good on screen keyboard?

[i_will_not_buy_iphone]

Originally Posted by temp

i literally just want the keyboard that pops up when u go into the phone screen...that would be perfect =[ cant find one tho

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HTC Keyboard (from Touch HD)
the free HTC keyboard package also installs a normal phone keyboard.
So it installs:

- QWERTY Compact (two letters per button, for normal use)
- QWERTY Full (like hardware keyboard, for landscape use)
- Phone Keypad (phone keyboard, landscape and normal)

The Compact and Full version switch as you go from landscape to vertical, but you can't use the compact in ladscape and vice versa. So Compact -> rotate screen -> automatically oges to Full QWERTY.

Quite nice actually.

Problems: A bit sluggish within Opera.

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Fingertouch PRO:

I bought Fingertouch PRO (the freeware version works on X1, but it doesn't look nice) and it's great.
You can set it as your default keyboard, make custom skins and button layouts, etc.
Only negative point is that some buttons are just too small, although you can create a custom skin or make the keyboard bigger via settings.
Installs itself as default on startup (great).

Problems: FN button is too small and you have to click twice for a dot.


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TouchPal:

Nice one. Installs itself as default (great). Everythings fluid, no bugs so far. Goes away nicely in Opera and after a landscape switch.

WOW, this one has it all. Visually stunning, gestures, sentences, easy to learn. etc. really great.

Problems: No landscape resizing, just black bars on the left and right (I think its okay).

[doministry]

I WISH the default keyboard which is implemented by SE on X1i would be bigger.
This is perfect one, considering functionality COMPRESSED on one layout...
All other ones require more than one page for all needed symbols and letters.
This one gives this great gestures to use capital letters etc...

[bloob]

Of the three above, I have found Fingertouch Pro to work best in my Xperia X1. You actually get 5 keyboard layouts in Fingertouch, in both the free and Pro versions:
- full QWERTY (with letter zoom as you type, showing which key you pressed)
- compact QWERTY (2 letters in each key)
- smart keyboard (the keys arrange themselves as you type, so you don't have to move your finger very much)
- Dialpad keyboard (a phone dialpad and symbols pad)
- calculator pad which you can actually do calculations with!

Of the 5 layouts above, I like the compact QWERTY the most and use it mostly in portrait mode. The letter buttons are big enough for fingers, and I do agree that the function buttons at the bottom are pretty small, but I've had no problems pressing them so far. The 'F on/off' key brings up the symbols and numbers, so yes, you'll need extra presses to get to them, but no big thing once you get used it and for quick messages.

Otherwise, I just flip over to lanscape mode and use the X1 keyboard for longer messages or notes. Fingertouch does not appear when you're using the physical keyboard, which is great!

[i_will_not_buy_iphone]

Originally Posted by bloob

Of the three above, I have found Fingertouch Pro to work best in my Xperia X1. You actually get 5 keyboard layouts in Fingertouch, in both the free and Pro versions:
- full QWERTY (with letter zoom as you type, showing which key you pressed)
- compact QWERTY (2 letters in each key)
- smart keyboard (the keys arrange themselves as you type, so you don't have to move your finger very much)
- Dialpad keyboard (a phone dialpad and symbols pad)
- calculator pad which you can actually do calculations with!

Of the 5 layouts above, I like the compact QWERTY the most and use it mostly in portrait mode. The letter buttons are big enough for fingers, and I do agree that the function buttons at the bottom are pretty small, but I've had no problems pressing them so far. The 'F on/off' key brings up the symbols and numbers, so yes, you'll need extra presses to get to them, but no big thing once you get used it and for quick messages.

Otherwise, I just flip over to lanscape mode and use the X1 keyboard for longer messages or notes. Fingertouch does not appear when you're using the physical keyboard, which is great!

At first I thought so too and bought Fingertouch PRO. But then I noticed a small, but *very* little detail about TouchPal Keyboard:

The leftmost (QAZ) and rightmost (PLM) buttons are a bit further away from the edge (damn Sony, why did they design the screen like this). I tested them both (QWERTY) and TouchPal has the better buttons, as they are easier to hit.

The TouchPal also has tabs with:
- 3 keyboards (phone, qwerty, qw-er-ty)
- 1 symbol board (which slides to the left and right, customizable)
- 1 number board
- 10 configurable text snippets, multilanguage fT9 input and
- a navigation/cut/copy/paste board, which is really handy.

And when you enter a symbol, it goes back to the keyboard (the Fingertouch PRO doesn't do this).

So my vote is clearly for TouchPal (also looks better). No problems on X1 at all!!!

PS: You can't skin TouchPal, but you can create your own layouts in Fingertouch PRO.

tldr;
Get the TouchPal software. It'll change your life!