Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsThings to like about this keyboard and good customer service
Reviewed in the United States on March 7, 2018
***Update: May 10, 2023***
The seller has contacted me again with an offer to send me an upgraded model of the keyboard I had previously. I complemented the excellent customer service in my last update several years ago and I have to reiterate that this customer service is really above and beyond what you can expect from most sellers. I will update again in a few days when I have received the new keyboard and had some time to play around with it.
***Update: March 28,2018***
As others have said, the customer service for this product is excellent. The seller contacted me to offer either a full refund or replacement keyboard. I actually opted to return the keyboard and go with a different model, the Logitech K380, but the seller said they would send me a replacement keyboard even though I had already completed a return because they wanted to fulfill the terms of the product warranty. Really can’t beat that kind of customer service. So, as I said in my original review (which you can see below), there are plenty of things to like about this keyboard. Hopefully the replacement keyboard will not develp the same problem as the first one.
***Update #2, March 12 2018***
Turns out that the arrow keys now work but a lot of other keys don't, including the a, s, d, f, l, and others. This makes the keyboard really pretty much unusable. Have again re-adjusted my rating. Will probably return this product. Not sure if for a replacement or refund. I like a lot of things about the keyboard, but if this model is not going to work reliably, then there doesn't seem to be a point in replacing it. Granted, it could be just a problem with this particular unit, but still not sure.
***Update, Mar 12, 2018***
The problem with the stuck keys seems to have resolved itself overnight. Hopefully it won't happen again. Re-adjusting my rating back up to 3 stars. I'm not adjusting it back up to the 4 stars I initially gave the keyboard, because of the problem with the stuck keys. The keyboard is still good for the price, but I'll now be looking out for further problems with the keyboard, and probably also looking for the price to drop on one of the more advanced models.
***Update Mar 11, 2018***
After using the keyboard for less than a week, several of the arrow keys are no longer working. The left and right arrow keys simply do not work at times, and at other times pressing left or right makes the cursor arrow down instead of moving in the correct direction. Also, I'm unable to execute any commands that require me to use the Voiceover modifier keys. Based on the behavior being displayed, I assume that the down arrow is stuck. I have tried disconnecting and re-pairing the device several times, including telling my phone to forget the device and paring as I would if it were the first time I was using the keyboard. I have tried both restarting my phone and shutting it down and turning it back on. I have been able to duplicate the problems on three different devices: my iPhone SE, my MacBook and my Apple TV 3. I plugged the keyboard in for a while to make sure it wasn't an issue with a low battery, but no such luck. The left arrow key began to work, but the right and down arrows still don't. I'm using the keyboard with Voiceover, so not being able to reliably use the arrow keys to move around the screen defeats a big part of the purpose of me having this keyboard. Because of this problem, I'm adjusting my rating from 4 stars to 1 star.
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I’ve been thinking about getting a bluetooth keyboard for use with my iPhone for a while now. I’m blind and use Voiceover, so typing on the phone, even with touch typing activated, is tedious if I’m typing anything longer than a quick text message reply. Since IOS 10, it seems like the dictation feature has declined in quality, so that’s no picnic to use either. So when my partner got one of these for her birthday, I was eager to try it out and see how it works. After playing with her keyboard a few times, I decided to get one of my own. For the price, it seems well worth it so far. It’s not made of heavy-duty stuff like some of the more expensive bluetooth keyboards out there, but again, for the price, it’s good.
Keep in mind when reading this review that some of it will be about general things and some of it will be specifically about using the keyboard with Voiceover in IOS.
For me, there are several pros with this keyboard.
First, it’s very slim and light weight. I can toss it in my messenger bag when I go out and it doesn’t increase the weight of the bag in any appreciable way, so carrying it around like that is no problem.
Second is the size. A few years ago, I had one of those bluetooth keyboard cases that you can put your phone in. It came in very handy, but it was still slowish to type on. It was good for me then because I didn’t carry around a bag at the time and I could just put the case on the phone, stick it in my pocket, and go. Since I’ve gotten a service dog, I now regularly carry a bag so as to have all the necessary dog stuff with me if I need it: poop bags, paper towels, wet naps, a few treats, that sort of thing. So because I now carry this bag regularly, I wanted something bigger than a mimi bluetooth keyboard, but not a bulky one like some of the other models I’ve seen. Also, I didn’t want one of the foldable or roll-up bluetooth keyboards because they are a pain to type on. I’ve tried one out before and I felt like I had to press down harder on the keys than I would on a more solid keyboard. Because I’ve also got some arthritis starting to affect my hands, I wanted something that would feel closer to touch typing on a laptop keyboard. This keyboard is just the right size so that I can easily touch type as I would on a laptop, and the spring of the keys is very close to that of the keyboard on my MacBook.
Third, it’s easy to connect initially. Flip the on/off switch, push the paring button, go to the bluetooth menu in your phone settings, select the keyboard, and you’re in business.
Fourth, this keyboard not only makes it easier and more pleasant to do stuff like writing and replying to FB posts, tweeting, and word processing, but it also seems to work with several of the text adventure apps I have. It’s easier and quicker to be able to just type in commands on this keyboard than it is to have to flick around on the screen to find the link you need to activate to go a certain direction or interact with a certain object, or type out commands with the on-screen keyboard. This may lead to me doing more gaming on my phone, which may or may not be a good thing, but it’s cool that this keyboard makes the experience of doing so more pleasant.
Fifth, of course, is the price. Your not going to break the bank buying this keyboard. Unless you use it on multiple devices at once and need a model that allows you to switch back and forth from controlling device A to device B to device C with only a button press, this is going to do the job for you.
There are also a few cons.
First, and the biggest con for me, the keyboard does not automatically remap the four keys to the left of the spacebar from the Windows layout (Ctrl > Windows key/function key > Option > Alt) to the Mac keyboard layout (Function > Ctrl > Option > Command). If you use a MacBook and you’re very used to keying in commands with the Mac keyboard layout, this may take a bit of getting used to. Instead of holding down the two middle keys as the Voiceover modifier keys, you have to hold down the key at the far left and the key twice to the right of it. It’s not the end of the world, but it makes keying in some of the Voiceover shortcuts in IOS a bit annoying because the fingering is weird. That said, you can also go into the Voiceover setting on your phone and set the Caps Lock key as your Voiceover modifier, as you might if you were using Jaws on a laptop. As far as non-Voiceover shortcuts go, most of them use only the Command key as a modifier, so it’s no different keying them in than it would be on either a Windows machine or a Mac. This would be no problem at all if there were a way built into IOS to remap the keyboard. I have read that there actually is a way to do it on an iPad but it doesn’t seem that there is any way to do it on an iPhone.
Second, I’ve had trouble reconnecting the keyboard to my phone. I had to go into my bluetooth settings, tell the phone to forget the keyboard, and then pair it again. As I said earlier though, pairing is easy, so this is really a minor annoyance. I have had the keyboard only about two-and-a-half days, and this has happened to me only once, so keep that in mind as well. If it starts happening consistently, then it will be more a problem than a minor annoyance.
Third, I have experienced the issue that other reviewers have written about where the keys can sometimes stick and instead of outputting a character once, the keyboard will output that character a bunch of times. As of now, it doesn’t happen enough to be much of a problem for me, and it’s simple enough to just hit Option + Backspace to erase the last word and start over at the beginning of the word. If this starts happening at a frequency where it becomes a problem, I’ll amend the review.
Fourth, you are apparently supposed to be able to hit the Esc key twice to open the app switcher in IOS. This command has sporadically worked for me before on my partner’s keyboard, but has not worked on mine as of yet. Of course, if you’re using Voiceover, you can get to the app switcher by hitting Ctrl + Option + H twice quickly, but again, the fingering of the shortcut is a bit weird because the keyboard doesn’t remap to the Mac layout, so it would be more convenient to be able to just hit the Esc key twice. Again, this is really a minor annoyance in the big scheme of things.
So, for my money, this keyboard is totally worth it, especially if you can’t justify spending $70 or more on one of the more advanced and durable models but you don’t want to wait who knows how long for one of them to go on sale.
I hope this review has been useful both re general concerns and also for Voiceover-specific concerns. If it has, and you feel so incline, shoot me a thumbs-up on the review.
