SonyEricsson Chatboard for Ericsson T68 & T300 Phones

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat faster than keypad alone
Review: The chatboard is almost the exact same size as the phone, a little thinner, and about 1/3 the weight. Those Ericsson engineers know how to make things weightless! One bad side effect of being small is that it's a little hard to hold/balance while trying to type fast.

My biggest complaint is that they use rubber buttons instead of the plastic ones on the phone. The rubber buttons have a lot of wiggle to them, so I noticed that I end up using my fingernails to press them rather than just my fingertips as on the phone's keypad. This also causes me to type a little slower since I'm not sure I hit the key correctly. Also the 'Yes' and 'No' buttons are in too dark a color to easily read, but the rest are very clear.

The other weird thing is that the keyboard seems to simply mimic the phone keystrokes, meaning that if you want to type a 'c', you press 'c' on the chatboard and then watch the phone cycle through 'a', 'b', and finally 'c'. The show is even longer when you type something like '!'.

One awesome feature is that even thought the phone is scrolling along at it's own pace, there seems to be a decent buffer so it always catches up to me no matter how fast I try to go.

The keypad is a standard QWERTY setup, so if you're familiar with a keyboard finding a key is fast, but you won't be able to use it like a full keyboard... this is strictly a two thumb, or one finger interface.

One BUG is that I've had the thing go nuts several times repeating zeros or ones till the display fills. And the key wasn't stuck down. Another problem is that sometimes when I type a zero (or maybe two zeros fast), the chatboard types '+' instead.

Overall the chatboard is still faster than using the keypad, even if you learn to use the phone's shortcuts with the volume slider. I'd estimate its about twice as fast. So for those who often need to send mail/SMS via their phone, it's worth it. The price is even right for the occasional chatter who likes toys.

Integration to the phone is pretty good. You can even enter new phonebook entries with it.

The WWW/Attach/Email/SMS fast keys are a little silly, at least in the US? They just start the phone is message mode, and each button adds its own undeletable prefix to your message. Maybe these features are more useful on another wireless service provider?

Some advice: read the tiny instructions... there's a few important key combinations you won't figure out on your own.

Rating:
Summary: Somewhat faster than keypad alone
Review: The chatboard is almost the exact same size as the phone, a little thinner, and about 1/3 the weight. Those Ericsson engineers know how to make things weightless! One bad side effect of being small is that it's a little hard to hold/balance while trying to type fast.

My biggest complaint is that they use rubber buttons instead of the plastic ones on the phone. The rubber buttons have a lot of wiggle to them, so I noticed that I end up using my fingernails to press them rather than just my fingertips as on the phone's keypad. This also causes me to type a little slower since I'm not sure I hit the key correctly. Also the 'Yes' and 'No' buttons are in too dark a color to easily read, but the rest are very clear.

The other weird thing is that the keyboard seems to simply mimic the phone keystrokes, meaning that if you want to type a 'c', you press 'c' on the chatboard and then watch the phone cycle through 'a', 'b', and finally 'c'. The show is even longer when you type something like '!'.

One awesome feature is that even thought the phone is scrolling along at it's own pace, there seems to be a decent buffer so it always catches up to me no matter how fast I try to go.

The keypad is a standard QWERTY setup, so if you're familiar with a keyboard finding a key is fast, but you won't be able to use it like a full keyboard... this is strictly a two thumb, or one finger interface.

One BUG is that I've had the thing go nuts several times repeating zeros or ones till the display fills. And the key wasn't stuck down. Another problem is that sometimes when I type a zero (or maybe two zeros fast), the chatboard types '+' instead.

Overall the chatboard is still faster than using the keypad, even if you learn to use the phone's shortcuts with the volume slider. I'd estimate its about twice as fast. So for those who often need to send mail/SMS via their phone, it's worth it. The price is even right for the occasional chatter who likes toys.

Integration to the phone is pretty good. You can even enter new phonebook entries with it.

The WWW/Attach/Email/SMS fast keys are a little silly, at least in the US? They just start the phone is message mode, and each button adds its own undeletable prefix to your message. Maybe these features are more useful on another wireless service provider?

Some advice: read the tiny instructions... there's a few important key combinations you won't figure out on your own.

Rating:
Summary: Incredible Snap-on Keybord For Ericsson T18 phones
Review: This keyboard is one of the best removable keyboards I've Ever Used. I've used many portable keyboards such as ones for the Palm V and the handsping and none of them come close to the durability, versatility, and compact size of this keyboard.