Bluetooth Keyboard For PDA

Have been rather quiet for a while. Today I thought of sharing with you guys my experience in using the bluetooth keyboard pairing with my PDAs. I have both the Brando Smart Bluetooth KB, as well as the Thinkoutside Stowaway BT KB! And I have both the Palm TX and Dell x50v. I did some research before buying my first KB, which is the Smart KB. That time, my decision to get the Smart KB was mainly influenced by a few reviews, and on top of that -- the price (cheaper than the Thinkoutside KB). After using it for a couple of months, I finally gave up!

I started searching for Thinkoutside KB online, and found a good deal at Gadgetino. And I bought it.

Both the KB have their pros and cons. But just a few obvious ones:

Pros of Smart KB:
-- light weight
-- easy to open up
-- on/off button
-- 5 rows of keys

Cons of Smart KB
-- flimsy design (at times cannot lay flat on table)
-- smaller keys (causing many errors while typing)
-- noticable delay in words appearing on screen after pressing the keys (more obvious in PPC, but better in Palm)

Pros of Thinkoutside KB
-- very well built, sturdy design
-- excellent keys (good tactile feel, and full sized keys)
-- lay flat and firm on table (can even be placed on my lap)
-- no delay in transmission (u see words appear as u type along)
-- many customizable function keys, minimizing the use of stylus

Cons of Thinkoutside KB
-- more expensive
-- no on/off button
-- 4 rows of keys only (but one can get used to it pretty fast)
-- difficult driver installation (esp in PPC: error message while installing)

In short, after using both the keyboards, I still think the Thinkoutside KB is the overall winner!

So for those of you who want to use bluetooth keyboard with the PPC, just go for Thinkoutside. Otherwise for Palm, either one can do! But if u really type a lot (i mean A LOT!) then its better off using the laptop/desktop to do that task -- still the best, IMO.