The physical keyboard that Steve Jobs finally canceled has been added back by this company

At the beginning of this year, a company called Clicks launched a very "retro" accessory for the iPhone - Clicks Keyboard Case, which is actually an external physical keyboard for the iPhone. After connecting it to the iPhone, you can use the early Use iPhone in the same way as BlackBerry.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

There are currently 6 models in the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 series. The iPhone 14 Pro series is available in yellow and gray blue, while the iPhone 15 series adds pink and dark blue. The official selling price is US$139 to US$159.

Since Clicks is sold in batches with different models, we only recently got the mass-produced version of Clicks Keyboard for iPhone 15 Pro Max.

After the first-generation iPhone canceled the physical keyboard, many "unserviceable" third-party manufacturers tried to add physical buttons to the iPhone. After all, the one that was useful was a company called Typo during the iPhone 5 era. Its keyboard, which was very similar to the BlackBerry Bold series, also gained many users at the time.

Typo keyboard Source: LU

Clicks’ button layout is more like Palm’s “little bean” buttons, each The keys all look exactly the same and are not tilted at any angle. What is comfortable is that Clicks provides a keyboard backlight function.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

This product not only feels comfortable, but also has a more accurate algorithm design and an overall protective case The injection molding marks on the frame are also very obvious. For a protective case that sells for more than 1,000 yuan (the secondary market price is about 1,700 yuan), its workmanship is definitely not excellent.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

If you have an iPhone 14 Pro series model, Clicks Keyboard Cace will use Lightning Connect to your phone, and the iPhone 15 series has a Type-C interface (there is an additional interface at the bottom to charge the phone directly).

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

Since this peripheral does not have its own built-in battery, all power is supplied by The reverse output of iPhone, after actual testing, after using Clicks Keyboard Case, your phone's battery life will be "slightly" reduced.

After having this physical keyboard, you will feel that your iPhone screen has become larger when typing, because the virtual keyboard will no longer occupy screen space. This was also the case when the BlackBerry Key series was "dying". One of the main publicity points.

Blackberry KeyOne & KeyTwo Source: LU

What many people don’t know is: Although the iPhone has been canceled as a physical entity keyboard, but still supports many shortcuts. Whether it is on a virtual keyboard or an external Bluetooth keyboard, you can call these physical keys for shortcut operations.

Physical keyboard shortcuts:

Home button: Command-H

Search: Command-Space

Switch apps: Command-Tab

Select all: Command-A

Cut: Command-X

Copy: Command-C

Paste: Command-V

Bold: Command-B

Italic: Command-I

Virtual keyboard shortcut gestures:

Insert cursor: single point text

Select a single word/phrase: Double-click the text

Select the entire sentence: Triple-click the text

Copy text: After selecting the text, retract three fingers

Paste text: Three fingers Release

Undo the previous step: Swipe left with three fingers

Repeat the previous step: Swipe right with three fingers

On the Clicks Keyboard Cace, you can press and hold the number Use the key switch key + keyboard to input the corresponding letters and special symbols on the physical keyboard. The operation methods such as case lock and input method switching are also the same as the Mac operating habits.

If you haven’t used a physical keyboard to type for a long time, most people will choose to give up after the novelty wears off.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

But for a die-hard BlackBerry fan, after two days of using it, I gradually regained the "pleasure" of typing on a BlackBerry phone in the early days. Not only has the input efficiency been significantly improved, but it has also brought my mind back to the joy of playing with the computer in the early days.

You may find it incredible to say it, but this article was completed entirely on the Notepad of iPhone by relying on Clicks Keyboard Cace.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

But its problems are also very obvious.

First of all, the Pro Max model itself is very large. When coupled with the Clicks Keyboard Case, the size becomes even more terrifying. Not only does it not fit into the pocket of shorts, it also cannot fit into most mobile phone bags on the market.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

In addition, because it is not equipped with a battery, the entire Clicks Keyboard Case’s keyboard position actually weighs It is very light. When typing, the entire device will be top-heavy. Users with small hands may drop the phone every minute.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

Although in order to avoid this problem, Clicks made a leather on the back of the phone case The patch is anti-slip, but in actual use it can only be said to be "better than nothing".

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

Moreover, Clicks Keyboard Cace does not have additional magnetic suction on the phone case structure, so after putting on the protective case, although the MagSafe function can continue to be used, the magnetic force is greatly reduced, and it is no longer suitable for external magnetic power bank or vertical wireless charger.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Source: LU

Finally, there are many software whose input interface is very poor without a virtual keyboard. It’s awkward, you can’t see the word selection bar when typing, and the WeChat input method currently has a situation where alternative words are highlighted and other phrases cannot be seen in the night mode.

Fortunately, Clicks Keyboard Case can bring up the virtual keyboard with one click in the lower right corner of the keyboard. Even if a bug occurs during use, you can choose to directly bring up the virtual keyboard to complete the operation.

The one between TAB and the voice key is the key to bring up the virtual keyboard. Source: Lu

Summary

iPhone is a portable smart device with the highest sales volume in the world. In addition to the software ecological moat of iOS, a large part of the reason is that there are so many developers and manufacturers who originally thought of it to design and produce some weird peripherals. , to make it more personal and interesting.

Clicks Keyboard Cace Picture source: LU

At a time when mobile phone appearance design has entered a bottleneck period and is tending to be unified, it is Only these novel products can bring a bit of vitality to the entire market. They may be expensive and not suitable, but they do bring us another way to use the iPhone. We hope that there will be more and more such devices. Be willing to pay for these excellent designs.

This article comes from the WeChat public account: Unobjective Laboratory (ID: gh_719281df296b), author: Lu

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