Rii X1

The inexpensive price of this mini keyboard places it in the "not really sure about it, but give it a go anyway." category. I purchased it primarily for my nVidia Shield tablet on which I have to rely on the onscreen keyboard. Whilst this has large keys and is easy to use, the fact that it hides a lot of the screen at the same time I've always felt a disadvantage in use. This is particularly so when radio buttons need to be pressed and which can't be seen without scrolling the upper, visible, part of the screen. As supplied, it isn't possible to use it with the Shield immediately as this has a micro USB port and the necessary OTG cable was not included and which is necessary to connect the little wireless receiver. An OTG cable for mini-USB is supplied with the unit, and for charging. Having charged the keyboard I connected the wireless receiver via my OTG cable (female USB to micro USB) and plugged it into the shield whilst it was switched on. Then when I switched on the keyboard it was paired automatically (no delving into settings) and in use there was no discernible delay from pressing a key to the character appearing on screen. The tactile feedback of the little keys is good. I've never been much of a fan of track pads on my laptops, so whilst this one works, it isn't, and I wasn't expecting it to be, on a par with those. Used with the Shield it is a bit slow and awkward. So it has satisfied my primary reason to buy it - use with my nVidia Shield tablet. Out of curiosity, I tried it with my W7 Professional laptop with which I already use a wireless mouse. After the little Windows prompt following insertion of the wireless receiver, it worked as expected and connected automatically, although the cursor speed using the touch pad is too fast to be accurate when pinpointing on screen. The best news with this set up is that it does not interfere with my wireless mouse and I can now position my 17.3" laptop a little further away to view DVD/Blu-ray movies, as it no longer needs to be within arms' reach to use its inbuilt keyboard. This is an advantage that didn't inform my buying decision, but has simply enhanced it. I found it also automatically paired with my HTC One M8 although nothing on the screen indicated it had. However, I can't really see myself carrying this with the M8, so whilst yes, one could, I won't. I hesitated about a 4 or 5 Star rating, and had it been just for use with the Shield, I would have awarded it 4 Stars due to the slight problems using the mouse pad. However, used with my laptop it has opened up fresh opportunities, so for me, the mini keyboard is a 5 Star product. PS. As Amazon has a habit of sometimes posting reviews of near-identical products together, I'd just like to reaffirm that this review is for the Rii brand. There are similar units with identical case work but with the secondary key function layouts being different.

A neat little keyboard that worked out of the box with my Raspberry Pi with Kodi. The unit is slim and easy to hold. The individual keys are rubbery with good click feedback, and although the keys are quite small I find it easy to thumb-type. The on-off slide switch on the side is handy as the keyboard is not used all the time, and the wireless connection is quick to reconnect and seems reliable across the lounge (3-4m from TV cabinet). It makes life a lot easier performing searches and entering text. The mouse pad is quite small but responds well. There is a 4 way pad below the mouse, but it lacks a central OK/select button which is a annoying omission. I can't comment on the battery life yet and there is no battery compartment accessible from outside, but the bottom panel can be unscrewed, so it looks like the battery may be replaceable if necessary.

This is a very compact almost-qwerty (the keys are in a rectilinear grid rather than staggered) keyboard with onboard storage for its 2.4GHz radio USB dongle and USB-C port for charging. It came with a rather odd USB-A male-female cable that breaks out the VBUS power to a third USB-C plug which means for example you can charge it from your PC while still using the USB port for something else. Cute really. Keyboard action is quite nice - more positive than the usual TV remote buttons you get for example. Radio range is ample for most people's lounges and because it's USB-based, the keyboard works for BIOS settings and other non-GUI-OS work which saves having to crouch in front of the TV with a wired keyboard when configuring or installing a new OS. Doesn't look out of place on the coffee table with the other remote controls.

It is a functional piece of kit...much better and more useful than using a standard TV remote control or Android box remote. The buttons are soft and register button presses well. The trackpad is sensitive and registers a double click to execute an on screen press. Battery life has been very good so far as I switch it off in use when not needed so no complaints on this front. It's the lair down version as it has parts of the case that are covered in plastic where other components would presumably be fixed to (like an air laser for controlling mouse movement using movement). But even then this reduced down version does all that you need. The only not so good thing is that some of the functions accessed on the pad don't work as intended or have a redundant purpose. Specifically there's an alt + cntl button...which simply resets my Android box. What I prefer is a on/off button to switch my Android box to standby or wake it up. Also, the back space to delete button doesn't work...instead it adds a 'l' character. Which is useless when entering a search word and wanting to instruct to start searching. Instead you have to use the trackpad and select the on-screen enter button which is a more difficult step and less efficient. Other than this...it's a handy remote that is thin and very light. I'd recommend.

Smaller than expected, but seems to work fine for my needs. I just needed a compact M/KB combo to control my HTPC/Gaming PC from the couch. For that purpose, it’s fine. The touchpad isn’t great, but serviceable. You could do a lot worse, but in my experience it’s hard to find much better.