Took a few days winter sun in Spain, but couldn’t completely abandon the real world. So needed a techy solution. Options take the macbook along with me, opted against due to risk of it getting lost/broken/stolen and its a bit bulky. So onto buying a netbook, tablet or something else.
I have the Samsung S4, fantastic phone with all the bells and whistles, but i found the touch screen keyboard way to small for typing out emails and blog posts.
I ended up torn between buying a decent sized tablet or the Freedom i-Connex 2 Folding Bluetooth Keyboard (http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B003LO2FR8). As the S4 has the technology the Freedom i-Connex was the obvious choice.
Good bits…
Its a full sized querty layout so typing is a breeze. There isn’t any lag when connected via bluetooth. It’s small enough to throw in my bag along with my phone wallet etc. AAA batteries seem to last forever, i’m still on my first pair of standard duracells.
Not so good bits….
Being connected via bluetooth, it eats the phones battery.
Software on the phone forces you to choose Samsung Qwerty as your default keyboard. I usually use swiftkey when using the phone standalone so having to reset it with each use of the freecom is a pain.
Many of the keys are useless when connected to an android device. I believe the Freedom i-Connex was originally inspired for use with iphones etc.
Though the keyboard is an awesome typing/input solution, i felt the screen on the phone was too small. When adding a new post to wordpress blog, scrolling up and down the page is hit and miss at best. With the tiny screen adding images to media gallery then inserting them into a post is a bit of a game too.
The verdict…
Even though it got the job done I think a tablet would have been more suited to my needs. So i’ll be investigating options with my mobile carrier (Orange) when we get back. I got to have a play with a friends ipad while we were here, definitely a lot less faffing involved.
So, if you’re looking for an input device for occasional use the Freedom i-Connex 2 keyboard is a smashing choice, but if you’re a frequent user/app swapper it may not be for you.
