While I am trying to work out what I am doing in this world, I might as well just randomly talking about things that I buy on The Internet. With that in mind, let’s have a short series of reviews about one of the cowboy category sections of Amazon:
Cheap Import Tech
The thing is, I am a bit of a cheap-o when it come to buying add-ons for my tech. I am typing this right now on my Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra, but normally use a plethora of cheap Bluetooth keyboards. Obviously I go through a lot of cheap Bluetooth keyboards to a single phone.
When I was browsing in time for the recent Amazon Prime Day though the Seenda folding bluetooth keyboard came up and I looked at it, and looked at it again. It ticked a lot of boxes, hence why it is currently sitting on my desk.
As you can see – if you were not around for Golden Block V1; there is no expense spared on photography here. Yes, I have a pink mouse and was wearing shorts when I took the photo.
More importantly though, the size. Unfolded, it is about the same size as the havit mechanical keyboard that I am using on the computer that I was sat at. That is an okay keyboard in itself and I might do a write up on it at some point.
On a nice flat desk surface though, with the S24 Ultra off to my right the tying experience is not actually that bad. The keys are reasonably reactive to the typing that I am doing, although there I do have an issue with touch-typing as fast as i would normally because as you can see; the keys on each section have been…. designed to fit in rather than be uniform.
By looking at the keyboard though, rather than looking at the screen I am comping reasonably well to be error free when I am writing. Using the mouse is fairly effortless as well on the touchpad as well. When I am using the touchpad with the Seenda, the Android based phone screen assumes that I am using the touchscreen keyboard though, whether this is a limitation of the phone set-up or the keyboard I am not sure yet though and I will have to connect a separate mouse to see what happens there.
So that is a bit of an issue when you are using a phone in landscape, like I am doing to write this particular paragraph. The reason? Well when I was originally writing I had my phone propped up against the printer in my home office. Now I am on the road, I am using my S24 Ultra in the holster of it’s Otterbox Defender case. A quick synopsis for the case? I loved it when I had a Galaxy Note 10+ but the rubber surround is not as snug this time.
So while I am writing this on a landscape screen, even pressing the return key to start a new paragraph brings up the on-screen keyboard. That is an issue that I am going to have to find a solution for as it is not great. Clearly when I was using previous keyboards I either did not notice it, or I was not using my phone in landscape anywhere near enough.
Connections to Devices
One of the big plus points of this keyboard is that you can have two isolated bluetooth connections to two separate devices. One of the original reasons for getting a folding keyboard was to connect it to an Android tablet that is issues to me by my employer. For reasons that I won’t go into great detail for, my tablet comes with a specific case to fit into specific machinary in various offices, so I could not get a folio case with a keyboard built in. So having a folding keyboard was theoretically the way to avoid having an exposed keyboard knocking around in my bag and inevitaly having keys ripped off and things damaged.
The Seenda keyboard allows you to connect to a second device as well though. By using a pair of function keys, you can choose and connect independently between two channels; one for my work tablet and one for my personal phone. Switching between the two appears almost immediate and although I have not tried to do it at any length it could almost work like a KVM switch for two devices.
The keyboard therefore will now probably spend more time in my pocket than banging around in my bag. This then causes one of the big problems because it is made of
Plastic
Being at the cheap end of the keyboard line, this folding keyboard is encased in a plastic trio of units. Having been placing it in a side mounted cargo trouser pocket it is inevitably being bashed around and the plastic housing itself does not feel like it will hold up to too much bashing around before it will start to show cracks of wear.
The hinges that the folding keyboard relies up are also not as strong as I would have hoped for something that feels like it is designed to be opened and closed a lot – at least that is the plan on my use case – and even by tightening up the screws on the hinge it does feel a little floppy. When closed though, the magnets fitted within the case are strong enough that I do not feel worried about it coming open in my pocket.
When closed, the keyboard is a little bit chunky if you are going to place it in a ‘normal’ pocket around the hips. I dont’ think that I would find it at all confortable for long.
I am going to be keeping going with this keyboard as my daily driver when I am out and about of a day. I often take an old iPad out for when I am knocking about isn dark and dingy pubs grabbing a beers and writing some stuff; but this might mean my phone is now the go to device over a swift half in the Dog & Bucket.
You can buy the Seenda folding Bluetooth keyboard on Amazon, it is RRP at £30 but does come down to £23 sometimes as well.