Looking for a pocket sized bluetooth keyboard for my moto G, I found myself bewildered by the array of options. I was further daunted by the prices. Not that the type of keyboard I want is terribly expensive. Actually the opposite. The average is about 12 bucks before shipping and taxes, but when I finally found boards that I liked, I would read the reviews and discover they were flimsey, or they weren’t compatible with android 4.0 and up, or the bluetooth connections were sketchy, or the paring process was flawed. I don’t mind paying a few dollars extra for quality and reliability, but I just can’t afford to waste money on a cheep product that fails. Finally I got my brother to find me one based on the price and the photos and the prices. Of course, since it’s amazon, they showed me a number of other similar items, and on impulse, I also bought a cheeper board with a 4 star rating. This board is my impulse buy, not my first choice. My first choice is sitting in a box in a location I can’t reach right now.

This keyboard is plastic with square rubber keys. It feels stirdy when I first pick it up, but it bends if I purposely put any stress on it. I wouldn’t make a habit of dropping the thing. To pare the keyboard, first make sure it has a full charge. Then turn the keboard on by sliding the power switch over towards the usb jack. Go to bluetooth in your phones settings and search for devices. On the keyboard, there is a paring button which I found totally by accident. It’s located directly above the number 9 key, berried in the seem between the 9 and the chassey. You may want to push it with a fingernail file or something. You don’t need to hold the button, only press and watch your phone screen. Double tap the keyboard’s icon and type the pin on the keyboard. Enter is located on the far right edge, second key from the bottom. Above enter is backspace. You may be used to seeing the positions of these keys reversed.

Each of these boards has it’s querks in order to accomodate the limit of physical keys. This board is no exception. Your bottom row of keys has fn on the far left corner for use with special symbols. For example, I discovered totally by accident that fn plus I generates a question mark. To the right of fn there is a shift for generating capitals. To the right of that, there is a key which shifts the keyboard into accented characters. To the right of that, you have comma, space, and period. To the right of the period is a key which, pressed in conjunction with various letter keys, opens various apps. For example, C opens the people app. S opens the messages app. Moving right along if you will, there is a key the use of which I have not yet discovered. Then on the far right corner is another FN key.

There are no dedicated arrow keys on this board. They are a special function of the FN key. I haven’t discovered which letters equate to the arrow keys yet because I’m not sure what arrow keys are actually supposed to do in the apps I use. So, I’m pressing buttons and I hear that things are happening, but that doesn’t tell me anything. I will have a sighted person look and add this info later.

Keyboard support in general is very flat in kitkat. A keyboard such as this one really should be able to fully control the phone as far as operating system features go, but that isn’t at all the case. As a means of typing long emails, this $11 keyboard works very well, although I’m not happy with this arrow keys as special functions. It will do until I get a chance to test the more expensive board that I bought on the same order.