SlideIT Keyboard Review: Swype-Like Input for Any Android OS Smartphone

ices predictive input can make.)

SlideIT, though, actually works far better than the competition. Due to its full keyboard, you're giving it a lot more information to work with in figuring out what you're typing. You can concentrate on what you're trying to say instead of fighting with the device.

You also don't have to worry too much about being extremely accurate with your input. I have fairly big fingertips, and even working on the relatively small four-inch screen of my Samsung Epic, I manage to correctly (and quite comfortably) enter text.

Even if your finger isn't perfectly centered on every letter, SlideIT seems good about predicting what you want to say. Sometimes you'll accidentally get "its" instead of "is", but that's life.

Granted, SlideIT is not perfect. For starters, like any predictive input, it's geared strictly towards words, so ent

ering something like a URL, email address, or user name requires you to use it like a regular keyboard. Fortunately, however, this doesn't require you to switch input methods. You simply tap instead of slide.

Punctuation is a bit difficult too, since anything other than a period or a comma requires you to hit a separate button for

 more characters. That's really the biggest annoyance. It would be great to be able to do a question mark without three additional key presses.

The Extras
Of course, SlideIT does more than just predictive input, but the other features aren't too mind-blowing.

The speech-to-text functionality is a nice addition. However, frankly it's not going to outmatch Google's own implementation. You can actually switch to Google Voice input -- but then again, you can do that with the regular keyboard too.

SlideIT Keyboard is also fully skinnable. So if you'd like to add a little more flashiness to your typing, that's an option.

Yet these skins don't extend the option of actually changing available keys -- such as giving yourself question marks without an additional key press -- beyond the alternate keyboard layouts like QWERTZ, AZERTY, DVORAK, etc.

SlideIT's built-in handwriting recognition can definitely come in handy if you're a stylus person, or if you're using an Android OS tablet.