Just found this design and I think it’s totally awesome. The new super-small switch PG1316M is used to fit 3 rows into such a constrained space.

Wonder if you could even get away with 4 rows of this, especially to somewhat compensate for the lack of thumb keys? I’d personally be interested to try 4 rows even for a more conventional tabletop keyboard.

EDIT: I have accidentally erased the main URL when I tried to upload a picture. Apologies. (Didn’t know Lemmy works this way). Here’s the main URL for this thing: https://www.reddit.com/r/ErgoMobileComputers/comments/1npnj85/btyp_a_mini_pg1316m_switch_keyboard_for_use_on_a/

        • vas@lemmy.mlOP
          3·
          4 months ago

          It doesn’t look too bad on the video actually, check it out. (See the post’s EDIT, I messed it up at first.)

          Depends a lot on your phone size, hand size etc though, I guess. Generally very small keyboards CAN be ergonomic, as far as I’ve heard (also from people with literally diagnosed RSI). How this one objectively fares IDK

          • thejml@sh.itjust.works
            2·
            4 months ago

            I think my hands are fairly normal sized for a guy, and when I turn my 6.1" iPhone11 horizontal and try to simulate this for 10s I can feel my wrists and forearms tighten and get sore. I don’t think I could type on this keyboard for more than 20-30s without RSI pain starting.

  • altkey (he\him)@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    8·
    4 months ago

    In some futuristic dream, I see them (magnetically) rise from the flat surface once keyboard mode is activated and after that getting back to almost no edge with the back cover. We saved enough space making phones thinner, now it’s time to make some use of it, if not for battery size.

    • bear@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      2·
      4 months ago

      I doubt manufacturers want to give people full day batteries. Brand new batteries that are barely adequate are the goal, it creates more pressure for people to get a new phone when their battery wears down a bit.

      • altkey (he\him)@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        4 months ago

        It is true, unless it’s contractes with stated parameters, like for military use, that you can encounter in laptops. There are a lot of rugged chinese phones on the market with pretty good battery life and strong casing, I enjoyed a couple of these, and I’m displeased major brands don’t do them. Having that body with their r&d and long-going updates could be a killer.

  • inzen@lemmy.world
    2·
    4 months ago

    Oh that’s really cool, I’ve always disliked on-screen keyboards. Is there a repo/article/build guide about this keyboard?

    • vas@lemmy.mlOP
      12·
      4 months ago

      None, just use layers. There are 4 keys with a frequency of 0.15% or lower: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_frequency For a text of 1000 symbols, on average, that would be less than 5 of those characters total.

      That being said, the requirements for your muscle memory increases, yes.

      For those that don’t know what Layers are - please google the concept yourself; if I try to write it spontaneously in my own words, the result will be subpar.