2. Stowaway Keyboard Details

As with so many computer components today, the keyboard is made in China. As opposed to the mixed impressions we had when we first saw cars that were made in China, the Stowaway Keyboard looks decent. The body is made of solid plastic with rubber protecting the edges. The device mounting bracket is at the back of the keyboard. It is made of metal but coated with rubber to prevent scratching your mobile phone or PDA and help hold it in place.

Overall the keyboard seems well thought out. Given the relatively small size of the keyboard we expected the keys to be smaller than those on a regular computer keyboard. However, we had no serious difficulty typing on the keyboard's nicely sized keys. The short key travel was not to be a problem either.

In practice, however, we did find some drawbacks. The power button is oddly placed on the bottom of the keyboard. Also the manufacturer could have found a better solution for holding a phone or PDA in place. Two sliders are used. One slider presses on each side of the communications device you connect to the keyboard. If one or both of the sliders are moved accidentally the device could simply fall off of the keyboard. Finally we found that the right side of the keyboard would not lay flat on a table. This might be a problem only with our test sample.