Most Android phones use virtual keyboards, however, for most users it is still faster to type with a physical keyboard. Traditionally, BlackBerry has dominated that physical QWERTY keyboard. However, in particular, the Droid Pro and HTC EVO Shift Android devices are increasing in popularity among fans of physical keyboards. One of the best things about the Android operating system is how flexible it is, allowing you to customize your phone exactly the way you want. The same goes for the keyboard, which is an important part of your phone as you will be using it frequently for texting and emailing. These innovative applications are designed to increase typing speed and accuracy on virtual keyboards. Many users of virtual keyboards will argue that with the help of these applications they can type just as quickly and accurately as users of physical keyboards.

Recommended Androids with QWERTY keyboards:

• HTC EVO Shift 4G by Sprint (4-line slider touch keyboard)
• Droid 2 by Motorola from Verizon (slide-in touch keyboard)
• Verizon Motorola Droid Pro (Full QWERT Keyboard)

Entry level Androids with QWERTY keyboards:

• T-Mobile Motorola Accessory

Here are the six most popular keyboard apps that you can add to your phone:

1. Strong punch – enter your text by sliding your finger across the keyboard in a single stroke (first letter to last). The app then predicts the word based on the keys you passed. The swipe motion is faster than touching each letter. Swype is reasonably accurate and can usually predict your word, even if you miss an odd letter. This adds a unique and fun feature to your phone and can be very quick after you’ve had some practice, although you’ll probably need a bit of practice to get it right. This app is pre-installed on the Droid X.
2. slide it – similar concept to Swype above, and is a good alternative. You can select different languages ​​by downloading various options.
3. touch friend – This virtual QWERTY keyboard can be easily customized to your liking and has a strong predictive text system. You don’t need to fully type every word; a standard touch will enter the rest of the word if the phone has correctly predicted your word.
4. SwiftKey – Standard virtual QWERTY keyboard that uses predictive text to speed up typing. Similar to TouchPal, SwiftKey has a powerful ability to predict your word after only a couple of letters have been entered and then lets you tap the rest of the word to enter. Also, it uses certain gestures on the keyboard to perform certain tasks like deleting a word. What really sets SwiftKey apart from its competitors is the ability to predict the next word in your prize. One downside of this app is that you can’t enter a word that isn’t in your dictionary by pressing the space bar and continuing.
5. best keyboard – this keyboard is relatively simple and allows you to customize your keyboard to match your theme preferences. There are many options you can do to customize the keyboard exactly how you want it. The letters are a bit bigger than some of the other virtual keyboards. Better Keyboards uses various gestures to speed up commands, like long pressing the number key to open the settings menu, etc. The app is very quick to switch between modes. Something to keep in mind is the speed of the back button; you could end up erasing more letters than you wanted.
6. thick buttons – This is an interesting concept, the app predicts which keys you are most likely to press next and those keys get bigger to make them easier to press. This concept takes a bit of getting used to, and it might just work for you. Let us know what you think. The downside is that it can memorize the position of the keys after using a keyboard for a while. So when certain keys get bigger, the position of the keys changes and it can throw you off a bit.

Let us know which keyboards you found the best and if you think virtual versus physical keyboard is better on Android phones.