Your Droid Physical Keyboard

[solar]

I had no idea there were some that were flatter! :icon_eek:Mine says 39/09, I got mine the first morning when they opened. Mine are kinda bubbled as well. Thats so weird. NO wonder I thought the "keyboard blows" talk was a little out of porportion. I came from an Env Touch, so they keyboard took a bit of getting used to, but I love it.

 

[prowakeskater]

hey guys, I think I have an accurate theory regarding the "raised" keys. Ive had two droids so far, and both HAD flat keys. I have noticed that the more Ive used them, the more raised they've become.

Some people nearly never use their physical keyboard. You'll notice that their keys will most surely stay flat. But once you start primarily using it you should notice them "evolving" into nicely rounded shape that allows for faster performance.

Droid continues to amaze

 

[Milindroid]

my keyboard is flat. no raised keys.

 

[RacecarBMW]

hey guys, I think I have an accurate theory regarding the "raised" keys. Ive had two droids so far, and both HAD flat keys. I have noticed that the more Ive used them, the more raised they've become.

Some people nearly never use their physical keyboard. You'll notice that their keys will most surely stay flat. But once you start primarily using it you should notice them "evolving" into nicely rounded shape that allows for faster performance.

Droid continues to amaze

Thats what I thought but like some one said what are the chances all the keys are going to get pressed enough.

Also is it just me that thinks the flat keys LOOKS better than the raised ones?

 

[Snowbomb7]

I got mine on 11/14/09. My build number is 39/09. I wish mine were raised

 

[Ghostwheel]

hey guys, I think I have an accurate theory regarding the "raised" keys. Ive had two droids so far, and both HAD flat keys. I have noticed that the more Ive used them, the more raised they've become.

Some people nearly never use their physical keyboard. You'll notice that their keys will most surely stay flat. But once you start primarily using it you should notice them "evolving" into nicely rounded shape that allows for faster performance.

Droid continues to amaze

That theory has been proposed and disproven before in these threads. Side-by-side photos of flat and raised keyboards on brand new Droids have been posted. There are two variants, and it has nothing to do with bubbling after prolonged use.

 

[kevind]

Anyone else having problems with their physical keyboard? I am starting to have to press down really hard to get the keys to work.

 

[NoKz]

Mine are raised. I thank it goes like this...If you got a Droid when it first came out (That Day), Your keys are raised. After like 2 weeks when it launched, they started shipping flat.

Here's some more info on my phone.

NoKz
Purchased: 11.15.09
Mfg. Build Date: 44/09
Keyboard: Raised

Co-Worker
Purchased: 11.6.09 (Launch Day)
Mfg. Build Date: 41/09
Keyboard: Flat

His phone was obtained on launch day and has an earlier build. Yet my phone with a later build and purchase date has a raised keyboard. So your theory can't be true. Probably the best bet was they had a manufacture that couldn't produce as many raised keyboards as needed in time.

So they went with a second source who could produce flat keyboards in mass quantity. Resulting in 2 keyboards available during the install process that were installed randomly by a machine who could not differentiate between the two types. Which would mean, no obvious pattern to installation of the keyboards.

 

[Audiophile]

Wow I'm just now learning about this... and as far as the "typing more produces raised keys" theory I'm going to have to test that out.

 

[nod2mybeats]

I really wish I'd never opened this thread.

I just got REALLY good with the flat keyboard even though everyone said it wasn't possible and it was just a fail. But no, I'm faster- and far more accurate- on my flatty than with swype. And now I learn of this nonsense. Pssshaww. Now I'm frothing at the mouth for a raised keyboard. Great.

ETA: I'm in the minority of Dorks whom just today learned that I have a physical question mark key. I saw it and I literally was staring at it, intensely, unsure if I was seeing things for about fifteen seconds before I pressed it. Then I realized, damn. It was such a pain to close the screen press "?" then open the screen for 2 months. I feel so blind.

 

[koralyne]

ETA: I'm in the minority of Dorks whom just today learned that I have a physical question mark key. I saw it and I literally was staring at it, intensely, unsure if I was seeing things for about fifteen seconds before I pressed it. Then I realized, damn. It was such a pain to close the screen press "?" then open the screen for 2 months. I feel so blind.

AHHAH!!! I KNEW it wasnt just me!!!

hey guys, I think I have an accurate theory regarding the "raised" keys. Ive had two droids so far, and both HAD flat keys. I have noticed that the more Ive used them, the more raised they've become.

Some people nearly never use their physical keyboard. You'll notice that their keys will most surely stay flat. But once you start primarily using it you should notice them "evolving" into nicely rounded shape that allows for faster performance.

Droid continues to amaze

That theory has been proposed and disproven before in these threads. Side-by-side photos of flat and raised keyboards on brand new Droids have been posted. There are two variants, and it has nothing to do with bubbling after prolonged use.

How does that explain that i had flat keys, and then they bubbled? i only noticed because some of the keys i didnt use all the time (the right sight alt, shift etc keys) were pretty flat when i started noticing my keys were bubbling.

 

[Ghostwheel]

hey guys, I think I have an accurate theory regarding the "raised" keys. Ive had two droids so far, and both HAD flat keys. I have noticed that the more Ive used them, the more raised they've become.

Some people nearly never use their physical keyboard. You'll notice that their keys will most surely stay flat. But once you start primarily using it you should notice them "evolving" into nicely rounded shape that allows for faster performance.

Droid continues to amaze

That theory has been proposed and disproven before in these threads. Side-by-side photos of flat and raised keyboards on brand new Droids have been posted. There are two variants, and it has nothing to do with bubbling after prolonged use.

How does that explain that i had flat keys, and then they bubbled? i only noticed because some of the keys i didnt use all the time (the right sight alt, shift etc keys) were pretty flat when i started noticing my keys were bubbling.

On the other hand, maybe there are indeed two distinct keyboard phenomena occurring here. The raised keys on brand new Droids have been documented in posted photos. Can you put a photo here of your keyboard with the bubbled-from-use keys shown clearly?

I wouldn't doubt that the keys can bubble or otherwise get damaged by extended use, like a lot of electronics with membrane keypads. My microwave has a membrane keypad, and most of the keys on it started bubbling and then even tearing and peeling off (like blisters) after a while. I think it comes from using fingernails to press the keys instead of the pad of the finger. When my wife borroed my Droid to send an email, I cringed when I saw her using her fingernails to type on the physical keyboard.

 

[dave.cox]

Raised and flat keyboards

Once upon a time, I worked for Motorola, and I would be willing to bet that the raised keyboard was the original keyboard that Moto designed for this phone. I would also be willing to bet, that about the time the phone started shipping, Moto was already in the cost reducing mode, and the keyboard got cost reduced to the flat one. I have seen this type of thing so many times at Motorola. Of course this is pure conjecture, but...

 

[Abadus]

Interesting post

I was trying to decide between the Eris and the droid. Went into a Cell phone store (meaning many different carriers) and looked at the droid. The keyboard was FLAT and hard to use. It was a POS and I decided there that I was going to order a Eris online because I would not be using the keyboard on the droid. (the phone I used was a demo model)

So on the way home we drove by a verizon store and wanted to see if they had a deal on the droid. They could not beat wirefly but the salses woman had a live working droid to try out. This droid had rounded bubbled keys that were much easier to press and use. So that changed my mind. We had concluded that this was a new phone so they keys were nice and that the other droid must have been beat up from being the demo model.

Well thankfully my droid from Wirefly was the newer version. Raised keys and I use the physical keyboard a LOT. I have had it for about a month and a half. It has the newer build date. 44/09 under the battery.

 

[SorenW]

Is the Droid with the raised keys the same model mumber as the flat keyboard?