Review on Inateck Keyboard Case For IPad 9Th 2021/IPad 8Th 2020/ IPad 7Th 2019 10.2 Inch, IPad Air 2019(3.Gen), IPad Pro 10,5, Ultra Slim, Auto Switch, BK2006 by Tyler Munajj

I initially posted a 5-star review for this Inateck keyboard/case for iPad right after I got it, in April 2021, see below; but then in May 2021, I updated with the problem report here, lowering the rating to 4 stars; and now (February 2022), having suffered badly with this keyboard for 10 months, I am further updating here and lowering the rating to 3 stars.I have experienced two rather severe usability problems in using this keyboard with my (nice, fairly new) iPad: (1) severe delays in keystrokes on/from the keyboard appearing on the iPad; and (2) apparently-automatic shutdown/time-out/disconnect of the entire keyboard-iPad connection after some few minutes of idle/non-use.I am now just about certain that my keystroke delay problem is mainly the iPad’s fault, caused by the fact that the iPad itself is often quite slow in accepting and applying keystrokes, particularly when editing and operating on large files. This iPad limitation/problem is usually masked by its usual, soft/virtual keyboard, which is of course itself inherently slow to use, making it tough to key faster than the software can accept and process. But this hard keyboard is potentially much faster, making it suddenly much easier to overrun the software. It might seem like the keyboard is somehow messing up the works, but probably it’s not, it’s the iPad and its software (and its relatively slow processor) being slow, creating the delays. You can often work-around this iPad problem/limitation by breaking up the files that you’re working on into smaller ones.My other, severe problem using this keyboard with the iPad is its *extremely* bothersome automatic shutdown/disconnect/sleeping after some minutes idle. This obliges you continually to anticipate or notice the keyboard shutdown (you can’t see its state, you have to guess or stumble into it), type some wake-up keystrokes (any keys) until the keyboard wakes up (they say that one keystroke will suffice, but that is a lie, some multiple, indefinite number of keystrokes is usually required, often 4 or 5 or more), then back-out any excess wake-up strokes, then try to figure out where you were and what you were doing and resume working - if you can by then even remember where you were, what you were doing; or else if you fail to consider the possible shutdown and just resume touch-typing, you might lose a number of keystrokes unnoticed during the wake-up; either way a huge nuisance and potential disaster in lost or garbled data. I welcome my keyboard going to sleep and off-duty without notice and having to be coaxed awake again right while I’m working with it just as much as I would welcome my hammer or my toothbrush doing the same. Well, actually much less/worse, as this keyboard problem by definition happens just as you’re inspired to start typing again after some hiatus and find that you are blocked, distracted from doing so, obviously at great risk of losing/forgetting your inspiration. And it probably happens dozens of times per day, hundreds of times per week.My early guess was that this was another iPad problem, perhaps the iPad auto-disconnecting any idle Bluetooth connection after some minutes. But eventually TNTonline, the seller of this product on Revain, told me that this auto-shutdown is the Inateck keyboard’s own doing - grievous fault, I would call it - intentionally sleeping itself after 10 minutes idle; they even say "This feature saves the keyboard's life actually.” I can guess only that this means the life of the keyboard’s battery charge, but that’s crazy, this keyboard wonderfully holds a charge sufficient for months’ of use, the auto-sleep time-out could just as well be an hour or two instead of 10 minutes, wouldn’t make any noticeable difference to the multi-month battery charge life, and would be 10x less troublesome to the user.I also have a MacBook Pro, with an Apple Bluetooth keyboard (with on-board rechargeable battery, just like this Inateck) - and that Apple keyboard certainly has no such sleep or idle mode, it is always on and awake and fully ready to accept and deliver strokes - just like my hammer and my toothbrush - proving that it is possible and practical to make a Bluetooth keyboard work well this way with an iPad.In working these problems with TNTonline (seller), their responsiveness to discussions has been quite good - although I am peeved at their being slow to ‘fess up to the keyboard being its own culprit in sleeping/disconnecting. And this severe sleeping problem persists, unabated.Finally, in light of its severe auto-sleeping problem, and quite sadly, I believe it’s appropriate to lower my rating on this keyboard from 5 stars to 4 and now to 3. Dearly wish it weren’t so, it could so very easily be so much better.—— here below is my original 5-star review of this Inateck keyboard/case ———— from April 2021 ——This Inateck is my third iPad keyboard/case, the first being an Apple keyboard/case for an iPad Pro, many times more expensive than this; and the second being a Phevos-brand keyboard/case fairly similar to this one for a 10.2” iPad, with the Phevos being slightly less expensive even than this Inateck.It is worth noting that adding a hard keyboard like this to an iPad not only makes typing much faster and easier; as much or more importantly, it also provides direct, immediate access to all kinds of additional controls and functions that are difficult or impossible to invoke with only the soft/virtual keyboard.The instructions for this Inateck are a bit disorderly, cramped/tiny, and a bit incomplete, but basically serviceable.Both this Inateck and the Phevos keyboards experience substantial delays, up to a few seconds, in communicating with and having keystrokes registered by the iPad (delays sometimes on every character, not just at start-up), quite similar delays between the two keyboards, which I suppose means the delay is somehow an inherent consequence of the iPad Bluetooth connection - but a nasty consequence nonetheless, often exasperating. By contrast, the Apple keyboard on the iPad Pro seems to be connected by some kind of direct contact pins that avoid the delay (but again, at many times the cost).The key layout on the Inateck and the Phevos are mostly the same, apparently a compromise of Mac and PC keyboards, somewhat cramped (about 10% narrower than standard keyboard size/spacing) in order to fit the width of the smaller iPad, but another apparently necessary compromise. Both this Inateck and the Phevos keyboards wonderfully correct a glaring, forever deficiency in Apple keyboards, namely providing a forward-delete key, hallelujah!So far at least the keys on this Inateck are reliable in detecting keystrokes (which the slightly less expensive Phevos is not). And the case and its integration with the keyboard seem to be well designed and to work well in this Inateck (while not so well on the Phevos).I have not yet had any occasion to contact the maker/seller of this Inateck keyboard/case - which is real fine by me, I’m a strong believer that the best customer service is that which is not needed - but meanwhile I am impressed that the seller is taking it upon themselves to answer questions posted to their Revain product listing page, that too is real fine in my book.I’ll keep watching and evaluating this Inateck iPad keyboard/case, but so far it seems mostly about as well done as can be, and at an incredible low price, no reason to give it any fewer than 5 stars.