I have many times wished I had my laptop with me for writing longer emails. While I like compact cellphones, sometimes I really wish for a proper keyboard. But hauling a laptop around - even the small 10-inch laptop I have - is a bit of a bother. So I decided to try this foldable, super-compact bluetooth keyboard and see if it plus my cellphone could be some kind of in-between step between only carrying a cellphone and carrying a laptop.
TB-135
Compact Bluetooth Keyboard
- Dimensions
- Folded
- 147 x 93 x 17 mm
- Extended
- 253 x 93 x 14 mm
- Weight
- 360 g
- Case
- 150 x 102 x 24 mm
- Battery
- Capacity
- 210 mAh
- Usage time
- 80 h
- Charging time
- 2 h
- Connection
- USB micro-B
- Stand
- Angle
- 40 - 55 deg from horizontal
A perfect little thing to stick in your pocket if you feel like being away from your workstation and intend to write something longer. Together with a smartphone it becomes an "almost laptop". (5/5)
1. Overview
The keyboard folds in from the edges to half its size.
It also comes with a combined carrying case and tablet stand that wraps around the keyboard in its folded up form.
2. Usage
To evaluate the keyboard I decided to use it to write my review of The Freeze-Frame Revolution by Peter Watts. I figured if I could grind that one out, the keyboard really would have proven itself. While there were a couple of minor issues, it really went better than I had anticipated. Pairing the keyboard was easy, and it connects super fast. The stand also lets you angle the tablet or phone between 40 and 55 degrees from the horizontal by pulling out the middle of the plastic edge the bottom of the device rests against.
The issues were, in order of severity:
It took some time to get used to the smaller keyboard and the layout - in particular, the microscopic backspace key that I use every time I mistype, and which sits above a gigantic asterisk / single-quote key that I use almost never. This is probably caused by the keyboard having a US (ANSI) mechanical key layout[a], and only a Swedish visual layout (which is usually an ISO mechanical layout). The odd location of the hyphen and underscore key also didn't help. A couple of times I would look over what I had written, only to see a garbled mess of letters instead of the words I was expecting, but by the end of the session the words came out pretty much as I expected them to.
Some times the phone would register two key presses when I was sure I had only pressed the key once. This happened once or twice during the whole writing session, so it was never a major issue.
Google Docs doesn't respond to the < and > key. Fast Notepad does. A minor annoyance, that is probably caused by the application and not the keyboard, but still - if you intend to type a lot of XML or C++ template code in Google Docs, this might be an issue.
3. Product Names
Like many other products, this one is sold under many other brands, for example EC Technology Best Ultra-slim Mini Wireless Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard[b] and iClever Bluetooth Keyboard[c].
4. Summary
A perfect little thing to stick in your pocket if you feel like being away from your workstation and intend to write something longer. Together with a smartphone it becomes an "almost laptop".
Links
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_layout#Mechanical,_visual,_and_functional_layouts | |
http://www.iectechnology.com/product/best-ultra-slim-mini-wireless-foldable-bluetooth-keyboard.html | |
https://www.iclever.com/products/iClever-Bluetooth-Keyboard-Foldable-Wireless-Keyboard-with-Portable-Pocket-Size-Aluminum-Alloy-Housing-Carrying-Pouch-for-iPad-iPhone-and-More-Tablets-Laptops-and-Smartphones |