Can't touch this

Touch-screen smartphones have been around quite awhile. I came to the party a little late, holding fast to my old BlackBerry.

There's just something in my writer's soul that loves the feel of a physical keyboard. Never mind that all my attempts at typing on a borrowed iPhone read like this: "Wyat ari wy d-iwng tomighw?"

Now I have the best of both worlds, with the BlackBerry Q10.

I have the keyboard I want, so typing is a breeze, and I'm getting used to all the swiping and tapping the touchscreen requires.

I swipe up and down, left and right, and eventually I get to the screen I want. It's all trial and error for me, but it's so much fun I don't even try very hard to remember the right commands.

There are a few touchy things that drive me crazy, like the fingerprint residue from so much touching and tapping and swiping. Trying to clean the screen is futile, as I just end up opening more apps in the process.

You've also got to have absolutely dry fingers to swipe effectively. Not always so easy in this brutally hot and muggy summer.

And the speed with which the screen reacts is so much faster than I anticipate that I've deleted a few things -- and sent off many misspelled emails -- before realizing what I was doing.

Still and all, I'm loving this smartphone, which is much smarter than I'll ever be. And even though it's a touchscreen, you can't touch it for a great user experience.