Saturday, August 3, 2013

Yet more Galaxy S4

Being a keyboard person I looked for a solution for my S4... A number of keyboard cases appear to exist, but upon further inspection they all look exactly to be exactly the same regardless of the seller... So I tried one from MegaGear. It comes in two parts - you slip your S4 into a detachable case that then clips in place to the keyboard assembly. The keyboard, which is backlit, pairs with your S4 via Bluetooth, and has its own lithium battery... 

See below for pictures:


The verdict? This does add some heft to the phone, but the ensemble works reasonably well, and is easy to put together and take apart. Unfortunately, the kiss of death is the keyboard, which while "thumb friendly" is very noisy. It's now "OTS" ("on the shelf"). Here is a YouTube review.


OK, so the integrated keyboard didn't work out, how about using the S4 with an external keyboard? Get the MicroUSB 3-port Hub with Smart Phone Stand from Brando for just $10, which gives you connectivity to 3  full USB ports, which would allow the S4 to be used with a keyboard and mouse....


 

Ended up only using one USB port by using a Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse... I haven't used it long enough to get a feel for what this will do for battery life (since the hub has no battery of its own and is powered by the S4), but this setup works perfectly. The Gadgeteer has an in-depth review of this item.

Previous S4 blog entries:
More Galaxy S4
Galaxy S4 second look
Galaxy S4 first look

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