Nokia keyboard review

[rbiasca]

This is just a quick review after only a day and a half with this thing. I have to say it is much better than I thought. I was a little apprehensive about the build quality after what engadget said in there 2520 review. I am guessing that was a pre-production unit and the long wait it took to get them was for the best. I wish the texture of the keys was smoother, but that isn't that big of a deal. It does add some heft to the tablet, but its for the best. I think this thing could easily last two full days with heavy use now and still have plenty to spare so you don't have to worry. Pretty good in my opinion, especially for free.
Please add any of your thoughts.

 

[Greywolf1967]

When you get some time in with the keyboard, please let us know how much extra you get from the added battery !!!

 

[aitt]

Okay so here's my take on the keyboard. This thing is solid. I mean the build for a tablet keyboard was better than my initial expectation and typing on this keyboard is as easy for me as with a full size keyboard and I have good size hands. There's are no issues for me personal. The mouse is very responsive and I have to get use to not having physical mouse buttons but I have adapted to it rather quick. Yes the battery add bulks, but 1. getting that extra battery with no connection wires and 2. getting two USB 2.0 ports makes it a great add on. Having the original ASUS Transformer, this combo of this is lighter and better compact. Nokia was very innovative in how they designed the mouse to fold as a flap. First of it's kind and different from the usual docks.

I like the shortcut keys. They add usefulness for quick access to changing tabs, putting into sleep and other normal shortcut features. Everything just works. It's also nice than closing the case will turn the keyboard off. Snapping on and off the tablet from the case is nice and simple. I like the pin connectors as it's easier to just load and unload w/o having to slide into any ports.

I do have some cons. First is the mouse fold. Because it doesn't sit flush with the battery, it would seem it would start to tear away at the fold if to much pressure from your palms rest on it too much over a period of time. It's hasn't been a full week and you can see the fold crease starting to form, more particular around the wires for the mouse. I do wish they made a lit keyboard like MS did with the touch type two. I find myself having to use the on screen board at night when I don't want to touch type on the keyboard. I can type quick as hell when typing asdf jkl; but if I want to tap with one hand being lazy, it's hard to see in the dark.

*edit* Another con I have is the mouse tap to wake up the device. I have notice that when putting the keyboard in sleep mode while plugged in that when you close the flap, it can inadvertently turn the tablet back on. It's not problematic for those that have their power setup to turn off while plugged in, but my configuration is set to never sleep while plugged in. To avoid this, I have to make sure that I'm not closing the flap where the mouse is and instead close it by the corner or so.

Other than that, this is one of the best innovative design for a keyboard dock I have seen for any tablet. It reminds me of old school Trapper Keepers.

 

[rbiasca]

I unplugged it yesterday morning and used the thing off and on all day. Some web browsing, email, excel and such and when I plugged it in last night around 11 the keyboard had 17% and the tablet had 99%. I also did some file cleanup and big app deletions in that time frame as well. Hope that helps.

 

[Griffinx]

Where can you see the keyboards battery %

 

[JimmyRandall]

Where can you see the keyboards battery %

Desktop view same as the internal battery

 

[Byrese]

I fully agree with the above mentioned reviews. I'll just add that yes the battery life if awesome. I used it all day on Friday for work related stuff. I had word, excel, Nokia music, calendar, email, and even metrotube running. I was switching in and out doing my work. I used it for at least 5 hrs straight. Then went home plugged it into some speakers and played music most of the night. When I went to plug in the device at the end of the day tablet had like 90% plus and the keyboard wasn't even dead yet (can't remember) the correct percentage). Can I say awesome! So whatever bulk the keyboard adds (and it does add some) it's well worth it. I honestly don't understand though why that's even a big deal for some people. IPad cases add weight to the device and nobody complains about that.

On the con side, I would agree with the earlier observation about the mouse pad. I'm a little concerned about it myself. We'll just have to wait and see. I do with however, that the case would support more then one position. I wish it could pivot further down like the Surface 2. I know that may be petty but sometimes I find the device a little more straight up then I'd like it.

All in all this is a game changing keyboard. If it wasn't for the developing Windows Store and the TERRIBLE marketing by Nokia on this product (not to mention the launch) the Lumai 2520 would be the iPad killer.

Oh... what are the keyboard shortcuts?

 

[GizmoEV]

Oh... what are the keyboard shortcuts?

The keys above the number key row (ie. the top row of keys).

Oh, and I don't see your post about the spacebar though I received an email with it. Maybe you deleted it. Any way, I've noticed that it doesn't always take so I end up with words running together. When I try pressing it at all places along the bar, however it works just fine so I don't know if it is a user issue or keyboard issue, maybe it is both.

 

[Byrese]

The keys above the number key row (ie. the top row of keys).

Oh, and I don't see your post about the spacebar though I received an email with it. Maybe you deleted it. Any way, I've noticed that it doesn't always take so I end up with words running together. When I try pressing it at all places along the bar, however it works just fine so I don't know if it is a user issue or keyboard issue, maybe it is both.

Yeah I had deleted it cause I seemed to have fixed it. I saw that one of the sides was a little higher then the other and was grinding (for lack of a better word) on the way down when I typed on it. So I just pressed that side down really hard for 15 or so sec. No problems now.

 

[sundawg#WP]

As far as the battery goes in the keyboard. After using it for a couple of weeks, I get the sense it isn't as high of quality as the battery in the tablet itself. I notice that the keyboard battery doesn't charge as fast and drains a little faster than the tablet's battery. Regardless, I can got a few days of moderate use without charging - mainly using OneNote, remote desktop and occasionally a few other apps, wpcentral, mail, calendar and some web browsing. Very happy. Looking forward to using it on some international flights.

 

[GizmoEV]

If you are gauging the drain rate by percentage then yes, the keyboard will drain faster. It doesn't have as much capacity as the tablet battery does. As for charge rate, I think that has to do with the circuitry. IIRC, the keyboard battery is at a different voltage than the tablet so there has to be some voltage changing going on. That likely affects the charge rate. They might also limit the charge rate to minimize issues with the connection to the tablet.

 

[sundawg#WP]

ya. I'm sure the circuitry has something to do with it. As for the drain, if the tablet battery lasts 10 hours, the keyboard does not last 5 for me. it's more like 3 or 4. But that's ok....I think it says more about the awesome battery they put in the tablet itself. The keyboard is probably just a "normal" one

 

[robertre]

I am loving my powered keyboard, along with the added batter life it provides. If there was one improvement I would like to see, though, it would be the ability to toggle the mouse touch pad on and off. I have never been a big fan of touch pads, especially since we have touch to navigate, and it would be nice to be able to toggle it off so that it is not accidentally hit when typing. Hopefully Nokia can add such capability with a future update.

 

[rbiasca]

The keyboard battery is only 2000mah and the tablet is 8000mah so that means that the keyboard is only about twenty five percent of the tablet battery so of course it will drain a lot faster

 

[Mark Traudt]

It has only been one day but here are my thoughts:

Pros:
- It is comfortable to carry and looks good both open and closed
- I LOVE the convenience of flipping it open and immediately being able to type
- The trackpad generally works well (see caveat below)
- Although not ideal for lap work, not terrible either

Cons:
- The shift key on the right side is half the normal width. This is causing me all sorts of grief. I suppose I will get used to it eventually, but it is REALLY annoying and I think unnecessary. In general an inferior typing experience to the Microsoft Wedge keyboard.
- I have experienced some flakiness (for lack of a better word) with the trackpad; for example, it seems that if you are not careful a hand gesture can be interpreted as a swipe and you end up switching apps inadvertently; I wonder if the flakiness will go away when the often-mentioned firmware update arrives (I am a Verizon customer); in any case, even as-is it is very usable
- I agree with one of the other reviewers that it would be nice to be able to disable the trackpad

All in all, the convenience, look, and battery life are hard to beat. I sure hope I get used to that darn shift key...

 

[Byrese]

It has only been one day but here are my thoughts:

Pros:
- It is comfortable to carry and looks good both open and closed
- I LOVE the convenience of flipping it open and immediately being able to type
- The trackpad generally works well (see caveat below)
- Although not ideal for lap work, not terrible either

Cons:
- The shift key on the right side is half the normal width. This is causing me all sorts of grief. I suppose I will get used to it eventually, but it is REALLY annoying and I think unnecessary. In general an inferior typing experience to the Microsoft Wedge keyboard.
- I have experienced some flakiness (for lack of a better word) with the trackpad; for example, it seems that if you are not careful a hand gesture can be interpreted as a swipe and you end up switching apps inadvertently; I wonder if the flakiness will go away when the often-mentioned firmware update arrives (I am a Verizon customer); in any case, even as-is it is very usable
- I agree with one of the other reviewers that it would be nice to be able to disable the trackpad

All in all, the convenience, look, and battery life are hard to beat. I sure hope I get used to that darn shift key...

I agree that shift key is driving me crazy. II don't get why they couldn't get that right, like the left side?

 

[GizmoEV]

I agree that shift key is driving me crazy. II don't get why they couldn't get that right, like the left side?

I agree. I don't understand why they had to have the key just to the left of the del key. Just make it the prt scr key and make the right shift key wider, moving the up arrow key to the prt scr position. It would eliminate the nice inverted T layout of the arrow keys but I would rather have that than the narrow shift key.

In addition to the ability to turn off the touch pad it would be nice to be able to turn off the left and right swipe gestures along with choosing the direction of the two finger scrolling.

 

[GizmoEV]

The keyboard battery is only 2000mah and the tablet is 8000mah so that means that the keyboard is only about twenty five percent of the tablet battery so of course it will drain a lot faster

What we don't know, however, is the energy capacity of each. That is what matters in such a comparison. The mAh capacity, known as the charge capacity, of a battery is independent of the battery's voltage. For example a 1000mAh NiCD battery has a nominal voltage of 1.2V and thus 1000mAh * 1.2V = 1200mWh of energy storage where as a 1000mAh LiFePO4 battery has a nominal voltage of 3.2V and thus 1000mAh * 3.2V = 3200mWh of energy storage. Unless we know that the two mAh values for the tablet and the keyboard batteries are stated at the same voltage comparing mAh values is largely meaningless. I did read somewhere that the keyboard battery has a nominal voltage of 7.4V which means it is likely two 3.7V lipoly cells in series. I thought that I had read somewhere that the tablet battery was in the 14.8V or higher range but couldn't find the article I read that info in and I couldn't find the info on Nokia's website. If that is the case then the 14.8V would be 4 lipoly cells in series. If it really is and it truly is 8000mAh at that voltage that would be 8000mAh * 14.8V = 118,400mWh = 118.4Wh which is huge! IIRC the battery in my IBM ThinkPad A21P was only 78Wh and it would run that beast playing a video for about 3 hours.

 

[toscrawford]

Need to fix:
1) Ability to disable trackpad, auto disable when mouse is plugged in. Also, sensitivity control would help. They have disable for the Surface called Trackpad Setting in the Microsoft Store. As-is, heavy typing thinks you tapped the trackpad and moves your curser somewhere else on the screen.
2) Why isn't this thing back lit? I'm not allowed to use a tablet in the dark?
3) Better arrow key layout (I keep hitting control), but this is true of all small keyboards. Maybe lose the button between Alt and Ctrl?

It may turn out that the optimal tablet is a bit wider to accommodate a better keyboard layout. Overall, I like it, but no keyboard is perfect.

 

[Pete The Penguin]

Will someone let me know how the trackpad is? Thanks.