I didn't miss the point, neither did most of the replies. The ones whom actually use it KNOW its a good layout.
A phone keyboard is not meant for serious writing. That's when you invest in a lap dock, netbook, laptop, desktop etc. Something with a real keyboard.
Gotta respectfully disagree here (with this part: "The ones whom actually use it KNOW its a good layout"). Other people who are using it are contradicting you left and right, and I've got to jump in and agree with them. I have it, I use it, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the physical feel of it, but I too am slightly bothered by the layout. I'm glad you were able to adjust quickly, but as you said, that might be related to your job. Except I spend all day on a keyboard and have for 15+ years - and have no problem adjusting, and will adjust to this too - but initial reaction is that some of the keys aren't laid out properly, like others have said. I'm honestly curious, what does working as a temporary secretary have to do with anything? Do you change keyboards from job to job? Every secretary I know has used a normal QWERTY keyboard (unless you're talking, like, court reporter or something 'different' like that - secretary to me implies office secretary).
Anyway, I'm not using it for serious writing. I'm using it as a phone keyboard. I reply to text, send email, use the browser, search a lot, etc. I'm a coder by day, but I don't code on my phone.
With all that said, as an OG D1 user coming to this phone (which I love) I'm a little annoyed with some of the layout. I miss the @ being its own key, because typing an @ comes up quite a bit (logging into a website, for example) so I would prefer that to be a physical key of its own. Because the only shift is on the left, it's a little awkward to press shift and then 2 for an @ symbol (and I know you can press them one after another, you dont have to hold them, it's still awkward). Exclamation point is just as annoying though it comes up much less often in my day to day. But I can deal with that, I get why they did it, they wanted the number row to act like a normal number row, which would have been fine if they have provided a right shift key. Equals and minus do not need to be their own keys, as they are rarely used in common everyday typing, so there's plenty of room to fit a dedicated @ key.
What really irks me is the position of the quotes key. That has no right being where it is. On a real keyboard, it's on the right, after jkl. It should be there on this, as well. When typing a normal text or email to a friend, that key is the one that slows me down the most. My brain just refuses to accept that the quote is up there on the D4 keyboard. I'm actually downloading a button remapping program today to fix this for myself.
Regarding caps lock, I do use caps lock and have no problem with the key existing, however I also don't like it where it is. I'm about 10:1 more likely to use shift in a normal, everyday capacity, so I would have liked to see caps and shift swapped. Or, even better, put the quotes key where it belongs, and move tab/caps/shift up one. Then it's like a real keyboard, and I don't have to do any brain remapping to switch from a normal computer keyboard to the D4.
I also very, very, very much miss the Alt key. I used to Alt+Left or Alt+Right to quickly move between words/lines, and I used Alt+Backspace quite a bit to delete words at a time instead of having to hold down backspace. Still looking for the equivalent on the D4.
One small pet peeve that I'll get used to after a few more days of typing on it: one of the things everyone said was great about this keyboard was that it was centered, compared to the D1 which was offset because of the arrows. Well, it's not. It's off-center to the left. If you measure from edge of screen to between G/H (the middle of a normal keyboard) it's about 1/8" over 2.5" but if you measure from the right it's about 1/4" under 2.5". Like I said, not a big deal, but a little annoying.
So, there's one other persons opinion. Again, I love love love this phone and am not complaining, just wishing (like many others) that it were *slightly* better as far as keyboard layout goes.
There is a better keyboard. Its the D3. Lol
Heh, better keyboard *layout*, absolutely. Better physical keyboard, not by a mile
My wife's D3 keyboard feels like a caveman built it after a week of using the D4 keyboard. Just like how going back to my D1's keyboard feels like pulling teeth trying to get a sentence out even though it was AWESOME when it was all I knew.
