As I have found myself playing less FPS games (persistent unlocks and hats to not appeal) my zBoard Merc with it’s dedicated FPS pad has been getting more and more superfluous. The FPS pad, and the resulting lack of a dedicated numpad, was getting in the way more than it was being used. I decided to remedy this by replacing it with a keyboard designed for Strategy and MMO games, the Corsair Vengeance K90. I have been using it for a month or so now so here is the lowdown.
As you might know from my article on the subject I have a physical keyboard on my Android phone, this was something I insisted on when I bought it as typeing on a touchscreen, as we all know, is a pain.
Well 3qubits have tried to change that by designing a new input method aimed at mobile devices. The 8pen.
The best way to understand the 8pen is to have a look at the video on their site, it takes the basc concept from Swype that you don’t lift your finger during a word but takes it further with a system that is based on gestures rather than the absolute position of the keys.
It takes a lot of getting used to, I am still slower on this than I am on the default keyboard after a week of use and much slower than on the physical keyboard, but I am getting faster so who knows? With a bit of practice I might not be insisting on a slide out QWERTY for my next phone.
