WP7 keyboard demoed; no Asian language input at launch

In her preview of Windows Phone 7, CNET's Bonnie Cha described Microsoft's upcoming mobile operating system (OS) as having an onscreen keyboard that was "incredibly accurate and fast". We had a go at it when Microsoft showed us an LG prototype running the OS. Even though the software is still not final, the QWERTY keypad is very refined. The keys look narrow, but we didn't have any problems hitting the correct letters. Watch the video after the jump to see it in action.

It's good to see Microsoft putting in a lot of effort to improve the user experience. Text input is an integral part of any smartphone OS and, at this point, we even consider it to be almost as good as Apple's iOS keyboard for speed and accuracy. But if you still prefer physical keys, Microsoft's OS also supports that. The LG unit we saw had a landscape-mode slideout keyboard.

Unfortunately, the company is still working on Asian language input and that won't be ready at launch. So those who need to type Chinese, Japanese or Thai characters will have to wait for a future software update to do so. Note that this is true only for input--Asian fonts will display correctly so you don't have to worry about not being able to read a Chinese-language Web site on the browser. WP7 devices will initially ship with support for English, French, Italian, German and Spanish input.

According to Microsoft's COO Kevin Turner, the first WP7 smartphones are expected to be available in October for Europe and November for the US. When asked about Asia, a spokesperson couldn't be more specific and said only it'll be "in time for the holiday season".