As I mentioned the other day, I have a whole lot of mini-laptops sitting on my desk at the moment. So I decided that today would be as good a time as any to do a little keyboard face-off.

I’d already kind of decided that of the netbooks I’m using this week the Samsung Go (shown in the bottom of the picture) has the keyboard that feels the best. I like the chiclet-style layout, the keys are comfortable and responsive, and their laid out quite nicely with a large right-side shift key and arrow keys below it. I’d also decided that the Gigabyte TouchNote T1028X (pictured at the top) had the worst keyboard, thanks to its extra-thin punctuation keys for the period, comma, and question mark.

But you know what? The typing test results told a completely different story.

Read the rest of this entry »

You would think that a computer with a full QWERTY keyboard, even one with tiny keys like the Asus Eee PC 701, would allow you to type faster and more accurately than an iPhone with its touchscreen virtual keyboard. But then you’ve obviously never tried typing while in the back of a rally car racing around a track at full speed.

Crave’s Rory Reid decided to give both devices a try while whooshing around a track, and he found it nearly impossible to hit the correct keys on the Eee PC (It looks like an Eee PC 701, but I can’t tell for certain from the video). But the handheld iPhone was easier to use, especially since it features some auto-correct features.

Long story short, I would expect slightly different results if you were sitting at a quiet desk, or even if you were trying to tap out a complete system. But if you happen to be trying to send short text messages or emails when driving, flying, or skydiving at ridiculous speeds, it looks like you might be better off with a cellphone than a netbook.

You can check out the video after the break.

Read the rest of this entry »