Satechi Bluetooth Wireless Smart Keypad
I am a big fan of Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard. I like its compact size, elegant design, and, almost more than anything else, the feel of its keys while typing. They provide the exact amount of tactile feedback that I like, and I almost don’t like typing with any other keyboard. However, one of the shortcomings of this keyboard is the lack of separate numerical keypad that used to be the staple of most computer keyboards for as long as the personal computers have been around. Granted, I don’t enter significant amount of numerical data any more, but every once in a while when I need to do some quick calculations I miss the actual separate numerical keypad. For the past year or so I had coopted the trackpad to do the job of a numerical keypad with the use of Mobee Magic Numpad. However, this setup is far from ideal – I don’t have the tactile feedback that I am so used to, and the surface of my trackpad has become decidedly less smooth and responsive. All of these shortcoming are the major reason why I was excited to try out and test the Satechi Wireless Keypad.
The Satechi keypad is very clearly designed to look like the Apple’s keyboard and trackpad peripherals. However, it is slightly longer on the account of the extra LCD screen on the top of its front surface. Also, unlike the Apple peripherals, it is not made out of aluminum but rather out of plastic. If you are just casually glancing at your work area desk you would not notice this difference though, but once you start typing the similarity disappears. The action of the keys is also softer than that of the Apple’s keyboard.
The setup was very straightforward. You just need to insert the two AA batteries (included), turn on the keypad, press the pairing button on the back with a thin sharp object, and then select the keypad from the Bluetooth pairing menu on your computer. The keypad is compatible with both the Mac computers as well as the Windows machines. It might also be compatible with some tablets and Linux computers, but I have not tested it with either one of those.
In addition to serving as an external computer keypad you can also use this device as a stand-alone simple calculator. These days I mostly use my iPhone for this purpose, but a stand-alone calculator for some quick calculations can come in handy. You can go back and forth between the calculator and the keypad modes by pressing the “mode” button.
This keypad is fairly rudimentary and I would have liked for it to include a few additional keys. They page navigation keys would have been nice, as well as a separate key for launching the calculator app on your computer. Even better would have been an inclusion of programmable keys. Tis would have made this keypad a very powerful tool in more sophisticated spreadsheet manipulations, advanced scientific calculations, or even as a gaming keypad.
This is a really good product, and a welcome addition to my workspace. However, I think it’s a bit on a pricey side. A price point that is $5 -$10 less than the current $35 on Amazon would make this keypad much more appealing to the general casual users.
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