Swype vs iPhone: Typing Speed Test

Do you remember using T9 Predictive Text on your first cellphone (2.5 billion phones have been shipped with T9 Predictive Text)? We all do! The creator of T9 has created an all new typing system called Swype. It’s debut is on the Samsung Omnia II (Windows Mobile, ouch) and instead of physically pressing down on the keyboard, you just swipe your finger over a combination of keys.

Below is a video comparing “Swypeing” vs typing with the iPhone keyboard. Watch the video below to see the winner:

While the video does make it clear that the Swype system “beat” the iPhone typist, there are a couple things to note. The Swype user seemed to be going at veteran speeds, while the iPhone typist looked like a complete iPhone n00b. I typed the exact same paragraph out for comparisons sake, and I demolished the Swype interface by the time the video reached the 46 second mark with 100% accuracy. 😉

Try it for yourself! Press play above, wait for the guy to say “Go”, then type out the following paragraph:

Hi, this is Swype. A new way to type. Just make a reasonable effort to trace through the word and Swype will do the rest.

How did you do?

Nevertheless, Swype is a very interesting and unique typing concept! I can see this catching on and being widely used everywhere, with limitations (it’ll be coming to Android in early 2010). There is a core group of business suits that can’t relent from their physical QWERTY keyboards. iPhone users who type frequently will realize their typing is actually faster than Swype. It will be a core group of users who want to type “different”.

What do you think? Will Swype take the mobile world over?

[TechCrunch]

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