Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Since this is the first review on Amazon, I will try to be as helpful as I can. The online reviews were mixed on this thing, so hopefully, this review will help you out! I just got this today and have been playing with it for the last few hours. Here are my initial thoughts (and I will update this review in a week to see if I am still using it or putting it in the pile of unused accessories): First off - it was very easy to set up. There were clear instructions on both the case and inside the box. Note that they give you a USB to mini-USB cable, but no power adapter. The keyboard does require power to charge it up - it only took about 30 minutes to charge it up out of the box. The BoxWave site says the keyboard will last 45 days on one charge - we'll see! Bluetooth pairing was easy - one online review for the keyboard complained that the pairing was annoying because you have to get a pin to push the pairing button - yes, you have to find a paper clip or something small, but it only has to be done once and that's it. No big deal. I'm not sure if the keyboard Bluetooth use is going to drain the phone substantially - I was using it all night and making calls, and my iPhone still had plenty of charge, so I will have to report more on this after using it for a bit. Typing on the keyboard was pretty nice. The depth of the press and the click is very nice and responsive. The characters I typed were consistently appearing on the iPhone (including the wrong keys that I would press by accident, of course) correctly. Several online reviews complained the placement of the space bar (which is on the right bottom of the keyboard) was difficult to adapt to. I actually found no problems with this at all - probably because I end up typing most of my spaces with my right thumb. On the onscreen iPhone keyboard, I used to accidentally type "n" all the time instead of a space; with this keyboard, I get a space consistently). It probably could be a problem if you normally hit the space bar with your left thumb since it is pretty far to the right side. Like any new mini keyboard, you need to get used to the key spacing and the placement of all of the symbols. Once again, several reviews complained that the keyboard was difficult to use and type on - I'm not sure what they are talking about since after using it for a bit, I noticed that I started typing pretty fast (but not blazingly fast, yet) with less incorrect keystrokes. You do have to train your brain since the layout is different though from other keyboards. Note that there are no small bumps on a couple of the keys so that you can feel where you are on the keyboard. There is no backlight, so it was tough typing in the dark without angling it to try to see the keys in any partial light that was available. Other typing-related stuff: * You can toggle the on-screen keyboard on and off using the Fn+Space Bar - nice to have for applications like BeeJive that automatically puts the onscreen keyboard up when you open it * Has cursor keys in the lower right - I forgot how nice it is NOT to always have to touch the screen just to back up a few spaces to insert a character * Has a Home key in the upper left - nice for getting back to the Home screen, but keep in mind that the Home screen is only in Portrait mode so you'll be looking at a lot of things sideways with the keyboard open * Has a Search key which opens up the Search function - I don't normally use this feature that much, but I guess it's nice to have on the keyboard * AutoCorrect kind of works (unlike what some of the online reviews said) - I'm not sure if the iPhone just needed to relearn how you type, but when I first started typing with the keyboard (in Mail), I was spelling all kinds of things wrong and the iPhone wasn't helping me out. Then, it started to suggest some words. AutoCorrect for words seemed to work in Mail, BeeJive and Messages, but Notes had a real problem for a while - I thought that AutoCorrect might not work in Notes, but after writing a half of page of stuff, AutoCorrect started to function. * Unfortunately, Capitalization of first letters of sentences and fixing two letters that are capitalized do not get auto-corrected. It took a bit of typing, but apostrophes did finally seem to start appearing automatically if you just typed words like, "dont" and "cant". * Unlike the Blackberry keyboards, you have to hold down the Shift key or the Fn key while clicking the key you want to capitalize or to get the corresponding symbol - you can't just push it, let go and then type the key. That's a bit tough if you need to capitalize a letter on the left side of the keyboard because your thumb is still holding down the Shift key so you gotta stretch with your right thumb! * Double tapping the Space Bar does not get you a period either, but the period is on its own key (you just have to remember where it is) Other stuff I noticed: * The weight of the iPhone at the top of this light keyboard is a bit funky feeling - it's very top heavy and you do have to find just the right angle to hold and type so that it feels relatively comfortable. * When you slide out the keyboard, the iPhone screen doesn't automatically light up. This makes sense since it's not integrated into the iPhone, but you get used to that if you use other phones where the display just automatically lights up when you slide out the keyboard. * You can turn off the keyboard to stop the Bluetooth connection (and I guess save battery). Once you turn it back on and click on the iPhone display, it seemed to take about five seconds for the Bluetooth to establish a connection again. Note that I think you have to click on a key on the keyboard to start up the connection; otherwise, if you don't, the Bluetooth symbol on the iPhone appears to be grayed out still. However, once you press a key on the keyboard, the Bluetooth started to handshake and you could use the keyboard after a few seconds. * If you leave the keyboard on, but the iPhone display turns off, I noticed that it takes about a second or two after you hit a key on the keyboard for the keyboard to start responding. Just keep in mind that you can't just slide the keyboard out (if the iPhone display is off) and expect it to start working right away. I think I'll get into the habit of turning on display FIRST and then sliding out the keyboard, just to give the keyboard a chance to re-establish a connection. As for the case, it's plastic-y case with a semi-rubberized feel - just enough to keep it from slipping on an inclined surface. It is molded so that you have full access to the buttons and connectors on the sides. The camera and LED light are completely unobstructed which is very nice. The only thing I'm worried about is that I have a tendency to drop my phone a lot - my thinking is that if I dropped this on a hard floor, I don't think the case will provide much cushioning and my guess is that the keyboard will probably shatter away from the case/phone - I'm going to do my best NOT to find this one out though! Also, the keyboard does add a bit of heft and weight to the phone overall. However, the sliding mechanism seems pretty solid and stays closed when you don't want the keyboard out. And yes, the keyboard is a bit pricey, so I'll have to see if it's worth the price or not after I use it for a while. I'll report back with an update - I'm curious about the iPhone battery use and whether I'll get faster on the keyboard, so we'll see! 2/28/2011 UPDATE - Surprisingly, the Bluetooth does not seem to drain the iPhone's battery as much as I thought it would. I don't have a problem getting through the whole day at work (after using the keyboard on and off throughout the day, using Mail for work emails and the other apps). I still seem to have at least 1/2 battery on the iPhone at the end of the day. I am still using the keyboard - still not super fast at it, and although I make mistakes by brushing against too many keys at once, my fingers are starting to figure out where the keys are. After 2.5 weeks, I'm still not as fast as I was on the BlackBerry, but I'm working on it. As for the battery on the BoxWave keyboard - OK, I'm not sure where 45 days comes from. I tried for a week turning off the keyboard at night and for another week just leaving the keyboard on the whole time. I still only got about 1 week of usage per charge. I think you can tell when the battery is dead when the keyboard is paired (you see the blue Bluetooth icon in the upper right of the screen), but you can't get any letters to show up on the screen when you type. Charging took about 30-45 minutes. Just keep in mind that when not in use, the Bluetooth turns off (and I think the keyboard goes to a standby mode), so you need to hit a few keys to wake everything back up before you can start typing. 10/9/2011 UPDATE - Yes, I'm still using the keyboard! I have noticed that if you are in an area with really poor cell reception for a long period of time, the keyboard will lose its pairing sometimes and appear complete non-responsive - almost like it needs a charge. I just turn it off and then on again, hit a few keys, and it usually comes back to life again. And, just so you know, I have dropped my phone onto concrete in a parking garage, and yes, the front glass did shatter, so the case doesn't provide much protection (as suspected). I got a replacement iPhone, and <gulp> just dropped it again 6 months later (I guess I need to get AppleCare+ next time!) - this time, the front glass just shattered in the corner. The keyboard case is banged up, but it still continues to work! I see that other people have had problems with keys showing incorrect characters and battery issues. I guess mine never had the incorrect character issues, and just out of habit now, I've been charging the keyboard every 3 days or so. It looks like it won't last a week anymore, but it will definitely go 3-4 days on a charge still.