My very first phone had a physical keyboard, and I’m as nostalgic for them as the next person. But after spending time with both the Minimal Phone and the Unihertz Titan 2 this year, I’m surprised to learn that I now prefer to keep my keys virtual.
Virtual Buttons Are (Surprisingly) Easier to Press
In the days when I chose the Samsung Alias as my first mobile phone, the options were vastly different. If you didn’t have a phone with a physical keyboard, then you were typing out words on a keypad using T9. I had friends who could text under their desks by feel alone, but that was never me. T9 involved pressing the same number several times to switch between letters, and that felt like wasted button presses. I wanted a keyboard.
The landscape today is completely different. Physical keyboards aren’t up against what we now consider dumbphones. They’re up against phones with touchscreens that have become incomprehensively responsive after decades of incremental iterations.
Virtual buttons are fast and easy to press—easier, I find, than physical keys. And that’s only the beginning.
I Can Position the Keyboard Where I Need It
I don’t have big hands, but I do have particularly long fingers. As a result, where my thumbs rest when I pick up a phone may be slightly higher than where the average person’s thumbs do. When typing on a virtual keyboard, I find it helpful to drag the keyboard up slightly so that it’s a little further away from the bottom of the screen. If I’m using my S Pen, I sometimes shrink the keyboard and drag it to the right-hand side.
On phones with physical keyboards, the keyboard tends to go right up to the bottom edge of the phone. While this isn’t an apples-to-apples comparison, since QWERTY phones tend to have a different shape and fingers don’t necessarily land in the same spots—the keyboard is still lower than my thumbs like. Unlike with a virtual keyboard, I can’t lift the keyboard to a more comfortable height.
I Can Configure the Keyboard to My Needs
In the days when keyboard-equipped phones were more commonplace, but the software was largely the same, keyboards were a way to decide which phone you liked best. You could pick up several phones and type out a few words, then go home with the device whose keyboard felt most comfortable to you.
These days, there just aren’t that many options to pick from. The two devices I named upfront aren’t the only two to decide between, but they aren’t joined by many others. And considering how different these phones are, it’s not like you can choose between them based on their keyboards alone.
With a virtual keyboard, this isn’t an issue. I can buy any phone (or at least any Android phone) and configure the virtual keyboard to my tastes. I can adjust whether there is a separate number row or whether special characters are visible at all times. I can decide if common punctuation, like the period, requires its own button. On larger devices, I can even, opt for a split keyboard or a floating one. The latter is sometimes helpful when I’m swiping across the keyboard using my S Pen, so my movements don’t need to travel as far. Then I can switch to the former when I’m ready to put down my pen.
There’s so much modern virtual keyboards can do that I don’t realize I take for granted until I try a phone that doesn’t have one. You can even swap out your virtual keyboard for a free alternative without breaking your phone.
Auto-Complete and Suggestions Are Baked In
Virtual keyboards take as a given that you’re going to make typos, so the top row is dedicated to suggested words. As long as you type something close to the word you have in mind, the keyboard will autocorrect your typing, or you can tap the desired word.
Physical keyboards don’t suddenly lead to error-free typing. In fact, my typos went up as I tried to adjust to a completely unfamiliar keyboard. But unlike on a virtual keyboard, the suggested words now appear on-screen rather than as an extension of the keyboard itself.
While this doesn’t require the hands to travel further, it does require a complete shift in sensations. I must stop typing by feel and pressing with the tips of my fingers before reaching up to tap a screen with the pad of my finger instead. I don’t doubt that this can start to feel second nature to someone who commits to one of these phones long enough, but it remains an inherently more disjointed experience than having it all virtual.
Emojis Are Part of the Keyboard
A younger me might judge what I’m about to say, but emojis have become a key part of how I communicate. I’ve worked remotely my entire career, and a smiley face is often the easiest way to convey my tone. Slack isn’t a novel—I don’t have the space to set the scene nor complete control over the characters involved. I’ll use whatever shorthand I can to indicate that I don’t mean the words I’m saying in a curt or sarcastic way. Far from appearing childish, using emoji at work is a good thing.
Virtual keyboards have an emoji button baked in. When you tap this button, emoji appear where the characters usually do, so our fingers don’t have to travel from where they already are.
This is so convenient, it’s part of the reason I prefer sticking with my virtual keyboard rather than pulling out a Bluetooth keyboard, where emoji are suddenly much less accessible. People who regularly use stickers and GIFs have even more reason to stick with a virtual keyboard over a physical one.
From my experience over the past year, physical keyboards have felt more like a hindrance than a gift. I am someone who often writes thousands of words per day directly on my phone. While that may sound like a QWERTY phone would be a logical investment, I’m surprised to discover that I’m far more prolific without one. But maybe that shouldn’t be a surprise at all, considering I increasingly even choose a virtual keyboard over a full-sized Bluetooth one.
