Wednesday, July 23, 2003
Review: Hewlett-Packard Slim Keyboard
Posted by Dave Beauvais in "HARDWARE" @ 09:00 AM
Ever since photos of the Hewlett-Packard Slim Keyboard leaked out many months ago, there has been a great deal of hype and mystery surrounding it. Does it work with expansion sleeves? Can you use it without the cover? Do those red and green markings mean you can use it to make and end phone calls? Fitting 3800, 3900, and h5000 series iPAQs like a glove, this keyboard would seem to be a dream come true for many iPAQ users in search of a way to quickly type e-mails or use instant messaging on the go. Does it live up to the hype?
Although screen-based input methods have improved over the last few years, a keyboard is often the most efficient method of entering data into a device. While folding keyboards that try to emulate the experience of typing on a notebook are often the easiest to use, they aren't exactly convenient while you're walking around, riding a bus, or riding in a car. Enter the thumb keyboard. These tiny devices give you the ease of use of a keyboard while sacrificing very little in terms of mobility. There are several thumb keyboards available for iPAQs, but the new HP Slim Keyboard has garnered the most interest.
Description and Features
The first thing that struck me when I received this keyboard for review was how incredibly well-designed it seemed to be. It's built to accommodate at least three generations of iPAQs along with their varied features. The h5000 series, for example, has a headphone jack and microphone on the bottom and a removable battery in the back. This keyboard was designed with those features in mind while still permitting use with previous models. Below the X key, there's a small slit for the h5000 series' microphone. There's even a hole in the end to slip a stylus into to press the reset button.
Figure 1: The HP Slim Keyboard. (Note that I switched the cover to open on the other side.)
Figure 2: Bottom of the Slim Keyboard. Here you can see the opening for the h5000 series' headphone jack, the pass-through sync connector, and reset button hole.
The silver paint that covers the underlying gray plastic makes the keyboard almost perfectly match the iPAQ it's attached to. The assembled pair actually looks very attractive. Unlike most sleeves and the CoverPAQ included with recent sleeve-capable iPAQs, the Slim Keyboard does not have four distinct "arms." Instead, the entire left and right sides of the iPAQ are covered by the sides of this keyboard. This makes the keyboard look even more integrated with the iPAQ when it's attached, giving it a very unified appearance.
Figure 3: The back of the Slim Keyboard with an iPAQ h5455 inserted. Notice that you can not only swap batteries, but also use the extended battery for the h5000 series.
One of the most important and most appealing characteristics of this keyboard is that you can still dock your iPAQ in its cradle with the keyboard attached! Just for the heck of it, I even attached the combination of the iPAQ and Slim Keyboard to my Stowaway keyboard. (W?BIC! :D) Curiously, the Stowaway keyboard didn't work even with the HP driver disabled. I had assumed this was mostly a pass-through port, but perhaps some accessories or cables may not work. ActiveSync and charging via cradle worked just fine, however, which is what would concern most users.
General Observations
Typing on something this small is obviously something one needs to get used to. The keys are spaced very close to each other, as you'd expect for something that packs so many things into such a small space. Because of their convex shape, however, it's relatively easy for your fingers to find and press the keys. I doubt anyone would ever come close to the typing speed and accuracy they can reach using a traditional keyboard, but this keyboard allows you to enter relatively large amounts of data quickly and easily without having to tap on the on-screen keyboard or deal with handwriting recognition issues. I prefer to use this keyboard over on-screen input methods when typing e-mails or using MSN Messenger on my h5455, because I am much faster this way. I do have some complaints about the key layout, however, which I will address later. I did notice that some keys seem to require slightly more pressure than others, but overall they seem very responsive.
Figure 4: Close-up of the keys on the Slim Keyboard. Though hard to see in this photo, the four shiny silver buttons along the bottom edge duplicate the application buttons on the iPAQ. Click the image for a larger view of the keys. (104 KB JPEG)
Depending on your backlight settings, it's possible that the backlight could turn off while you're using this keyboard. If that happens, pressing a key will not turn it back on; you'd actually have to tap the screen or press the record button, which is the only visible hardware button once the keyboard is attached. Apparently key presses are not considered activity which would reset the inactivity timer that switches the backlight off. While I'm not a software developer, I'm pretty certain this could be addressed in a driver update.
Speaking of the driver, it's a very good first release. Using my iPAQ h5455 and a friend's 3955, I tested this keyboard using driver version 1.18, which shipped on the CD included in the package. At this time, no driver is available on the HP Web site. The CD contains the manual in Adobe Acrobat PDF format in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages and the driver is provided in those same languages, as well. The only printed material included in the package is HP's absurdly long warranty novel, printed in approximately 327 different languages. Everything else you'd need is on the CD.
Figure 5: An animated image showing the two pages of the HP Slim Keyboard's Settings program.
I had no problems installing the driver or using the installed Slim Keyboard control panel. The directions in the PDF file said to remove any existing keyboard drivers, but I ignored that and installed the Slim Keyboard driver with my Stowaway Keyboard's driver still installed. Both drivers cannot be active at the same time, but you can disable one and enable the other at will without so much as a soft reset. I did notice, however, that the unofficial Ctrl-Q key combination that's been around since the days of the Palm-Size PC to close an application does not work with this keyboard. (It does with the on-screen keyboard and the Stowaway.) Instead, HP's driver has you press Fn and Ctrl to close an app. As these keys are located on opposite sides of the keyboard, it's unlikely that you'd accidentally press them both.
Also regarding the driver, I did notice that in certain applications such as Pocket Word and Notes, when you create a new document, one of the standard input panels still pops up even though you're using the keyboard. This was only a small annoyance, and is something else I'm sure could be addressed in a future driver release.
Because this will no doubt be the first question asked by many readers, no, I do not know if the driver supports Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. I have had a support request in to HP for two weeks about this, but have yet to receive a useful response. If or when I do receive a reply, I will update this review.
Unlike the photos that leaked before release, the actual production keyboard does not have the red and green markings over two of the keys. Many theorized that this would be for use with some future phone-enabled iPAQ model. Another observation about those buttons, it seems that if some of the "useless" empty space around the iPAQ logo were eliminated and some buttons rearranged, an actual directional pad could have been added to this keyboard, making it the first such keyboard to include one. The built-in D-pad of the h5000 series is certainly small enough to fit into that space if a little rearranging were done.
Although screen-based input methods have improved over the last few years, a keyboard is often the most efficient method of entering data into a device. While folding keyboards that try to emulate the experience of typing on a notebook are often the easiest to use, they aren't exactly convenient while you're walking around, riding a bus, or riding in a car. Enter the thumb keyboard. These tiny devices give you the ease of use of a keyboard while sacrificing very little in terms of mobility. There are several thumb keyboards available for iPAQs, but the new HP Slim Keyboard has garnered the most interest.
Description and Features
The first thing that struck me when I received this keyboard for review was how incredibly well-designed it seemed to be. It's built to accommodate at least three generations of iPAQs along with their varied features. The h5000 series, for example, has a headphone jack and microphone on the bottom and a removable battery in the back. This keyboard was designed with those features in mind while still permitting use with previous models. Below the X key, there's a small slit for the h5000 series' microphone. There's even a hole in the end to slip a stylus into to press the reset button.
Figure 1: The HP Slim Keyboard. (Note that I switched the cover to open on the other side.)
Figure 2: Bottom of the Slim Keyboard. Here you can see the opening for the h5000 series' headphone jack, the pass-through sync connector, and reset button hole.
The silver paint that covers the underlying gray plastic makes the keyboard almost perfectly match the iPAQ it's attached to. The assembled pair actually looks very attractive. Unlike most sleeves and the CoverPAQ included with recent sleeve-capable iPAQs, the Slim Keyboard does not have four distinct "arms." Instead, the entire left and right sides of the iPAQ are covered by the sides of this keyboard. This makes the keyboard look even more integrated with the iPAQ when it's attached, giving it a very unified appearance.
Figure 3: The back of the Slim Keyboard with an iPAQ h5455 inserted. Notice that you can not only swap batteries, but also use the extended battery for the h5000 series.
One of the most important and most appealing characteristics of this keyboard is that you can still dock your iPAQ in its cradle with the keyboard attached! Just for the heck of it, I even attached the combination of the iPAQ and Slim Keyboard to my Stowaway keyboard. (W?BIC! :D) Curiously, the Stowaway keyboard didn't work even with the HP driver disabled. I had assumed this was mostly a pass-through port, but perhaps some accessories or cables may not work. ActiveSync and charging via cradle worked just fine, however, which is what would concern most users.
General Observations
Typing on something this small is obviously something one needs to get used to. The keys are spaced very close to each other, as you'd expect for something that packs so many things into such a small space. Because of their convex shape, however, it's relatively easy for your fingers to find and press the keys. I doubt anyone would ever come close to the typing speed and accuracy they can reach using a traditional keyboard, but this keyboard allows you to enter relatively large amounts of data quickly and easily without having to tap on the on-screen keyboard or deal with handwriting recognition issues. I prefer to use this keyboard over on-screen input methods when typing e-mails or using MSN Messenger on my h5455, because I am much faster this way. I do have some complaints about the key layout, however, which I will address later. I did notice that some keys seem to require slightly more pressure than others, but overall they seem very responsive.
Figure 4: Close-up of the keys on the Slim Keyboard. Though hard to see in this photo, the four shiny silver buttons along the bottom edge duplicate the application buttons on the iPAQ. Click the image for a larger view of the keys. (104 KB JPEG)
Depending on your backlight settings, it's possible that the backlight could turn off while you're using this keyboard. If that happens, pressing a key will not turn it back on; you'd actually have to tap the screen or press the record button, which is the only visible hardware button once the keyboard is attached. Apparently key presses are not considered activity which would reset the inactivity timer that switches the backlight off. While I'm not a software developer, I'm pretty certain this could be addressed in a driver update.
Speaking of the driver, it's a very good first release. Using my iPAQ h5455 and a friend's 3955, I tested this keyboard using driver version 1.18, which shipped on the CD included in the package. At this time, no driver is available on the HP Web site. The CD contains the manual in Adobe Acrobat PDF format in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages and the driver is provided in those same languages, as well. The only printed material included in the package is HP's absurdly long warranty novel, printed in approximately 327 different languages. Everything else you'd need is on the CD.
Figure 5: An animated image showing the two pages of the HP Slim Keyboard's Settings program.
I had no problems installing the driver or using the installed Slim Keyboard control panel. The directions in the PDF file said to remove any existing keyboard drivers, but I ignored that and installed the Slim Keyboard driver with my Stowaway Keyboard's driver still installed. Both drivers cannot be active at the same time, but you can disable one and enable the other at will without so much as a soft reset. I did notice, however, that the unofficial Ctrl-Q key combination that's been around since the days of the Palm-Size PC to close an application does not work with this keyboard. (It does with the on-screen keyboard and the Stowaway.) Instead, HP's driver has you press Fn and Ctrl to close an app. As these keys are located on opposite sides of the keyboard, it's unlikely that you'd accidentally press them both.
Also regarding the driver, I did notice that in certain applications such as Pocket Word and Notes, when you create a new document, one of the standard input panels still pops up even though you're using the keyboard. This was only a small annoyance, and is something else I'm sure could be addressed in a future driver release.
Because this will no doubt be the first question asked by many readers, no, I do not know if the driver supports Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. I have had a support request in to HP for two weeks about this, but have yet to receive a useful response. If or when I do receive a reply, I will update this review.
Unlike the photos that leaked before release, the actual production keyboard does not have the red and green markings over two of the keys. Many theorized that this would be for use with some future phone-enabled iPAQ model. Another observation about those buttons, it seems that if some of the "useless" empty space around the iPAQ logo were eliminated and some buttons rearranged, an actual directional pad could have been added to this keyboard, making it the first such keyboard to include one. The built-in D-pad of the h5000 series is certainly small enough to fit into that space if a little rearranging were done.
