VinceC

Alright.... I am now ready to undertake the ask of buying a KB for my Axim. I have looked around the forum and the site, and everyone just seems to give mixed reviews. Here are a few fundamental questions I have:

- Regarding IR keyboards, are they just as fast as normal KB's? Is there ANY lag whatsoever? I am an extremely fast typist, and so if the KB can't keep up with about 140 words per minute, then I won't be able to stand using it for more than 5 minutes, haha.

- Regarding IR keyboards, how long will the battery last? Assume "heavy" usage on a daily basis.

- The review on this website for the Dell KB is less than dazzling. Does the Dell KB really somehow slow down after a certain period of time? Has anyone run in to this problem?

- Overall.... which keyboard is the best, basically? I don't think I am willing to spend the money for a BT KB.... unless someone says that are the best.

JEM618

I have the BT keyboard from the dell site. I can't type that fast, so I don't know if speed or lag is an issue, but seems fine to me.

hawa50

Dear All:

Just my 2 cents. I have a ThinkOutside bluetooth to use with both my Pwrbook and Dell. It is not bad but my latch, which you need to locked it up after folding it, broke off. Superglue fixed this for now.
My only other gripe is that if you do not touch something on the keyboard within 2-3 minutes, the keyboard will disconnect its link to whatever I use for. If there is something that can overcome this, the manual does not say.
Sorry if I imposed.
Sincerely,
hawa50

Lightstorm

For those using the BT KB, do you notice a heavy battery drain on the Axim itself?

VinceC

Yes I am wondering that as well. Also, how long will a BT keyboard last on batteries? What about an IR keyboard?

I am just really stumped as to which keyboard to buy. There are a lot... and they all get mixed reviews. And none of them are cheap either... making this decision even harder.

axcilla

I use the IR Keyboard at about 80 words a minute with no lag, once it connects its great. Its small and does not drain as much battery power fro m the Axim as bluetooth. It runs on 1 AAA battery, so I'm not sure exactly how many hours but its not too hard to keep an extra AAA battery around.

BTW I'm using a Belkin IR and love it.

__________________
http://front-grill.com
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Axim X30 Mid
Belkin Leather Case
Belkin IR Keyboard
HP Laser /Light Stylus
Sandisk 1gb SD Card
Sandisk 512mb SD Card
Sandisk Card Reader

Xtremegene

I'm using the 'Dell KB' (which I'm assuming is the regular wired one, I ordered it from them with my X30), and to be honest, yes, a few times when I was typing notes, it seemed to slow down noticeably. I never investigated whether it was Pocket Word or the system being bogged down as opposed to the keyboard itself, but a soft reset always seemed to fix the problem for me.

IR looks like it's affordable and economical for having no wires; and while I'd love to have all of my input devices as Bluetooth, I currently don't have anything besides my X30 that utilizes it, simply because all of those devices cost way more than non-Bluetooth ones, and I can't justify why I would spend that much.

__________________
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x30 Thumbboard driver link (as Belkin graciously doesn't deign to use up space to support it anymore):
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Seanz0rz

i love my thinkoutside bt keyboard so much, never failed me.

there is a way around the connection issue. i had it working before my axim died, and i havent had time to redo it on my replacement.

i got mine on ebay for 99$, and it was well worth it.

i had the targus ir keyboard, it was a POS and the construction, build quality, and design were worthless. the TOS bt has awesome engineering.

the battery drain i cant honestly speak for, though i get at least 4 good hours of use out of it every day, and still have battery to spare for a few rounds of solitare and the occasional lookup.

VinceC

Can the keyboard hold the axim sideways (landscape)?

CRXGSR

With bluetooth, and position is possible (even in your pocket). With IR, you need line of sight, meaning the IR ports must be lined up.

__________________

jeremy spencer

Originally Posted by VinceC

Alright.... I am now ready to undertake the ask of buying a KB for my Axim. I have looked around the forum and the site, and everyone just seems to give mixed reviews. Here are a few fundamental questions I have: - Regarding IR keyboards, are they just as fast as normal KB's? Is there ANY lag whatsoever? I am an extremely fast typist, and so if the KB can't keep up with about 140 words per minute, then I won't be able to stand using it for more than 5 minutes, haha. - Regarding IR keyboards, how long will the battery last? Assume "heavy" usage on a daily basis. - The review on this website for the Dell KB is less than dazzling. Does the Dell KB really somehow slow down after a certain period of time? Has anyone run in to this problem? - Overall.... which keyboard is the best, basically? I don't think I am willing to spend the money for a BT KB.... unless someone says that are the best.

I have used the simple Dell foldable kb extensively for six months now, being a writer, and no problem. It does lag after awhile when when typing a new Word doc. But I save it, open it in file explorer and continue with no lag whatsoever,
I tried a friend's Think Outside infra red for a few hours, and it did the exact same thing. Had to save and reopen in file explorer to continue. So for me the foldable is great, and u can power up as u go.