I used to be a speed demon on phone keyboards. Similar to when I use a mechanical keyboard, I could type with so much ease that during their early days of text messaging, people in my household would ask me to write out their longer messages. Those days of carefree cell phone typing hit a rut when I got my first iPhone.
Now, I can’t start without first looking at my touchscreen keyboard. And I almost always make at least one typo when writing long texts, emails, or documents. That’s why I’m intrigued by the latest attempt to bring old-school physical keyboards to iPhones.
Clicks Technology has introduced the Clicks keyboard, designed for the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 15 Pro Max. Unlike traditional protective cases, this innovative keyboard seamlessly attaches to the phone. The keyboard features keys with 0.22 mm of travel, providing a tactile experience that contrasts sharply with the flat nature of touchscreens. Jeff Gadway, Senior Vice President of Product Marketing at Clicks, highlighted this physical keyboard’s enhanced user experience, offering a more tangible and responsive input method for users of these iPhone models. a speed demon
The Clicks keyboard establishes a connection through the iPhone’s Lightning or USB-C port, depending on the port type of the iPhone model. Utilizing iOS’s support for external keyboards and leveraging the human interface devices (HID) protocol, the keyboard forgoes Bluetooth to avoid complications related to pairing and latency, as explained on Clicks’ FAQ page. The design allows users to continue charging their phones, even with wireless chargers, while the Clicks keyboard is connected.
However, if you desire to pair a traditional-style phone keyboard with wired headphones simultaneously, current limitations may disappoint. Clicks Technology is actively working on a solution to enable the concurrent operation of the keyboard and wired headphones, but for now, users must choose one option. Additionally, the Clicks keyboard is not considered compatible with MagSafe accessories at present, though the company expresses intentions to address this in the future.