Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I tend to have anxiety if I don't have the ability to type a significant-length email quickly, and my phone/tablet keyboards just don't cut it if I want to type more than a paragraph or so. So I usually carry around a big, relatively bulky bluetooth keyboard in my bag, because up until now the folding bluetooth keyboards were either hard to use or prohibitively expensive. This is the time, friends -- this is the time to get a folding bluetooth keyboard. Here are some thoughts: Manage your expectations about usability. It's tiny, so it's not going to be as comfortable and easy a typing experience as your full-size laptop keyboard. I've attached a picture of the iclever next to an old-school (circa 2000) iMac keyboard. As you can see, it is quite a bit smaller! So your typing will not, I repeat WILL NOT, be the same as on a standard keyboard. Even if your hands are tiny, the keys themselves are closer together and somewhat smaller than those on a standard keyboard. This is what you want, if you want a keyboard that can fold up to roughly the size of a large-format phone (iphone plus, samsung galaxy note, etc.). If you want a full-size, standard issue keyboard, get a full-size bluetooth keyboard. It's a little wonky to type on, which means you'll need to adapt. Wonky? Well, the backspace is way out of range. If you're used to a backspace key that's double size like on most keyboards, you're going to accidentally press the adjacent key a lot at first. Adapt. Learn. Or get a full-size keyboard. As others have noted, the right shift key isn't where you'd expect. Again, the issue here is that you're trying to get every key from a keyboard onto something much smaller than a standard keyboard. Think about it like those little 9-inch netbooks from ten years ago -- yes, that was a tiny keyboard, but it was attached to a tiny laptop computer that was smaller than anything you'd ever seen before. Manage your expectations. Know what you're getting. Oh, another weird thing that I've noticed with this and every other bluetooth keyboard I've used: if I accidentally hold down the shift key before pressing the space bar, it won't type a space and instead will just pop up a notification that says something like, "English, US," which is a reference to the type of bluetooth keyboard layout I'm using. I haven't found a way to disable it. It's going to slide around on a smooth, flat surface like a table -- unless, of course, you look in the box it came in and find the little silicone rubber feet that you can stick onto the bottom of the keyboard. Then it's going to slide around a lot less. To be clear, these are NOT stuck to the keyboard when you get it -- they kindly offer you the option of using them or not. If you want to keep your keyboard totally smooth on the outside so you can more easily slide it into pockets, you can do that. Or if you have big ham-hands like me, you'll want to attach the silicone nubbins to keep it from skittering around under your fingers while you type. Another thing I noticed is that the more I use this keyboard in the way that my typing teacher told us to type (I'm showing my age here -- 20 years ago, I had to take a class in how to type!), the better I am at using it. That means not resting my wrists on the table in front of the keyboard, but rather elevating my wrists slightly so that my fingers hang slightly to reach the keys. The upside is that there are no asymmetries in the alignment of the keys. The seams in the keyboard are so cleverly designed that you barely notice them. I am somewhat an aggressive typer (probably using more force than is necessary), and I have yet to make the keyboard buckle or fold on its own -- but keep in mind I'm using it on a counter/table surface. I wouldn't want to use this on my lap, because that's really not what it's designed for. That said, if you had a book or clipboard to put it on, you could hold it on your lap! One bluetooth tip for you: if you're having issues with a bluetooth device dropping its connection repeatedly, you can test whether it's a problem with the bluetooth device itself by turning off the wifi on the device it is connected to (phone, tablet, etc.). If your bluetooth connectivity issues disappear, it has something to do with the interaction between the wifi and bluetooth. I don't understand it, but a friend of mine who worked for AT&T for a long time told me to try this at one point, and it worked like a charm. He said I should try to move closer to my wifi source, if I need to use the bluetooth and wifi at the same time. With the increasing availability of generous data plans in the US, I've taken to just leaving my wifi off unless I'm doing something very data-intensive. I realize I'm kind of going on and on here, but I'm really happy to finally have a portable, compact, usable bluetooth keyboard option in my life. I don't have to lug around a laptop when I travel anymore -- I can bring a tablet or even just my phone. This product brings some measure of freedom to my life -- though arguably it's the fault of my job that makes me anxious about not being able to quickly and easily type lengthy emails on the go! Okay, so who does not want this keyboard? 1. If you are really a stickler about the layout of keys on a keyboard, you will probably be driven mad by this keyboard. Just drag your laptop around, or get a full-size bluetooth keyboard. 2. Clumsy typers -- the aforementioned oddness of the backspace key's location, the closeness of the keys to each other, and the general weird idiosyncrasies of a bluetooth keyboard will probably make you crazy. 3. People who are totally comfortable typing at length on a touchscreen keyboard. This drives me crazy, but some people are totally fine with it. 4. People who don't really want a super-portable keyboard. You can get a cheaper, more easily-used bluetooth keyboard. The big selling point of this one is that in its folded up state, it's about the size of a large-format phone. If that's not a feature that matters to you, keep looking. Finally: I cannot speak for how this works with apple/ios devices. I assume it does, and I've never had a compatibility issue between a bluetooth keyboard and any ios/mobile device. That doesn't mean other people won't, but I never have.