Gadgetory

how's it going guys so about two years back when I was still working at Newegg I won this mini keyboard from vision tech at our annual company picnic and have been using it to navigate my trusty htpc ever since at this year's CES I had the pleasure of meeting some of the fine folks at vision tech who were kind enough to send me another one of their mini keyboards to try out so today I am starting an all-out Civil War by pitting my tried-and-true visiontek keyboard against its own blood to see which one I'll be using from here on out now while both contenders belong to vision Tech's candy board line of mini keyboards they each differ greatly in respect to their look feel and functionality so let's see how my current keyboard the mini wing stacks up against its new challenger the nine zero zero three three five well if product branding was a category I'd have to give this round to the keyboard that's not one digit shy of a phone number but diving right in the 335 retails for 65 bucks on vision Tech's website $10 more than the mini wing priced at 55 but you can find both boards for around 40 bucks on Amazon the mini wing has 79 keys and works with your Windows Mac Linux RedHat Ubuntu Fedora and Android systems as well as Xbox 360 and ps3 so console gamers can experience the mind-blowing ability to type while gaming it runs on a 2.4 gigahertz wireless radio frequency and transmits its signal to an included USB dongle receiver that can be stored behind the rear panel of the keyboard when not in use also in the back is a removable 810 milliamp lithium-ion battery with a three-and-a-half hour charge time using the included mini USB cable and port located on the left side of the keyboard when full the battery can retain its charge for up to 28 days of non-use acclaim I can confidently attest to as even with daily use it tends to last longer than most tiny Tom Logan videos the 3 3 5 sports 69 Keys 10 less than the mini wing though both boards are exactly identical in size and weight with the exception of the mini wing being slightly slimmer around the edges the keyboard also supports all of the same operating systems in addition to Android and iOS mobile devices courtesy of the keyboards Bluetooth interface which offers more flexibility and security than the mini wings RF Connect having used an RF keyboard for the last few years I hadn't really considered the benefits of having a Bluetooth mini keyboard until now while it's certainly not an everyday users task I found the ability to control the teleprompter app on my Nexus 7 incredibly useful although having a mouse cursor on your smartphone is so lame it'll probably get you kicked out of the Bluetooth headset club if you're looking to connect the 335 to a PC that doesn't have built-in bluetooth there's a USB adapter stored inside of the keyboard that could be unsheath from a stealthy compartment on top the 335 shares the same battery specs with its counterparts however the battery on this model is not removable unless you want to do some manual rewiring like the mini wing it does have a mini USB port on the left hand side for charging with the included cable and I should also mention that both candy boards can be used while charging and our plug-and-play with no software installation required I'm particularly fond of the mini wings matte plastic body and soft rubberized keys which provide some much-needed grip for my oily thumbs additionally the wing branding stems from the board's organ AMA clay out of having the touch pad in the middle there by splitting the keys into two separate wings this puts all the alpha keys within close range of both thumbs for comfortable and fluid typing there's also a one to two millimeters facing between each of the keys which sounds like a lot less than it really is when you're talking about single finger precision white LED backlighting ensures accurate keystrokes and dimly lit environments which is an absolute must in my opinion for keyboards paired with an HTTP see in the top right hand corner is a dedicated button to toggle the backlighting on and off for LED indicators in the top left corner monitor the devices backlighting USB connection battery capacity and charging status a full row of F keys lined the top of the keyboard along with secondary functions including RF matching print screen volume mute up-and-down Windows key male shortcuts touchpad rotation Media Center calculator multimedia navigation and delete other secondary functions across the board include Control Alt Delete page up-and-down and four level DPI adjustment for the touch pad a great feature to see given the various screen resolutions you may encounter the all traffic key allows you to use alpha keys to navigate programs which can be faster than using the touch pad in certain situations the touch pad supports cursor movement as well as single and double tapping for left click and double click functionality based on your preference the pad rotation key can change the orientation of the touchpad 90 degrees clockwise so the device can be held and operated vertically much like a standard TV remote beneath the pad our left and right mouse click buttons and a browser shortcut button surrounded by four arrow keys that can function as scroll buttons to aid in things like web browsing the device also has an auto sleep feature that shuts down the keyboard after a few minutes of inactivity and can be then woken up after any key press the 335 supports a plastic body as well but with a glossy ER finish that makes the keys a bit more slippery unlike the mini wing all the keys are grouped together with the touch pad on the right hand side the keys are laid side by side with virtually no spacing between them and can also light up white using the secondary function of the f1 key here we see the backlighting on the 335 is notably brighter than my mini wing though neither is too bright nor too dim and this could also be due to the fact that I've already been using the LEDs on the mini wing for two-plus years now in the top left corner of the 335 are the same LED indicators we saw earlier right next to a bluetooth pairing button and a number of F keys with secondary functions for backlighting print screen while you mute up and down multimedia playback and delete you also get the same functions like Windows key 90-degree touchpad rotation control out the leads and page up and down the touchpad is essentially the same here as it was with the mini wing with movement and tap to click functionality and again with left and right mouse click buttons and arrow slash scroll Keys now a few things I noticed missing from this board that were on the mini wing are a few of the app shortcuts which who cares and any element of dpi adjustment which I kind of care this is a really useful feature to have for a trackpad and I'm not sure why it was omitted from the 335 given the similarly priced mini wing but wait this keyboard has a trick up its sleeve because everyone knows you can't resist a mini keyboard that has a laser pointer unfortunately I can't show it in action because I broke the bottom firing button when taking the backplate off which apparently you're not supposed to do nevertheless this feature is sure to be handy for things like giving PowerPoint presentations in the classroom or at the office but now that we've pretty much covered what each of these devices can do let's move on to the final round to see which one does it better now it's true that the broad application of radiofrequency can't really compete with the convenience of Bluetooth due to the plethora of today's devices that already have Bluetooth technology built-in chances are you won't even need to use the three three fives USB adapter to connect to most of the devices in your house which also means you'll have one more port available for all of your other USB gadgets connecting via bluetooth and having the ability to easily switch between devices makes the three three five far more adaptable than its contender now that being said the mini Winx 2.4 gigahertz signal stays right on par with its Bluetooth counterpart in terms of responsiveness range and reliability unlike infrared and much like bluetooth RF waves don't require a line of sight between the transmitter and the receiver to work so even with the USB dongle plugged into the back of my htpc with several layers of hardware between them the mini wing up held a strong connection with no visible differences in performance with the 335 now when it comes to typing the mini wing works beautifully the wing design is very comfortable in the hand and the buttons even emit a satisfying click when bottoming out and upon release allowing for a somewhat tactile typing experience that feels great with the rubberized coating the touchpad functions great all around with precise cursor movement and tap to click actions but having the pad in the middle of the keyboard forces you to reach a bit with either thumb which isn't the most ideal as a result I found using my index finger to be a better option and even more comfortable was to rotate the touchpad 90 degrees and use the device vertically it makes sense if the mini wing could stay in this mode permanently but unfortunately the touchpad defaults to its original orientation every time the keyboard is turned off and on or falls asleep which makes using it regularly a minor hassle also worth mentioning is that the arrow and scroll buttons don't change orientation with the touchpad which definitely would have left me impressed a great addition to consider for future iterations a final critique with the mini wing is that I would have liked to see the frequently used volume control buttons on the right side of the keyboard within reaching distance of the right thumb since the left thumb will already be busy holding down the function key now while having a much more adept Bluetooth connection the 335 is not without its faults the keyboard really pales in comparison to the mini wing when it comes to typing not only did the keys lack any rubberized grip but I found that having virtually no space between the keys led to more frequent typos even worse is that having the touchpad to the right of all the keys forces your right thumb to stretch across the board in order to type effectively while you do get a satisfying click on the way down the buttons don't feel quite as tactile upon release making them feel mushy er than the mini wing this is likely attributed to less actuation distribution due to the three three 5s larger Keys now where the typing experience and button layout falls short however is where the touchpad succeeds when held horizontally the pad is in the perfect location at least for me as a right-handed user vertical orientation also works well with the laser pointer button being within comfortable reach of your right thumb or left index finger granting you ambidexterity when giving a presentation for instance and apart from having a fixed dpi the touch pad here performs just as well as it does on the mini wing now again I wish the arrow buttons were linked to the touchpad rotation feature but at the very least their flat surface makes them so much easier to use than the mini wings awkwardly shaped arrow keys on that note I think I have finally come to a decision on which keyboard I think is the better option so from the candy board line is it the RF mini wing or the Bluetooth 9 zero zero three five all things considered my mini keyboard of choice in most scenarios would be the RF mini wing while each keyboard bested the other in multiple categories the superior typing experience on the mini wing is what won me over in the end after all these are QWERTY keyboards were talking about so their ability to type effectively is a huge part of what makes or breaks them even with the absence of bluetooth support I would still recommend the mini wing for those of you looking to use it with an HTTP see if you can afford to hog up one of your USB ports the keyboards app shortcuts and dpi adjustment are a treat to have and just help create a more robust solution for such a scenario for mobile devices or in a workplace environment the 335 certainly might have the edge for professionals who give frequent presentations where cursor movement and mouse clicking is needed more than actual typing not to mention that handy laser pointer I broke now vision tech made a Bluetooth mini wing and implemented all the suggestions I had mentioned earlier I'd probably kick both of these keyboards to the curb and flag this video myself from being irrelevant so what do you guys think which of these keyboards stood out to you the most and why also let me know if you have a different mini keyboard in mind that you'd like me to check out in the future but