It looks like the popularity of the Lenovo Legion Go, Asus ROG Ally, and their stablemates has finally forces Microsoft to realise that gaming handhelds are here to stay. In the latest Windows Insider Preview, Microsoft has added a new on-screen game keyboard that uses an optimised layout and a mixture of touch and controller input to increase typing speed.
There are probably some games that this would work well for, but I’m not sure that it’d be a great replacement the way a physical thumb keyboard is for texting or the like.
Most present-day games that I can think of that I play use the keyboard as a grid of buttons. They expect to have your hand over the thing – often the left hand, with the right on the mouse – to let you be able to push multiple buttons quickly.
I’m not usually doing much text entry, which is what I’d expect a thumb keyboard to work well with.
With it, you can use your Xbox controller to move around the screen and type.
Does that mean you couldn’t before? Seriously people were playing around on a handheld that couldn’t even type?
Button accelerators are also available; these include the X button for backspace and the Y button for the spacebar.
WTF!? Isn’t that standard also?
For better movement patterns, the keyboard keys are aligned vertically."
Does this even make a difference?
In any case, the title is bullshit, it should be that will make windows handhelds close to typing on consoles which sucks. Typing on the Deck is a completely different experience, one that can’t be replicated in any of these handhelds because they lack the hardware to do so.
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Smells like shill in here
Hard to replicate the typing experience on the Deck when the hardware doesn’t have dual trackpads.
I should read the comments before posting. I had the same thought.
I’ll never get a hand held gaming PC with out track pads. So fucking useful and add so many more games you can play comfortably.
Just a low-effort regurgitation of a MS blog post to then sell you on an ROG Ally X affiliate link at the end. I love modern online journalism.
There are probably some games that this would work well for, but I’m not sure that it’d be a great replacement the way a physical thumb keyboard is for texting or the like.
Most present-day games that I can think of that I play use the keyboard as a grid of buttons. They expect to have your hand over the thing – often the left hand, with the right on the mouse – to let you be able to push multiple buttons quickly.
I’m not usually doing much text entry, which is what I’d expect a thumb keyboard to work well with.
Does that mean you couldn’t before? Seriously people were playing around on a handheld that couldn’t even type?
WTF!? Isn’t that standard also?
Does this even make a difference?
In any case, the title is bullshit, it should be that will make windows handhelds close to typing on consoles which sucks. Typing on the Deck is a completely different experience, one that can’t be replicated in any of these handhelds because they lack the hardware to do so.