[Merovingian]

I have nothing but admiration for Android, but it's just not an OS I'm terribly excited by at the moment. And the G1 is just so unappealing to me -- I tried landscape sliders more than once, and could never find them anything but clunky and awkward. I was dubious at first about the Pre's portrait QWERTY form factor, but after only four days of use, I'm now wondering why more manufacturers don't do it.

Different strokes for different folks.

You're forgetting that the recent 1.5 update for the G1 debuted an onscreen keyboard . For those who don't dig landscape sliders, there's a choice of an onscreen keyboard. Hmmmm ..

[weboslawyer]

Do it slightly above the button for best results. Speed hasn't really mattered all that much. And if you have advanced gestures on, you might want to turn them off if you're having issues with back.

Good tip, didn't even try that. That definitely helps a bunch. Though I would prefer a button.

[GadgetThug]

The back gesture is just as fast as hitting a button IMO. I don't see the need for a button.

Moving your finger sideways an inch is just as fast as moving it down a millimeter? Interesting...

[jhoff80]

Moving your finger sideways an inch is just as fast as moving it down a millimeter? Interesting...

You don't even have to move your finger sideways all that much. I can sort of just rock it to the side and it'll go back.

[GadgetThug]

You don't even have to move your finger sideways all that much. I can sort of just rock it to the side and it'll go back.

C'mon now. You can't compare a swipe to a button press. Geez.

[west3man]

I actually wish the Pre had a forward gesture in addition to the back gesture.

Bingo.

Y'know, one of the biggest deals, to me, is how tough it is to highlight text for deleting/copying/texting. Not sure what kind of a button would resolve that, but I need it.