This is remarkable. What is the best input method for electronic devices? Keyboard? Virtual keyboard? Handwriting recognition? And, how does it compare to good old pen and paper? Phil Gyford’s test is revealing:
I thought that typing on a full-size keyboard would be a lot quicker than the iPhone and Treo than it is, although a real touch-typist could have beaten my 68 words per minute. I’m surprised at how slow Graffiti was for me, particularly when its simplicity was supposed to be a huge benefit over the Newton MessagePad’s ridiculed handwriting recognition. I had no idea how the iPhone and the Treo’s keyboard would compare but they’re similar; I expect someone who uses a comparable miniature hardware keyboard frequently could beat my iPhone time but I suspect neither is radically, objectively quicker than the other.
In summary, it doesn’t matter too much which device you use.