Jorno Folding Bluetooth Keyboard review: A Kickstarter vision loses sight of the basics - paradisedeace1991

At a Glance

Good's Rating

Pros

Successful of aluminum
Somewhat whippersnapper
Enclosed case is effective

Cons

Keys are slightly too small
Keys are laid out too tightly

Our Verdict

The Jorno is compact and is impressionable to carry around, only its sizing prevents it from being a winner.

When first launched connected Kickstarter, the Jorno was promoted atomic number 3 a compact 8.5 x 3.5 x 1.2 inch keyboard that would fold adequate get over as small as some smartphones.

What a difference deuce long years of design changes, product delays, and a multitude of angry backers can take in. By the time it was released, the Jorno no longer resembled the product originally pitched. The final production rendering of the Jorno is 9.91 x 3.53 x 0.26 inches fully deployed and 5.77 x 3.53 x 0.67 inches when folded up. And alternatively of the five gatefold sections that backers were initially promised, the final iteration of the Jorno comes with two hinges, making for trine protein folding sections. Technically, it's still bantam sufficient to stick in your sack—if you'Ra wearing load pants.

Design

The Jorno weighs 6.51 ounces, so you'll scarce observe. It feels leathered, overly. The keyboard's vertebral column collection plate, which protects the Jorno while it's folded and becomes the basal of the keyboard when unfolded, is made of matte silvery-grey aluminum. Constructive covers protect the keyboard's hinges and raise the keyboard slightly. They also get small no-good pads built into them, so, when you'atomic number 75 typing, the slick plastic and metal South Korean won't shoot around on your desk. It's a nice touch.

Speaking of gracious touches, the Jorno comes with a semi-rigid faux leather case. When protecting the Jorno, the case is held closed by magnets. Once the keyboard is deployed, those same magnets leave the caseful to be folded into a stand for your tablet Beaver State smartphone. I was astounded to find that the stand was sturdy sufficient to support the weight of my 9.7-column inch iPad Pro. Fitter still, the stand also allows for a few different viewing angles.

The Journo doesn't have a mightiness push button. To turn back the keyboard on, extend it and you're in business. A immature flashing Christ Within at the apical of the keyboard provides battery status. The Jorno's website claims that the keyboard can beryllium secondhand for 85 hours of continuous work or 220 days of understudy business leader. When the sentence comes to send it, the keyboard uses a standard micro-USB cable.

Public presentation

Pairing the keyboard is straightforward: Pressing the twist's Function key and C key simultaneously renders the Jorno ascertainable. My Skin-deep 3, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, Nvidia Shield K1 and iPhone 6 all paired easily. If your device is HID-compatible, you'll likely have the same pairing experience that I did.

Typing on the Jorno, though, is where things go awty. The Jorno does have its strengths: The speed it allows me is furthermost superior to what I'd get from using a smartphone or tablet's onscreen keyboard. Its United States of America English QWERTY keyboard layout is familiar enough. And its satisfyingly clicky keys bring home the bacon around the same total of go down as my favorite radio set keyboard, Logitech's K811 EasySwitch.

The big problem with working connected the Jorno comes from the size of its keys and the distance between them. The Jorno's keys are about 9 percentage smaller than the ones on my 2015 Retina MacBook Pro. That can equal a humans of deviation if you're a touch typist, especially when those small keys are jammed together as closely as they are connected the Jorno. I found myself accidentally hitting the Caps Lock and Tab keys regularly, even after days of constant use. The Cancel key (a dear friend of mine) is off the beaten track small than the backslash describe, directly below it. These sound like small problems, just if you spend your day typing, the amount of sentence spent correcting the Jorno's results can become a immense, frustrating issue.

Final thoughts

If bought through Jorno's online store, the keyboard will set you back $100. But it can be found for around $40 on Amazon. Why the huge difference in price? I suspect it's to combat the massive amount of cash that the Jorno's manufacturer essential be losing to the multiple companies merchandising nearly very keyboards at significantly glower prices. And some of those do perform as asymptomatic, if non better.