Product review: Vibe Essentials iPad Mini Aluminum Bluetooth Keyboard Case & Stand

Vibe Essentials keyboard is 8 1/8" wide and 5 1/2" deep and 3/8" high. It weighs 7.1 oz on my digital postal scale. Each key is 1/2" wide and 1/2" tall.  The keys have a comfortable size, I did not feel I had to adjust my hand position much. The individual keys are made out of hard plastic.  The keyboard tray is made out of aluminium. The keys have very good feedback, I felt confident that I was making good contact. The keyboard is good overall.  There is one small thing I don't like about it.  There is a raised latch near the space bar (see video) and I find that it got in my way when I hit the space bar. I wish the front was totally flat. I am able to work around it, but if it was not there I would have been happier.

I am using this keyboard with my two tablets, iPad Mini and Samsung Galaxy 7.7 tablet. These two tablets are almost identical in size and the keyboard's stand mechanism worked well with both tablets in both horizontal and vertical orientation.  In order to fit the stand, I had to remove the case from both tablets. The design is such that neither the skin nor the leather case would fit into the keyboard stand.  The keyboard can also be used as "case" cover for iPad Mini by snapping to the tablet (thus that little latch near the space bar).  I prefer a bit more cushioning providing by the leather case, so I don't think I will be using this particular aspect of the keyboard.  When I tried snapping the keyboard case to the tablet, it seemed to need a bit of force and I did not proceed any further as it did not go in easily.

I have used several other blue tooth keyboards and here are some of the major comparison points:
1. This keyboard has a very good balance between key size to typing comfort. It is small enough to be portable yet comfortable for typing
2. It has very good feedback which aided in good accuracy
3. This keyboard has no back lighting, so I needed external light to use it in the dark
4. The front of the key board is not flat, I felt the latch with my thumbs when I was hitting the space bar

I found that I type much faster using this keyboard than the on-screen keyboard, especially when I have to mix letters and numbers in the text. Pairing is remembered from previous sessions even when I turn off the keyboard and the device.

I am attaching a video which shows Vibe keyboard in use with both tablets.  What is particularly nice is that some application do not display on-screen keyboard, so you get the benefit of the entire screen containing the information without being covered by on screen keyboard. Some applications still display on screen keyboard even when the keyboard paired with the device, so it depends if the application developer anticipated bluetooth keyboard use or not.

I received Vibe Essentials  keyboard for testing and review (be it positive or negative) from the manufacturer. I hope the video will help get a better idea of what to expect from this keyboard.


You can find it on Amazon by following this link.


Ali Julia review ★★★★☆