It was February 2021 when I made this switch, and that matters because mobile input methods keep changing.

I had been looking for a phone input method that felt truly comfortable for 26-key full-keyboard Pinyin typing. The mainstream options at the time were basically these four: Sogou, Baidu, iFlytek, and Google. I tried all of them.

Google’s input method felt smooth to type on, but its dictionary was not strong enough for my needs. Too often, the character I wanted simply would not appear. The biggest problem, though, was the delete key on the 26-key layout: if you long-press it, it starts deleting text that has already been committed. That feels risky in everyday use.

iFlytek was impressive in one area: voice input really was strong. But for regular Pinyin typing, its dictionary felt too weak and not very smart, which made character selection more tiring than it should be.

That left Sogou and Baidu, which were very close overall and also happened to be the two biggest players in the market. For practical purposes, they dominated the mobile input method space.

Where Baidu felt better than Sogou on a 26-key Chinese keyboard

What follows is only about the 26-key Chinese input experience.

Faster, softer key response

On Baidu, tapping the keyboard felt more comfortable. The response seemed quicker and lighter. Sogou, by comparison, felt a bit stiff, as if there were a tiny pause in the interaction.

That difference is subtle, but on a touchscreen keyboard, subtle things affect comfort a lot.

Long-press delete clears the current input at once

This was one of the biggest reasons I kept looking.

With Baidu, long-pressing the delete key on the 26-key full keyboard clears the current uncommitted input. Sogou does not behave that way; instead, it deletes bit by bit, in a stop-and-go manner.

What I really wanted was a practical "retype" key—something that lets me instantly wipe what I am currently composing and start over. Baidu’s behavior is not exactly the same idea, but it is much closer to what I wanted.

Lowercase letters on the 26-key keyboard

I am still not used to entering Pinyin with uppercase letters on a phone. Even if the mental conversion is brief, it is still a conversion.

This is different from typing on a PC. On a computer, touch typing means I do not need to look at the keyboard, so uppercase or lowercase hardly matters. On a phone, I do have to look at the virtual keyboard, so the visual form of the keys matters much more. A lowercase 26-key layout simply feels more natural to me.

Punctuation can commit the current input directly

This is a small feature, but it saves a keypress almost every time.

My habit is to finish typing and then press a comma or period directly. I do not like pressing space first and then adding punctuation. In Baidu, tapping punctuation such as a comma or full stop can directly commit the current composition, which fits my typing rhythm better. Sogou did not handle it the way I wanted.

Custom phrases improve efficiency for repeated text

Baidu supports custom phrases, which can be a big efficiency boost if you often need to enter fixed strings such as:

• email addresses
• phone numbers
• usernames
• mailing addresses

Sogou also had shortcut-style phrases, but the interaction was less direct because it required tapping a keyboard button to trigger them. Compared with proper custom phrases, it felt one step less convenient.

Input methods are already close enough for most people

At this point, the gap between major mobile input methods is not huge. In most cases, they can meet everyday needs without much setup.

An input method should not require a pile of post-installation tweaking, nor should it depend on years of manually "training" the dictionary just to become usable. If that is necessary, I would not consider it a really good input method.

That said, once you get used to a certain keyboard, even one small feature can completely shape your comfort level. In the end, choosing an input method is mostly about what matches your habits.

Why I ended up switching from Sogou to Baidu

For me, the deciding factors were simple: I liked Baidu’s long-press delete-to-clear behavior on the 26-key keyboard, and I preferred the lowercase letter layout.

That was enough to make me change my phone’s input method to Baidu.

At first I was a little worried, because I had used Sogou for many years and had built up a personal dictionary with well over a hundred thousand entries. I was not sure whether moving away from it would feel awkward.

In actual daily typing, though, I did not notice much negative impact even before importing my Sogou dictionary. After converting the Sogou dictionary into a Baidu-compatible format with the Deep Blue dictionary conversion tool and importing it, it felt like I could completely leave Sogou behind.

One thing Baidu still handled poorly

There was one inconvenience I ran into with Baidu’s mobile keyboard.

On the English 26-key full keyboard, there was no option to add an extra top row of number keys. You could still enter numbers without switching keyboards by swiping up on the English keys, but that becomes inconvenient when you need to type several numbers in a row.

It also hurts efficiency when letters and numbers need to be mixed frequently. For example, when entering an alphanumeric verification code, having numbers integrated into the letter keys means you have to pay close attention and type carefully to avoid mistakes.

I spent a long time searching for a workaround and eventually found a skin called "1080p Super Layout", which could provide number keys on the English full keyboard. But it came with another trade-off: the keys only showed letters, not symbols, so the keyboard could not pull double duty well. Entering symbols became less convenient.

So even after switching, I still hoped the official app would eventually add this feature properly.