Can the iPhone do double duty as a laptop?

My dream gadget: A handheld device powerful enough to let me leave my notebook computer home and still get things done on a weekend trip without too much difficulty. By “things” I mean getting real work done — writing, e-mail, Web browsing, making and receiving phone call. Also important: This device must keep me entertained with media, including music, and video. And oh yeah: It absolutely must have a full keyboard.

For me, that last requirement, a full keyboard, was my biggest worry about the iPhone —  or more accurately, the lack of actual keyboard keys, replaced instead by a virtual keyboard that pops up when needed, then vanishes when not, freeing up all of that gorgeous screen space.

Sure the virtual keyboard looked good in the demo videos I watched, but would it work as well as the physical keyboard on the Palm Treo 680 I was reasonably comfortable typing on at a pretty quick clip?

The only way to find out was to buy an iPhone, so I did. Eager to put the keyboard to the test, I connected the iPhone to my computer, activated it with iTunes, then clicked a few check boxes to choose what to keep in sync, including my contact and calendar items, Web bookmarks, music, podcasts, photos, videos, and e-mail accounts.

Up and running
The iPhone sucked in my contact and calendar items, but there was no option to sync the iPhone’s Notes program with  my sticky notes (whether in Outlook on the PC or the Mac’s Stickies program). This missing feature was among the first of a lengthy iPhone wish list (see “iWish: iPhone updates we'd like to see.”)

I clicked sync and a few minutes later I was ready to disconnect the iPhone and begin using it. Curious to see how much of my key contact, calendar and mail data was transferred, I checked out the iPhone apps in that order.

As someone who hates to let a friend or family member’s birthday or anniversary go by unnoticed, I was pleased to find iTunes had synced those important dates to the iPhone’s respective programs accordingly, as well as multiple phone numbers, and e-mail and street addresses — a thoroughness rarely present in many other mobile phones.

As for e-mail, the iPhone showed all of my e-mail accounts except for Hotmail, which isn’t supported. Checking the inboxes I was surprised to find them empty. iTunes does not sync e-mails, only e-mail account settings, saving you from having to type e-mail account setup info by hand.

Which brings up the keyboard, and the big unanswered question hanging over my purchase decision: How does it feel? To find out, I touched the icon to create a new e-mail, then held my breath and began tapping out my first words.

Initially, the keyboard feels weird
Skipping the advice I found in the Getting Started video on Apple’s Web site to begin by typing with only one finger, I jumped right in with both thumbs, the iPhone comfortably cradled over my interlaced digits. Initially, the keyboard felt weird. Mostly because there’s no tactile feel or feedback beneath the fingertips. There is an audible tick sound as you type, and that helps.

Replying was slow going at first, mostly because I was taking extreme care to tap each key. As I typed, words popped up alongside the cursor, best-guesses at what I was getting at — and in most cases, it got them right. A tap of the space bar completes the best-guess word and inserts a space. Autocorrect guesses I didn’t want could be ignored by clicking on the suggested word.

Reaching the end of my first sentence gave me pause when I saw that there was no period key. Instead there’s a punctuation button that brings up another keyboard filled with punctuation and symbols — which means two taps to get to two of the most common symbols: period and comma . (Quick tip: Tap and hold down on the punctuation key then slide to the period or comma and let go to pull off punctuation in a single gesture instead of two taps.)

I continued typing, gradually gaining in speed after five or so e-mails. A new question occurred to me: What was I doing sitting at my desk in front of a computer when I could be in another room — or anywhere, for that matter — getting things done?

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