Windows Phone Thoughts: Don't Go Away Without Your Stowaway - iGo Stowaway Bluetooth Keyboard Reviewed

Using the Stowaway
In actual use, I found the Stowaway to work quite well for such a portable device. In many ways, it reminded me of using a laptop keyboard vs. a desktop keyboard. The keys are close to the size of my desktop keyboard, but have more limited travel as do most laptops. The base of the Stowaway is solid with rubber feet to prevent slipping. It felt pretty solid while typing, but the ends of the keyboard are not supported by the base, so I experiences some minor flexing when using keys on the end, and the keyboard occasionally tilted a bit as well. I'm a touch typist and moderately fast, and I did find that I could type pretty much at full speed, as long as there aren't a lot of numbers and symbols involved. I found the need to use function keys to access numbers and symbols to be a bit daunting, but I'm sure that would improve with more extensive use.


Figure 8: The Input Method Toolbar.

While using the keyboard within applications, you can display the Input Method Toolbar toward the bottom of the screen, as shown in Figure 8. From this toolbar, you can see the status of the keyboard connection, turn key click on or off, access the Keyboard Control Panel and display Help.


Figure 9: For the hunt and peck typists among us, word completion might speed things up a bit...

While typing, word completion suggestions are displayed. You can use the up and down arrow keys to highlight the desired suggestion and hit Enter to accept.

The Stowaway is powered by 2 AAA batteries which have a claimed life of ~120 hours or 3 months of usage. It draws no power from your Pocket PC, but it has an impact on your battery life since Bluetooth must be active to use it.

Conclusions
The Pocket PC has several applications that can be described as desktop class, which makes using one to fill in for a laptop a viable option for many people. If you're one such person, a keyboard like the Stowaway will almost certainly improve your productivity. It feels much like a laptop keyboard in use and if you're a moderately to very fast typist, your speed should ultimately exceed that of any touch screen based input method. It has very efficient power usage and is easy to carry. So if you can benefit from such a keyboard, the Stowaway is a great choice. Just make sure that you have the latest drivers.