Mini wireless handheld KB/Touchpad Review

[BobA]

Cost $40 US plus $5 Shipping from EFO site $47.68 Cdn via paypal. Shipped via registered airmail from HK to Edmonton, AB, Canada took 12 days. There is a wired version that is cheaper and a BlueTooth version that is a bit more expensive.

Charging the uint from a USB port for initial use took about an hour.  LEDs indicated when charged. The unit is very compact and light.  It will fit in a shirt pocket very easily.  When the USB dongle for the RF was plugged into my computer running Windows 7 it was recognized immediately so no drivers are needed.  The keyboard/touchpad has a small on and off switch on the bottom of the unit.   The instructions say it will operate 75 hours on the rechargable battery without the use of the LED backlight.

I was able to get 20 feet from my PC and it operated well.  The only reason I did not check the full 30 foot range is I could not leave the room and still see if it was operating.  There are 5 leds on the top of the unit hat show various operating conditions.
The touchpad is very smooth and will respond to a tap as the left mouse button.  There are no multi finger functions at this time.  The two large buttons underneath the touchpad are the mouse buttons.  If the unit is not used for about  3 minutes it times out and the RF led flashes at a constant rate.  A touch of any key for 1 second will bring it back.

In a darkened room you can turn on keyboard lighting for about 2 minutes with a double click of the RF key.  The keyboard is easy to use for those used to smart phones and texting.  If you have large hands and do not use small keys on your devices you may have a bit of a problem. The keyboard itself is layed out in a typical qwerty arrangement with modifications to fit all the keys in such a small space.   There are no function keys available and the number keys and other symbols require the SF key to be pressed to select them. Led 5 lights up when the SF key is in use.

The unit would not look out of place in your media room or would be a great hidden keyboard to make changes to your MAME machine.  It is small enough to hide inside a bartop or jukebox where full size keyboards are not an option.

efo site

[surface tension]

Thanks for taking the time to write this review.

Can you tell me more about the feel and build quality? That's fairly cheap so does it feel like you've got what you paid for or something a little extra?

[piecesof8]

Thanks for taking the time to write a review. I have one of these on my "to buy" list for my as-yet-unstarted cabinet, but hadn't been able to find much real-world information about them.

[BobA]

The case is very light and made of plastic.  The fit and finish is good but due to the light weight it does not have a substantial feel to it due to the lack of heft. I do not think they wanted to make it heavy because it fits in your shirt pocket and you can hardly tell it is there.   I do not think it would stand being sat or stepped on but overall I like the way it is constructed.  For the functions and convenience you get I think it provides great value for the price.

[surface tension]

Thanks BobA

[BobA]

Been using it for a month now.   Holding up very well.   No problems so far.

[BobA]

Still working fine Aug 2010.

[ant2]

i've had mine for 5 months, perfect for what i use it for, basically when i want to use GPPO or supercade to play online.
The only downside was that the alt button stopped working after 3-4 months.. luckily alt is my second button on player 1, so it doesn't matter
i used it in my video actually www.youtube.com/aletchet if anyone wants to see it

Still working fine Aug 2010.

[drventure]

What's the battery life seem like on these things?

[BobA]

Mine  lasts for about 3 weeks but I suppose it depends on how much use it gets. It is rechargeable so all you have to do is plug it into a USB port to recharge.  If you only use it to change settings on a mame cab I can see it lasting over a month before requiring recharge.

[ant2]

I never charged it when I first got it (so it was never FULLY charge) and it lasted about 3-4 months lol
This is just because i only use it occasionally for navigation in the online gaming guis