Smartphone Thoughts: Plugged In with the Samsung i320 Smartphone

Figure 7: Samsung put some serious thought into this keypad. Pay close attention to the white line that surrounds the numbers on the keypad. They make it very easy for right or left handed people to push the dial pad keys during one-handed operation.

One of the key features of the i320 is its keyboard - all 37 keys. You'll be happy to know that all 26 letters from the alphabet are included, along with the standard 10 numeric keys. As one would expect, you'll find a backspace key, an enter key, a function key which will allow you to enter the value on the top half of the key and a shift/caps key. You'll also find 4 other special keys, all of which can be found along the bottom of the keyboard. There's a dedicated messaging button which will launch Outlook Mobile from any screen. The remaining 3 keys will only work under certain circumstances. The 123 key allows you to toggle input methods and this is only available when you're on a input field. The key to the right of that has a picture of paper with an arrow pointing up on one side of it. This key will pop up the input type menu allowing you to select symbols or even T9. When you press and hold the last key, the device will toggle your profile between the current profile and silent. This is a great way to quickly flip your device into silent as you enter a meeting. For whatever reason, it only works from the home screen.

That's all pretty standard stuff. What makes this keyboard so amazingly easy to use is how Samsung decided to layout the numeric keypad. In figure 7 you can clearly see a small white line around the E and R keys. Pushing either of these two keys will be accepted by the phone as the number 1. The same goes for the rest of the numbers - T or Y are considered number 2, U or I are considered number 3, and so on. So, if you're working the Start menu and need to push number 7 to launch your favourite calculator, you can push either X or C on the keypad. It works anywhere you would expect to use a numeric value. So if using SmartDial, or calculating the tip you should leave for your waitress at McDonalds, or maybe you feel like entering Pi to the 30th decimal place - you know, just for fun, then you'll love this feature. I'm sure all the lefties out there are applauding this decision too because it makes using the numeric buttons on the phone easy regardless of your hand preference. I never felt right dialing on the Q because the numeric keypad was shifted to the left side of the device. So your thumb had to stretch all the way across the device to push the numbers. Samsung has effectively centered the keypad making it a breeze for everyone to use.