New York ? There are only so many ways to lay out the keys on a cell phone for typing words, or so you’d think.

There’s the traditional 10-number telephone keypad with letters bunched three and four to a button. Even with cutsie abbreviations, typing is an arduous affair. If you want a full typewriter keyboard with one letter per key, then you probably have to settle for a bulkier, BlackBerry-like device.

Innovative solutions to this stalemate have been rare, and only the BlackBerry 7100 series with its novel two-letters-per-key design can be judged a raging success. Another notable design, from Nokia, with a funky fold-out keyboard resembling a Star Wars wing fighter, has sold well enough to appear on three devices.

The Fastap keyboard from Digit Wireless offers a surprising twist: Letters appear on 26 small raised buttons at every corner between the standard keys found on a typical cell phone. The letters are in alphabetical order.

For now, you can’t get a phone with Fastap through one of the big national carriers, but Digit says that’s due to change next year. That sounds plausible because the Fastap keyboard is already gaining traction with two smaller wireless providers, Alltel Corp. of Arkansas and Telus Corp. of Canada.

I tried out the Fastap keyboard on an otherwise ordinary LG handset from Alltel. Without a doubt, typing was swifter compared to the usual process of locating a letter on a number key and then tapping it multiple times to choose from among the three or four letters on that button.

The Fastap keyboard from Digit Wireless is offered on LG phones from Alltel Corp. The letters appear on 26 raised buttons between the regular keys.

My biggest complaint was that the letters were printed on the keys in a hard-to-read gray. The “Q” key was pretty indistinguishable from the “O” key, and so there were plenty of typos in my messages where a word like “word” was misspelled as “wqrd.”

Since it’s easy for a thumb to stray onto a number key from the slightly raised perch of a letter button, Fastap is programmed to decide which one the user meant to press. If it comes mid-word, for example, the error-prevention software presumes the number press was accidental, and chooses the letter.

For those who’d prefer a QWERTY keyboard found on typewriters in a phone-sized package, the Nokia E70 may be the way to go, though it may be too pricey for American tastes. You’ll need to pay the list price of $450 because the E70 isn’t being sold directly by U.S. cellular providers.

The E70, compatible with the Cingular Wireless and T-Mobile USA networks, is a snazzy phone with letter keys far bigger than the buttons on most handheld computers. The hidden keyboard flips out on two hinges over the screen, extending in the other direction to form wings on both ends of the display, with half the letters on either side. When the keyboard is open, a wing gripped in each hand, the display rotates 90 degrees.