We’ve come to Part III of the SIP Shootout. If this is your first time reading about the shootout, we’d recommend you read through Parts I then II to get yourself up to speed. This week we plan to take an even more in-depth look at what the various SIPs offer. They will be put up to the test and scored accordingly. These scores will be added up in Part IV where we will announce which SIP for which kind of user. If you have yet to vote on your favorite SIP, now would be the bes time to do so because voting will close next Friday, November 23rd 2007.

Stylus Requirement

More and more people are finding it a chore to use their stylus on the Pocket PC. There might come a time when the stylus becomes redundant but until that time comes, we will just have to find our own solutions. In this analysis, we look at which SIPs fair well without the need of a stylus for data input.

1. Transcriber -8
2. Phone Pad (HTC) - 7
3. TouchPal (Cootek) - 6
4. TenGO (TenGO) - 5
5. Easy Keyboard (Eten) - 3.5
5. Keyboard (PocketCM) - 3.5
7. Block/Letter Recognizer - 2
8. Keyboard - 1

Reasons

Transcriber had the biggest area for data input and thus makes it the easiest for one to enter data without the need of a stylus. You would need some fingernail to act as the stylus tip and this was one of our concerns when we considered who should take the number one rank. However, we felt that only the shortest of fingernails (which we assume to be a very small number) would be at a disadvantage and that majority of users would find this SIP the easiest to enter data.

The rest of the SIPs were ranked according to how much space was catered to each key. Whether each key represented one or many letters was not a factor but rather, if you wanted that letter, how much space could you play around with. The surprise might be with Block/Letter Recognizer that had a low rank of 7 and this was because while its entry method is similar to that of Transcriber, we felt that the space allocated was small for such actions.

Quick Messaging Entry

One of the reasons I have a Pocket PC is because I wanted my phone functions integrated with my PDA. And since I send out a lot of email and text messages from my device,it helps when I can speed things up when choosing the contact I want to send the message to. Some SIPs, when entering names in the To field, will bring up a list of name(s) matching the letters you enter. Some do not.

1. Keyboard - 6.5
1. Block/Letter Recognizer - 6.5
1. Keyboard (PocketCM) - 6.5
1. Easy Keyboard (Eten) - 6.5
-. Phone Pad (HTC) - 0
-. TouchPal (Cootek) - 0
-. TenGO (TenGO) - 0
-. Transcriber - 0

Reasons

This was more of a test of what the SIP could or could not do, not how well it does it. In this case, if the SIP could pull up a list of contacts matching the letters entered, it got the points. If it could not, it received none. While we’re aware that you could enter the whole name, then tap backspace to get the same effect, this was a more tedious process and not what we were looking for.

Ease of Use On The Move

Some call it one-handed operation but whatever term you use, it all boils down to the same thing. You want to be able to operate your device with just one hand, such as the case when you are on the move or your other hand is occupied. There are many ways to achieve this state of operation on your device but having the right SIP will go a long way to making it possible.

1. TouchPal (Cootek) - 8
2. TenGO (TenGO) - 7
3. Easy Keyboard (Eten) - 6
4. Phone Pad (HTC) - 5
5. Keyboard (PocketCM) - 4
6. Keyboard - 3
7. Transcriber - 2
8. Block/Letter Recognizer - 1

Reasons

When you talk about one-handed operations, you want a SIP that can that as many things as possible (such as cut, copy, paste) but at the same time, be easy to enter data, so it must have relatively large keys. With this in mind, TouchPal took top spot with its SIP that does just about everything, including shortcuts for web browsing. TenGO came in a close second because it is also has some useful features for one-handed operations but the keys were not as friendly as TouchPal’s. Easy Keyboard from Eten came out above HTC’s Phone Pad because entering data was much easier with a large full keyboard than a number pad.

Keyboard by PocketCM was not ranked as high as some expected because getting to commonly used characters such as ‘.‘ required some tap and hold manoeuvres. The default Keyboard was ranked low due to its small keys. The last 2 ranks was a toss up between the methods that used similar methods for data entry. However, Transcriber took the higher of the two ranks because you could still enter data on nearer the edge of the screen with your thumb while doing something similar for Block/Letter Recognizer was more difficult because of the pre-defined location for numbers and letters.

Accurate Entries

Having a SIP that does it all would not be useful if you could not enter data accurately with it. Many factors can affect this test such as one’s familiarity with a SIP would make it more accurate for faster data entry than another. The saying ‘One man’s meat is another man’s poison’ could be aptly used in this situation but as we are trying to prove this with reason, rest assured that we are able to back up our results.

1. Easy Keyboard (Eten) - 7.5
1. Phone Pad (HTC) - 7.5
3. TouchPal (Cootek) - 6
4. Keyboard (PocketCM) - 5
5. TenGO (TenGO) - 4
6. Keyboard - 3
7. Block/Letter Recognizer - 1.5
7. Transcriber - 1.5

It might come as a surprise to many why Easy Keyboard and Phone Pad came out joint first. One of the reasons is because they have the largest keys which makes it easy taps. The other is that both provide familiarity to something that users have been using for a long time, a keyboard and a numeric pad from a phone. Based on this, we ranked these 2 SIPs as joint first. TouchPal came in third because there were times when a different character from the one that was intended was entered. This could be due to it mapping a lot of characters to one key. Keyboard from PocketCM rounded up the Top 4 because of its smaller keypad compared to TouchPal which makes accurate entry slightly more difficult.

TenGO ranked 5^th because when you wanted to enter accurate data, you had to use the stroke, which can be tricky. Keyboard, with its small keys, came in 6th. Block/Letter Recognizer and Transcriber came in joint 7^th because it need some getting used to to enter the right data.

End Of Round III

We’ve come to the end of Round III. While you could manually add up the scores of the previous rounds with what you have here to see the top ranking SIP, we’re going to take it a step further and recommend different SIPs for different users, based on their needs.

Do check back next week when we announce our SIP recommendations. Again, if you have yet to vote for your favorite SIP, it is still not too late to do so. Let us know what your favorite is and see if others agree with it.

Saturday Series is where we take a component of Windows Mobile and look at it in further detail. It’s reviews and comparisons combined into a series of posts that are published for a month. For the month of November 2007, we look at Soft Input Panels (SIPs) which is how users enter data into their Windows Mobile phone. If you have a suggestion for a series, let us know about it.

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