What’s It Like to Use an iPhone With a Physical Keyboard? I Got a Chance to Find Out

When the original iPhone launched, back in 2007, it marked a company rejection of button heavy {{hardware}} like BlackBerrys and Palm Treos, and the overwhelming success of its onscreen keyboard almost banished the bodily keyboard from our cellphone lives. A startup agency with a model new iPhone case referred to as Clicks is hoping to change all that.

Two popular YouTubers have debuted an iPhone case at CES 2024 that gives a bodily keyboard with precise buttons to the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max. Clicks is the kind of retro, “analog” tech that’s been making a splash with Gen Z, nevertheless that older generations may uncover nostalgic as successfully, harkening once more to the occasions of early smartphones. I simply recently purchased a possibility to take a look at the Clicks case specifically individual to see what it’s like.

Study additional: Best of Show: Our Most Exciting, Innovative and Impactful Tech Winners of CES 2024

As an iPhone individual, I nonetheless uncover myself longing for a bodily keyboard now and again, notably when my fingertips are damp after ending a sweaty train or coping with a perspiring cup of iced espresso. I usually crave the precision typing that I get on my laptop computer laptop, along with the somatic satisfaction of smashing a bodily keyboard with my thumbs. 

That is the issue: Not solely has the iPhone under no circumstances had a bodily keyboard; it was revolutionary partially because of it didn’t. Save for the home button and a few completely different controls, the iPhone celebrated its all-virtual keyboard.

Watch this: This iPhone Case Supplies You a Bodily Keyboard

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The Clicks case launches Feb. 1 for the iPhone 14 Pro, and later inside the spring for iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Clicks circumstances are available for preorder now, ranging in worth from $139 to $159. Coloration selections embody banana-yellow BumbleBee and a additional tame, grayscale London Sky.

That is what I expert when altering my iPhone 15 Skilled proper right into a keyboarded handheld smartphone for the first time.

Palms-on with Clicks keyboard case for iPhone Skilled

Let’s get to the underside line first, then dive into the small print. The extra show display screen space whereas typing is a dream, the case was surprisingly delicate, and I acclimated to the additional keyboard shortcuts shortly.

Primarily essentially the most fast and obvious revenue to the Clicks case is the change in show display screen measurement when typing. As a result of the case already has a keyboard, the digital keyboard no longer appears in your show display screen whereas typing, offering you with way more room. 

It was weird in a good way, an precise “wow” second, and the extra show display screen precise property alone may be undoubtedly well worth the funding. On the demos I seen, which showcased an in-progress Instagram Story draft, the excellence was dramatic — really helpful for creators who don’t want to toggle forwards and backwards to see how a draft submit seems to be like.

The proper half? No spelunking in your Settings to switch keyboard preferences; the change takes impression immediately as rapidly as you plug the case in.

I believed together with a case sufficiently huge for a keyboard would add a lot of weight, nevertheless the Clicks case was lighter than I anticipated. Stuffing my cellphone into each the doorway or rear pocket of my Levis was doable, although the case clearly jutted out. Since accessing numbers with the Clicks case connected requires each a Shift or amount lock command first, you’ll not have to worry about intra-pocket keyboard button mashing locking you out of your system. Some of us may uncover the extra measurement clunky and select to shed the case for frequently actions, equal to taking a cellphone identify with out earbuds.

It was surprisingly simple to slip the Clicks iPhone case onto my cellphone, although the USB-C port juts out on the bottom. Identical to the keys themselves, the case has a rubbery prime quality with just a little little bit of stretch, in order quickly because the port was connected, pulling the lip of the case extreme of my cellphone was simple. To remove, I pressed gently on the once more to pop the very best of my cellphone forward, then slid my iPhone out.

The case has a MagSafe pass-through port on the bottom, so you could nonetheless be able to use charging wires or completely different tools as wished.

Clicks comes with a lot of preprogrammed keyboard shortcuts and means that you can customise additional shortcuts of your private, for an entire of as a lot as 36 directions. I examined two shortcuts intimately: Command-H, to return to the home show display screen, and a spacebar shortcut, which scrolls down a web-based net web page when on a browser. After I requested SVP of Product Promoting Jeff Gadway whether or not or not this shortcut would moreover work on social media feeds, he talked about it relies upon upon the app, comparatively than {{hardware}} preferences. 

Nonetheless, every shortcuts have been deliciously useful and easy to undertake — I had them down in only some tries. I would see myself learning prolonged articles or websites with out having to maneuver my thumb repeatedly, identical to how a Kindle or e-reader works.

The Clicks keys are tactile with just a little little bit of a rubbery prime quality, and lean additional in direction of Tamagotchi than Magic Keyboard. The bodily keyboard is laid out in any other case out of your iPhone’s digital keyboard, primarily as a result of Clicks’ wider bottom row, which gives a command key, tab key and symbols key.

On the iPhone 15 Skilled model I demoed, the bodily keyboard was smaller than your cellphone’s digital keyboard. It was exhausting to tell how prolonged it might take for me to acclimate to the buttons, nevertheless on my maiden voyage points felt a bit crowded. I ended up tilting my fingertips forward so I would sort with my nails instead. I’m not sure I’d want to write an article on my cellphone (As I’ve been doing with this very story whereas on the CES current flooring), but it surely absolutely’s exhausting to say after spending solely 20 minutes with the system. The iPhone 15 Skilled Max model I tried had a additional spacious keyboard.

My Clicks iPhone case takeaways

What shocked me most was that the change in keyboard interface was immediate. It went into impression the second I plugged the case into my iPhone, which had me questioning why one other individual hadn’t thought-about this sooner. Perhaps that’s the benefit of getting two seasoned commerce execs on the helm: Michael Fisher and Kevin Michaluk, acknowledged respectively as Mr. Mobile and CrackBerry Kevin on YouTube.

We’ll be able to give a additional in-depth overview of the Clicks iPhone case ultimately, when the company begins fulfilling orders subsequent month. Nonetheless as far as first impressions go, this case might be an outstanding match for iPhone Skilled clients in search of a bodily keyboard experience.

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