Anyone who has typed on a touchscreen with his or her thumbs can certify that it gets rather tiring after sometime – especially if you have to hold the smartphone also. At such times, one wishes they had a regular keyboard to allow the use of other fingers also to aid the thumbs. Although a number of keyboards are available, which are small enough to fit easily in the pocket along with the smartphone, LG’s Rolly Keyboard is unique – you can roll and fold it.
LG is coming to the market with an innovatively designed product, the first wireless portable solid keyboard of the industry, which is also roll able. LG’s Rolly Keyboard can easily fit in your pocket, purse or briefcase. It also has two arms that fold out to support your tablet or smartphone, leaving all your fingers free for typing.
Although roll able keyboards are not new in the market, most of these silicone gadgets feel more like an extension of the onscreen keyboard. Their tactile feedback is entirely different from the real feel of a desktop keyboard. That has also led to keyboards with origami-like designs to fit into your pocket. However, LG has managed to combine the feel of a real keyboard with the flexibility of rolling it up.
LG’s Rolly Keyboard, model KBB-700, is made from impact-resistant polycarbonate and ABS plastic. When spread out for use, four rows of keys become visible along with an elongated rectangular box sitting at the top of the keyboard. Inside the box are the two arms that fold out to hold your tablet or smartphone. The box also holds the single AAA battery for powering the keyboard for over three months of normal use. When not in use, the four rows of keys roll up around the rectangular box to form a stick. You can carry the stick easily in your pocket or purse.
Rolly Keyboard uses Bluetooth 3.0 to connect wirelessly to mobile devices. You only have to unroll the keyboard to activate it. Once paired up, any subsequent pairing function works automatically with a specific device. Additionally, you can pair up the keyboard with two devices at a time. A single button press allows you to switch over the keyboard to the other device. Rolly can be powered down simply by rolling it up. The keyboard then forms a stick, making it portable and easy to carry.
Although a portable device, Rolly has a pitch of 17 mm. This, according to LG, is very close to the 18 mm pitch for a desktop keyboard. Pitch being the distance between the centers of any two neighboring keys. That makes typing on Rolly as comfortable as typing on a real desktop keyboard. Additionally, Rolly offers the same tactile feeling as does the desktop keyboard when pressing keys on it. They markings on the Rolly keyboard are high-contrast type and therefore, readability is not an issue.
With Rolly, users can forget the onscreen keyboard on their smartphone. They can keep their smartphone on Rolly’s arms just as they would place a monitor in front of a desktop keyboard. That makes typing on smartphones much simpler than having to use the cramped up keyboard on the screen.
