Review: Vaio UX180P keyboard

Find out how the UX180P’s keyboard stacks up in this third installment of the feature-specific review series.

The consensus about the UX keyboard is that it’s handy for typing out short emails and URLs, but relatively useless for anything beyond that. It’s true that no one will type their thesis or the great American novel on it, but a micro PC (or anything designed for mobility) isn’t designed for such tasks anyway. Contrary to what naysayers seem to suggest, the goal of UMPCs and other handtops is not to obliterate the desktop and notebook market. Likewise, Sony does not intend to destroy the sales of full-size keyboards with the 64 mini keys (8.6mm pitch, 0.15mm stroke) built into the UX.

Usability
The most important feature of any keyboard is, of course, its function. I decided that the only way to find out how the UX really compared to other keyboards I use regularly was to take a typing test. So I headed over to TypingTest.com and took their 3-minute "Fishing in Finland" test on keyboards that really were designed for writing the great American novel to determine my speed (expressed in words per minute, or wpm) and accuracy.

Sony Vaio GR390 results
Net speed: 86 wpm
Accuracy: 91%

Apple iBook results
Net speed: 83 wpm
Accuracy: 93%

Think Outside Bluetooth results
Net speed: 73 wpm
Accuracy: 88%

And then came the fun part: finding out how the UX180P measured up to its older and bigger siblings. The results? Not too impressive. I took the test every day this week to determine whether practice makes perfect. It doesn’t. Practice makes improvements, but definitely not perfection.

Monday
Net speed: 22 wpm
Accuracy: 77%

Tuesday
Net speed: 29 wpm
Accuracy: 92%

Wednesday
Net speed: 28 wpm
Accuracy: 91%

Thursday
Net speed: 30 wpm
Accuracy: 94%

Friday
Net speed: 31 wpm
Accuracy: 96%

Although the keys are small, they don’t require pinpoint precision to work correctly. Adult thumbs are obviously much larger than a single key, but with practice, hitting a key adjacent to the intended one happens rarely. This is likely to do with the keyboard’s spacing.

StickyKeys
During the first few days with my UX180P (who I finally named Violet, by the way), I was really disappointed by the unusability of the keyboard, which was partly responsible for helping me choose between the UX and other UMPCs. I could type so much faster, more accurately, and more comfortably on my PDA, a Palm Tungsten C (with no Java support, though, I couldn’t take the typing test). And look at how much smaller that keyboard is!

What the UX was sorely missing, I determined, was a "shift" key on the right side of the keyboard. How else could I capitalize any letter on the left side? There was simply no way I could hold down the "shift" key with my left thumb and then stretch my right thumb all the way over to the other side just to get an "A" instead of an "a." It was ridiculous.

I posted my woe at the wonderful Handtops forum and was quickly enlightened by a member who mentioned the ever-lovely StickyKeys. Turns out that the solution to my problem was already a built-in feature of Windows. Amazing!

Design
There’s no question that the keyboard is well built, nicely protected by the UX screen, and very pleasing to the eye,

especially when compared to the ugly keyboard on the Tungsten C.

Looks aren’t everything, though, as the Tungsten’s "protrusions" are much easier to press. Since the UX keys are nearly flush against the unit, touch-typing is pretty impossible. Being forced to look at the keys really impacts speed, as you can see from my test results.

On the other hand, at least I can type in the dark!

Conclusion
I guess I won’t be writing these long posts on my UX, but according to this website, I’m only a few weeks away from meeting the basic minimum typing standard!