The two gadgets under scrutiny today both come from BudgetGadgets.com.  The first is the blue silicon USB flexible keyboard and the second is a car cigarette-lighter power adapter that accepts USB cables like those used to charge the MP3 players, cameras, and GPS devices.  How do they stack up, and is any quality sacrificed for a bargain price?  Let's take a look.

First, let's preface any comments about this sort of flexy keyboard with the fact that — at least from the user reviews of flexible keyboards on Amazon and New Egg — these keyboards don't function well for typing.  As ridiculous as that sounds, many people still like them for the portability, ease of cleaning, and virtual indestructibility.  For certain environments high in moisture, dirt, or dust, these keyboards would endure well.  You still need to consider that touch-typers hate them, lamenting the force and excess precision needed to register some keypresses; pressing the edge of a key or hitting it unevenly or at an angle will get you no output.  Those who hunt-and-peck fare better with them.

With all that said, this keyboard performs just like the rest, for better or worse.  The silicon exterior feels good under the fingers, but the responsiveness of it is iffy at best.  Here is an example of what you can expect.  The top sentence was touch-typed directly on my laptop keyboard, and the bottom is what I got trying to touch-type the same sentence with the flexible USB keyboard:

I like to go outside
ilike togotide

Playing at the park is fun
playingtte prk i fn

Lundqvist lunges forward
Lndqist lungesfoward

It's a four-on-three situation
it' four-o-the iuion

I wish this keyboard would actually work.
 whthi kebordd tuy wr.

It's as if I were having a seizure while typing.
itasf Iwere ng a aseizurewe tyng

Having used one of these flexy keyboards myself now and seeing that this particular one reflects the rule, not the exception, it makes those flying-fingers typing scenes by Justin Long in Live Free or Die Hard seem about as believable as Goldblum's virus that took down Independence Day's aliens.

Article Author: Mark Buckingham

Mark Buckingham is not only BC's Sci/Tech Editor-In-Geek, but also an avid freelance writer, gamer, techhead, reader, movie watcher, pianist, and hockey player.

Visit Mark Buckingham's author page — Mark Buckingham's Blog