iPhone 4: QWERTY Keyboard Buddy from BoxWave – Buy or not?

By
18 November, 2010 Cell Phone Accessories, Cell Phones 7:30 am

We have some good news for those of you with an iPhone 4 wishing that you had a physical keyboard to go along with it. Your prayers have been answered by BoxWave, as they have built a rather slick looking slide-out QWERTY for the iPhone 4.

As reported from Engadget, the guys over at BoxWave have given the iPhone 4 a bit of a Motorola Droid makeover, and as you can see from the included picture below, it doesn’t actually look too bad when attached to the iPhone.

The case is officially called the BoxWave Keyboard Buddy and it is available to buy next month for $70 – is that a reasonable price for a physical keyboard add-on? The build quality does look pretty impressive we have to say.

Take a look at the picture below and let us know your thoughts on the case. Are any of you interested in getting one or not?

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    • Chris

      Just a gimmick to make someone some $$. The keybord already included works just fine. If anything, this keyboard is too small. Iphone 4 rules !

      • BJB

        How is it small? it expands the entire width of the phone. If any thing the screen keyboard is much smaller than this.

    • mandorfz

      it's up to the user if he/she will buy this. this is an accessory and/or enhancement for the iphone4. i will buy this because i wanted a physical keyboard for my phone. there are times that it's monotonous to use only the virtual keyboard. this is not just to make money. it's business by boxwave. you have to create something that consumers will buy just like steve jobs is always doing…

    • Jool

      Also…not everyone can use the touch screen so easily Chris. I need a qwerty pad, for I text using my mouth because I have limited use of my arms. So there, lol :-p

    • Ryan

      when does it even come out where do you buy it?

    • Skeen

      Ordered one. Should be here tomorrow. Will do product review on you tube.

      BrandonSk33n

      • sean

        ok cool .. cant see your you tube vid??

    • Larry

      Chris, I'm wondering if you might possibly be suffering from a little Apple myopia??? I've had Windows Mobile phones (i.e. slide-out keyboard) for several years now and am used to typing lengthy emails, documents, etc. Folks receiving emails from my have commented that they were stunned by the closing pre-text, "Sent from my Windows Mobile device", because the typing is pretty much flawless. My regular keyboard typing speed is about 70 wpm and I'm probably at about 30 – 35 wpm on my phone (though there's no "Mavis Beacon" app to verify that. . . not too bad.

      My wife just got a new iPhone 4 (coming from a Samsung phone with a virtual keyboard that she could type pretty well with). BOTH of us cannot believe how poorly one can type on the iPhone virtual keyboard, whether portrait or landscape.

      YES, we have spent enough tiime (2-1/2 months) getting used to it so, yes, we comfortable with using it. It just doesn't work like a REAL keyboard and I would be really surprised if ANYONE could possibly type more than ~ 15 wpm on it – again, I'm not aware of any app to check typing speed but that would be a good one. (Maybe I should suggest it to "Mavis"!!!) Remember, it's hard to imagine how one could possibly type as quickly with ONE finger compared to TWO thumbs. Because we're both touch-typists, we can type with two thumbs without even looking at the screen (me with my Windows Mobile and my wife with her old Samsung virtual touch-sensitive screen).

      Our children are getting Mommy this Boxwave keyboard for a Christmas present (albeit, arriving late) to end her frustration. Otherwise, she's become a full-fledged Apply fan. We have noticed this phenomenon of Apply fans who seem to be unable to admit that, as cool as it is (really cool), as well is it "just works" (it's downright amazing, especially compared to Windows), it STILL has shortcomings.

      I'm curious. How much and what do you type? The occasional text message? Any serious typing???

      It should be interesting to see how this one sells. It looks awesome and we're looking forward to it's arrival to test it out. I do wish Boxwave would really explain their 30-day "Satisfaction Guaranteed" guarantee. We may test it out if we don't like the keyboard. Watch for our "review" on it after we get it!!!

      Cheers!

      • Andrew

        If you’re typing with one finger you’re doing it wrong, it’s very very easy to type accurately on an iPhone with 2 thumbs. With autocorrect on it’s easy to achieve well over 30 wpm with 2 thumbs.

    • Sam

      Just got the Boxwave Keyboard Buddy but I was wondering if it was ok to leave it on when I wasn't using it

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