The force required to depress the keys is WAY too high. I just measured it: 10.3 oz for the n810, vs 6.5 for my Samsung. Keys that touch each other = typos. No "nubs" on the keys = typos.
Somebody at Nokia really STP on this ...
I use it when I have to - it's handy for ctrl-c , ctrl-v.
I'm becoming used to it. Initally I disliked it but like everything I found what works for me and that's to type only with the index finger of one hand rather than trying to use both hands. I can type fairly quickly now on the unit and don't have any issues with the keyboard being close to the top of the unit as mentioned previously.
I do, however, have issue with the sliding mechanism. I have had my N810 for about a month now and two of the keys are scratched by the top half rubbing against the keys when it slides back and forth.
I really like the keyboard, it's useful for writing emails, and a lot better than using a touch screen (like the ipod touch). People who haven't seen the n810 are blown away by the flip down keyboard.
Yes the keys are close together, but that's the compromise between form and function. I get a few typos, but i have sausage fingers (i'm sure I'd get more with a touch screen)
I do agree that the navigation key should be on the main unit, but I barely use it anyway.
I love the keyboard, which surprised me coming from my Palm background. I think it's properly sized (I hated the keyboard on the treo's) and subdued tactile response hasn't really been an issue.
It's certainly not perfect for everyone, but I use it all the time.
I like the keyboard, particularly that it works where the on-screen one does not. However, I have a lot of trouble when writing comments and the like. Somehow, I often end up with the cursor shifting to the Submit button thanks to those arrow keys, and it always happens when I am about to press Enter. Not fun. Then again, I think the web browser is partly to blame here; selecting items via the arrow keys is rather unnecessary here (really only works in a text-based browser), and should be made trickier with large text fields.
The keyboard saving screen space is pretty good, too. As well as just giving me more room to see while typing, it also makes the autocompletion far easier since the suggestions are not replacing an existing key and are easily thumb-sized.
That said, I really like the on-screen thumb keyboard. Too bad it takes so much fiddling for it to appear, but it's great to type with thanks to the key spacing. Even the writing recognition is growing on me, although it is pitiful compared to CellWriter. (By the way, I just ran CellWriter by tunnelling X over SSH and it fits perfectly, although this window manager doesn't seem to understand its setting of struts. May just by the X tunneller's fault. Has anyone tried compiling it for the NIT?)
Trying it out today (first time seeing an n810 in the wild and I saw it at MicroCenter). The keyboard is surprisingly small (and I found it hard to type). Though I was also suprised that it was notably smaller then the n800.
I do NOT hate the keyboard, but I do not like it either. I use the onscreen keyboard 99% of the time, and use the keyboard when I have to use the dpad, i.e., the keyboard would NEVER be called on to duty by itself, except when it is already out by coindence. I am not quite sure I got my point across, let me repeat........
My biggest problem is that its actually too long to thumb type effectively. All that other stuff people have said goes too, but it gets quickly uncomfortable to type using thumb-style because its a little long. Also I end up crossing over my fingers (then I really can't see what I'm doing) when "two-keying" some FN/CTL key combos, etc due to the fact that the FN and CTL keys are only on one side of the keyboard.
I wish that the | key and TAB keys were there though. I have to use xmodmap to get that function right now. Who decided the yen and Euro deserved a permanent spot rather than TAB?
That being said, its decent enough given the space they had to put it into.
