Verbatim 97537 Wireless Bluetooth Mobile Keyboard for iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, iPad2 and Other Tablets (Piano Black)

One of the best portable bluetooth keyboards out there. An exhaustive review., February 20, 2011

I’m tiresome this keyboard out with my iPad. I have the Apple wireless keyboard and I really like it. But I saw this keyboard at Fry’s Electronics this afternoon and thought I’d give it a try. I hope you won’t mind me comparing the two, as the Apple keyboard is the predominant bluetooth keyboard for iOS devices. One thing that inspired me to check it out is the fact that the Verbatim keyboard folds up into a small package (about the size of a really thin paperback book). I have a nice simple case for my iPad (it’s really a netbook case) with a slip pouch on one side. This keyboard, when folded up, fits very nicely into that pouch and only adds just below 1″ of thickness to the whole thing,which is pretty excellent, considering the iPad itself isn’t thick at all. As much as I like the Apple wireless keyboard, there’s no way I’m going to be able to tote it around in this case, much less in a coat pocket or something like that. So this keyboard’s ability to fold up for extra portability is a huge plus. By the way, there is a sliding switch that mane the keyboard so that the two halves don’t inadvertently flip inward while typing on a less-than-solid surface.

I do agree with prior review comments regarding the differently-sized keys that are on each side of the keyboard split (particularly the “G” key being 1/3rd smaller than the “H” key next to it and the “B” key being a 1/3rd smaller than the “V” key next to it). I’m sure there’s a wits for this but…looking at the keyboard carefully I can’t figure it out. But it does feel a small weird. For the most part, the keys are basically the same size as those on the Apple wireless keyboard, even if they’re all right next to each other as opposed to the spacing between the Apple keyboard’s keys. By and large, the whole feel is like typing on a small netbook keyboard. I’m a touch typer and I do about 100 words per minute. This keyboard slows me down considerably with errors only because the key sizes and placement are a bit off from what I’m accustomed to. But, I guess that from a much smaller and more portable keyboard. It’s just a matter of time and acclimation so I’m not terribly worried about it. It’s an acceptable trade off as I can still, for the most part, touch type with relative ease. I noticed the top row of number keys and some special reputation keys are pretty small. They’re half the size of the row of the small special function keys on the Apple wireless keyboard. They’re just huge enough to accommodate the touchpoint of a fingertip and that’s it. That certainly will take some adjusting to, particularly for a touch typer with regard to numbers. But all of these smaller keys are for characters and functions you wouldn’t very frequently use in the course of typing a document, so it appears at least some thought went into that with regard ot the small design. The “Del” (delete) key is all the way down on the lower left corner next to the “Ctrl” button. The “BS” button (backspace, though it would be cool to have a key that calls out bunk just when you need it to) is one of those really small keys at the top row of number keys and it’s all the way in the right upper corner. But, it’s the same reach with my right pinky finger as would be with the Apple wireless keyboard albeit it’s small. There is a dedicated “Fn” (function) key that’s really useless for iOS devices (but would work for PC and Android devices?). There is a dedicted “Alt Gr” (aside form a dedicated “Alt” key) key but again, there really isn’t any use for it with iOS devices, so one would assume they’d work with PC and Android devices. There are two “Menu” buttons, which, when used with certain other keys, make shortcuts for certain functions (outlined in the user blue-collar). This means that instead of the usual PC keyboard’s “Ctrl+A” for selecting all text, “Ctrl+C” for copy, “Ctrl+V” for pasting, etc., the “Menu” key is used instead of the “Ctrl” key for those functions. The largest adjustment is the fact that there isn’t a full spacebar. Instead, there are two smaller, rectangular “space” keyboards, one on each side of the keyboard split right about where your thumbs would rest. Other than that, the placement of the keys-in terms of characters-is the same as any other keyboard, for the most part. Just that the number, special reputation and command keys are all pretty small. The usual play/ff/rewind buttons and volume up/down buttons are there, though off to the side of the keyboard keys, which is pretty nice, really. Unless there is a keyboard combination I’m not aware of, there isn’t any way to adjust the iPad/iPhone screen brightness as you would using dedicated keys on the Apple wireless keyboard. That’s really kind of a non-issue, though.

Most fascinating, but: 1) There is a dedicated “home” (small white square with rounded corners) key as well as a “home” command button. They both do exactly what the “home”…

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Android Pairing Directions, June 2, 2011

By 

J. Schmidt –

  

I won’t go into the pros and cons of this keyboard.

There are no directions for pairing with an Android device, so here are the steps:

In Android:
Turn on blue tooth.
Scan for devices.

Keyboard:
Turn on the keyboard.
Push the “Pair” button with a pen.

Android:
Select the keyboard.
It will question for a 4 number password. Enter any 4 numbers.
Press OK

Keyboard:
Enter the same 4 number password you entered in Android.
Press Enter.

Also, this keyboard is near exactly the same as the “Freedom Pro Bluetooth Portable Folding Keyboard”. It looks the same and has the same internal packaging. The only difference is that the Freedom keyboard has a switch to change from HID to SPP. From the directions, I gathered that SPP is for Blackberries. Also, the printing on the keys was uncommon. If not, they’re twins. Oh, and the Freedom is thirty dollars more expensive. I bought both.

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Pretty Excellent for the Price, May 19, 2011

I bought this keyboard to pair it up with my rooted Nook Affect and my Droid X. With taking it out of the box, it only took about 5 minutes to get all set up. I did have just a small bit of distress getting the keyboard to pair AND connect until I realized that I had to enter the passcode on the keyboard as well. For anyone buying this for use on an Android device, what I had to do was make my Nook discoverable, then search for new devices. Once it found the keyboard, I entered the passcode 0000 on the Nook, hit enter on my device, then I just hit 0000 on the Verbatim keyboard and hit enter. It paired and connected with no problem. I followed the same procedure to connect to my Droid X. Also, as the instructions will say, you have to use a pen or something similar to press the indented button on the keyboard to make it discoverable to start the whole process. I am satisfied with the keyboard so far. It is a bit large, but still portable, and some of the key sizes are a bit weird as others have said. But, as is the case with most of these keyboards, it just takes a bit of getting used to. By the way, if it matters to anyone, my Droid X is not rooted, and I am running CM7 off an SD card on my Nook Affect.

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