Two thumb typing on the Nokia N97 (or lack of)

The Nokia N97, if you take the time to get accustomed to it, has a pretty decent physical QWERTY keyboard. However, there are times that I need to use the onscreen alphanumeric keypad, like when I’ve only got one free hand or if I simply just want to text with the phone closed.

The latter of “two handed T9” I cannot do because the screen keyboard only registers single keypresses. If you have your finger on one key, it locks out all the others.

This means I cannot type as fast in T9 mode with two hands on the N97 as I can with a traditional physical keypad. This is an issue already raised by 5800 users. But it’s not like the screen itself cannot register multiple keypresses. A video a while back of an app on the 5800 shows what appears to be “multitouch”.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XndW7YlvYjU]

It’s no iPhone, but it’s a start.

I can’t find the download link for that game, but you can sort of try it out “multiple-touch” for yourself – go to the menu and a grid full of apps. With one thumb at one corner and another at the opposite end, you’ll see that the screen registers both keypresses. Depending on the ‘pressure’, you can also control which icon is highlighted (see video below).

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2fs9V1dEbQ]

it’s not multitouch, I’m just wondering if there could be a workaround, like in the first video, to somehow get multiple keypresses registered onto the on screen keypad? Or is that just not possible and the most we’d ever get is selecting the key inbetween the intitial two key presses? (AAS’ Steve Litchfield has already proposed such for the 5800’s QWERTY).

I don’t really know how it works or the limitations imposed – perhaps at least for the N97 it’s in Nokia’s best interest to keep two handed use for the QWERTY and one handed for T9.

What I do know is what I want, and that’s for the next flagship touchscreen device from Nokia to have native support for multitouch and finger gestures.

Also worth noting is the video (from this same post) with versatile multitouch on a resistive screen – until they get to the same feather pressure sensitivity as capacitive, Nokia really needs to switch to capacitive.

Tags: Capacitive, Gestures, multi touch, Multitouch, N97, Nokia, Nokia N97, Resistive, S60, S60 5TH EDITION, Symbian, Touch Screen

Category: 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, S60, Symbian, Video