Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. News

Typo keyboard case review

Jeffrey Van Camp
By
Typo iPhone 5 case review front
Typo keyboard case
MSRP $100.00
Score Details
“The Typo keyboard is a great idea, but in its current form, typing on it is more stressful than putting up with the iPhone’s cramped touchscreen.”
Pros
  • Thin and light
  • Working keyboard with backlight
  • BB addicts may love it
  • Charging cable has Micro USB and Lightning
Cons
  • Covers up Home button
  • Cramped keys due to portrait orientation
  • Requires its own separate charger
  • Keys feel plasticky

Typing on the iPhone isn’t fun. We’ve all gotten used to it, but its screen is exceedingly thin and even the best thumb typers make a lot of mistakes. Flip phones weren’t any better with their T9 screens, but before the iPhone shifted the smartphone market toward touch, many high-end phones had BlackBerry-style physical keyboards. Ryan Seacrest misses those days. To bring back the past, he helped raise money, start a company, and create the Typo. It’s a case for the iPhone that adds a full QWERTY keyboard to Apple’s buttonless screen.

We’ve been using the Typo on and off for a few weeks. It slips onto your iPhone in two pieces, like many cases, and the keyboard covers up your Home button, giving you a very long iPhone.

Related

I like keyboards, and still lament the day I had to give up the nice slide-out QWERTY on the original Motorola Droid, but the Typo isn’t for me. It’s a solid little keyboard in many respects, and possibly the thinnest keyboard attachment I’ve ever seen, but it has a few nagging issues.

Home button blues

Pairing the Typo via Bluetooth was easy enough, but it’s difficult to get used to not having a Home button, which the Typo covers. The first time I tried to pair it, I already had it on the iPhone, which rendered me without a Home button at all.

Typo iPhone 5 case review keyboard macro
Image used with permission by copyright holder

After some investigating, I discovered that there is a small Home button on the Typo, but it’s a tiny little button in the lower right – no bigger than any other key. I’d often forget where it is, or press the wrong button in a pinch. You press the Home button more than almost anything else on an iPhone. Optimally, a keyboard like this needs to incorporate the Home button into a more prominent, easy-to-press, space.

That cramped, carpal-tunnel feeling

If Apple’s touch keyboard is tough to type on because of its size, then the Typo is maddening. Because it attaches to the bottom of the iPhone in vertical orientation, it’s still cramped in by the thinness of the iPhone. The buttons are very small, and very plasticky. The keys have a snap like a BlackBerry keyboard has, but without a little more width to spread the keys out, it’s difficult to type accurately. Ironically, using the Typo lead to a dramatic increase in my own typos.

Because the Typo attaches to the bottom of an already long phone, when you type, the device is very top heavy, which could lead to some falls.

It needs power, but doesn’t like to share

Perhaps the worst part about the Typo (at least in its prototype phase), is that you have to charge it separately from your phone. Unlike a Mophie Juicepack-like case, the Typo doesn’t plug directly into your Lightning connector. Instead, it runs on its own internal battery for power. My unit came with a very cool charging cable that could convert between a Lightning charger (for iPhone) and Micro USB (for Typo), but the cable didn’t allow you to charge both your keyboard and phone at once.

Without a way to dual-charge, there’s a good chance you’ll forget to top off your keyboard and it will die on you in the wild, leading to a particularly nasty situation where you’d have to revert to touch typing.

It’s just not there yet

I’d love a good physical keyboard for the iPhone (or an Android), but the Typo isn’t it – at least, not yet. If it could charge with your iPhone, had a better place Home button, and a little more breathing room around the keys, it might be worth the investment, but for its planned $100 price, only die hard keyboard lovers with a lot of disposable income should dare. The Typo will be available beginning Jan. 13.

Highs

  • Thin and light
  • Working keyboard with backlight
  • BB addicts may love it
  • Charging cable has Micro USB and Lightning

Lows

  • Covers up Home button
  • Cramped keys due to portrait orientation
  • Requires its own separate charger
  • Keys feel plasticky

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Jeffrey Van Camp
Jeffrey Van Camp
Former Digital Trends Contributor
As DT's Deputy Editor, Jeff helps oversee editorial operations at Digital Trends. Previously, he ran the site's…
Meet Moment’s iPhone 12 MagSafe cases and photography mounts
moment magsafe accessories iphone 12 news 3

Moment has been around for a long time, making camera-focused smartphone accessories for photography buffs with all sorts of phones. Today, it’s branching out, with a slew of accessories that take advantage of the new MagSafe system on the iPhone 12 series.

The series of accessories appeals to both photography enthusiasts and average users alike. At the core of it all is MagSafe support — it has a set of new cases that support MagSafe for use with any other accessories, and a new system of mounts and attachments that rely solely on MagSafe.
The cases, in both “thin” and “protective” varieties, come in bold colors and are compatible with the Moment series of camera lens attachments. They work with MagSafe for attachments and charging, and even the thicker protective case is compatible with standard Qi charging.

Read more
There’s no shortage of iPhone 12 case deals this Prime Day
apple iphone 12 news iphone12 7

Amazon's big day has arrived, and the Prime Day deals are flying out left and right. But apparently no-one told Apple, because the Cupertino, California giant has decided to steal Amazon's thunder by announcing the highly anticipated iPhone 12 range. But never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Amazon already has a huge range of iPhone 12 cases ready to buy, today on Prime Day. So if you can't get enough of the iPhone 12, buy your case today, and while you're at it, check out the best Prime Day Apple deals too.

Of course, when you're buying a case, the question is always "which one?" There's a large number of case manufacturers out there, and even more styles of cases to boot. Should you buy a clear gel case, a stylish leather wallet folio, or a big and bulky rugged cover? Each choice has its own advantages and disadvantages, and your choice of case should reflect what you need from your case and how you're going to use your phone. Will your phone spend most of its time in your pocket or at home, and only needs rudimentary protection? A good clear case is always a solid choice, especially if you pick one with reinforced corners and perhaps a nice looking design. If you're a constant traveler, then the extra space afforded by a wallet case's card slots can come in useful for travel tickets and spare cash. Or if you're constantly exploring, or simply clumsy, then the extra protection afforded by a bigger, protective case may be a good fit for you.

Read more
The new Apple iPad Pro’s special keyboard has a trackpad, making it a laptop
Apple iPad Pro 2020 Keyboard

Apple has launched a new iPad Pro for 2020, and with it has blurred the line even further between tablet and laptop, to the point where they're almost indistinguishable. How? The iPad Pro comes with either an 11-inch or 12.9-inch screen and is designed to work with a new Magic Keyboard accessory, which has a trackpad in front of backlit, full-size keys. It has become as close to a laptop as possible, without actually being called a laptop.

The trackpad is enabled by Apple’s iPadOS 13.4, where the on-screen cursor has been tweaked to work perfectly whether it’s operated by your finger on the touchscreen, or when it’s on the trackpad. For example, the cursor becomes a circle to highlight aspects of what’s on the screen when using touch, while the trackpad is made to switch between apps, use the Dock, or for multitasking. Apple promises most apps will work with the trackpad without any input from the developer; but more features are available to those who do choose to work with the API.

Read more