Here are my impressions.
ThickButtons: it's better than the stock keyboard but I still preferred the Droid's hardware keyboard. After a month I stopped using any virtual keyboard. ThickButtons wasn't enough faster to make me want to use it. Importantly, it crashed once or twice a week even though I had stopped using it. Kind of annoying to get a Force Close just randomly in the middle of using another app, even after having it updated over the course of several months. So it got uninstalled.
8pen: I wanted to like it. Making loops with your fingers is kind of fun. I could see the potential to get quicker. But after several weeks I really wasn't much quicker. The reason is likely twofold. I'm an inconsistent user (due to having a hardware keyboard), so I'm using it maybe half a dozen times a week. The other issue is that the layout of the keys is necessarily broken into quadrants instead of the familiar qwerty layout. It's easy to understand but to get proficient the new layout takes time and I never got there. It's like learning a whole new way to ride a bike.
Swype: da winner. Unlike 8pen I figured out how to use swype without going through a tutorial. Within three swypes I was typing. I'm not saying I didn't need any help. I read a couple tips a day later and started getting even quicker.
I haven't timed myself so I won't claim faster typing with swype than 8pen. But it takes way less concentration to type with swype than 8pen. I used swype to type this post and found it enjoyable. In comparison to the hardware keyboard I haven't yet decided. The hardware keyboard is somewhat small and is a decidedly two handed task. Swype is fastest with two hands (one hand to type and one to hold the phone) BUT I found myself easily using one hand to hold and the same hand's thumb to type and was sometimes switching hands. Slick.
ThickButtons: it's better than the stock keyboard but I still preferred the Droid's hardware keyboard. After a month I stopped using any virtual keyboard. ThickButtons wasn't enough faster to make me want to use it. Importantly, it crashed once or twice a week even though I had stopped using it. Kind of annoying to get a Force Close just randomly in the middle of using another app, even after having it updated over the course of several months. So it got uninstalled.
8pen: I wanted to like it. Making loops with your fingers is kind of fun. I could see the potential to get quicker. But after several weeks I really wasn't much quicker. The reason is likely twofold. I'm an inconsistent user (due to having a hardware keyboard), so I'm using it maybe half a dozen times a week. The other issue is that the layout of the keys is necessarily broken into quadrants instead of the familiar qwerty layout. It's easy to understand but to get proficient the new layout takes time and I never got there. It's like learning a whole new way to ride a bike.
Swype: da winner. Unlike 8pen I figured out how to use swype without going through a tutorial. Within three swypes I was typing. I'm not saying I didn't need any help. I read a couple tips a day later and started getting even quicker.
I haven't timed myself so I won't claim faster typing with swype than 8pen. But it takes way less concentration to type with swype than 8pen. I used swype to type this post and found it enjoyable. In comparison to the hardware keyboard I haven't yet decided. The hardware keyboard is somewhat small and is a decidedly two handed task. Swype is fastest with two hands (one hand to type and one to hold the phone) BUT I found myself easily using one hand to hold and the same hand's thumb to type and was sometimes switching hands. Slick.
