My portable Bluetooth keyboard

I have been looking for the perfect, really portable Bluetooth keyboard for several years. Typing on the go, or having a truly mobile office in your pockets is a really interesting concept for a consultant like me. You never know when opportunity or need may arise.

A year and a half ago I ordered what it looked like the perfect keyboard for that setup, but (even though it was supposed to arrive 3-4 months later) I’m still waiting. Instead, I got this stupidly cheap (around 25 $/€/£) keyboard. See it below, with a pound coin and an iPhone SE for scale.

The pros:

• Folds in half. When folded, fits, barely, a large trouser pocket if you are slim. If you are wearing a jacket you can put it in a jacket pocket.
• Is lightweight
• Great tactile feed. Has some scissor switches that feel sharper than the (from my feeling) decently good switches in 2013’s Macbook Airs. Quite pleased with it (not as good feedback as my mechanical one with brown cherries, but this weights 20 times less or so)
• Seems to have a decently long battery life
• Disconnects on fold, starts up on unfold. A magnetic latch keeps it closed neatly
• Has arrow keys and F keys
• Good range

The cons:

• Can only be paired with one device at a time. So far this means that when I decide I want to pair it with my Mac instead of my iPhone, I need to forget the device and pair again. Not a big deal since I usually only want it for the phone or iPad, and repairing is fast
• With a Colemak layout, the O is a small key, and a problem for me is that B is a left hand key and for me is a right hand key.
• Alt acts like alt, no matter the operating system (you can change it with a key combination). On Mac you can tweak it, on iOS can’t
• Fn and Ctrl feel wrong as they are placed, should be swapped

Would I recommend it? Definitely. It has great feel and is a great price for quality keyboard. Oh, and this post was written all on it so I get used to the misplaced B. You can get one for Christmas from here

And if you want to learn Colemak I learnt using Keybr, and have had a lot of fun playing this online typing game, Z-Type. Both links are non affiliated and I have no relationship with them aside the learning or fun.

• Keyboard