For quite some time now, i am using SE’s P1i. Performance wise, I am content with it’s QWERTY keypad and I’d say going back to a mobile phone that doesn’t have a QWERTY keypad is something I wont do. But ever since my brother brought an iPhone and spent a lot of time to play with it, my views shifted.
When i first tried it, it really took me quite some time to used to it. I made plenty of errors with the iPhone and is largely due to its predictive text input. The touchscreen pad is very small and it is very hard to hit it compared to the physical keypad of my P1i. The good thing about it though is you can fix it with just a software upgrade versus replacing hardware for the physical keypad.
The virtual keyboards advantage is that it disappears when you don’t need it, thus giving you more leeway to use iPhone screen. In most cases, if it conks out, upgrading the software always fixes the bugs.
On the other hand, physical keypad’s advantage is its perceptive feedback. You can feel the keys even without looking. Of course, its very useful when you are driving. You can actually type and send a message without looking at my P1i and that is something I can’t do with the iPhone.
I guess everyone agrees with me that the iPhone needs improvement especially wioth its tochscreen keypad. In hindsight, I think that virtual keys are the way of the future but somehow an iPhone with real keypads could be interesting too.