
Belkin YourType Folio
Laptop conversion kit
Accessory of the Week There’s no shortage of iPad keyboard cases to choose from, but this one from Belkin, designed for the new iPad, has a neat trick up its sleeve: the keyboard is detachable, held in place by Velcro.

That might not sound like a big deal, but it allows you to vary both the angle of the iPad’s screen and the distance between keyboard and display, which is ergonomically very useful.
Detaching the keyboard even works while the whole thing is sitting on your lap, allowing you to type on the iPad as if it were a laptop. Ridges on one side of the case hold the bottom of the iPad in place.

The Bluetooth keyboard pairs quickly and easily. It has cursor keys, a ‘.com’ button, plus keys for cut, copy, paste, volume control, play/pause, search, and text selection. There’s also a button to lock the iPad's screen.
The keys themselves are small, but I didn’t find them too much so, and their action, while a little spongier than other keyboard cases, is comfortable. It charges from a USB port using the supplied cable.


The black "premium, stitched" case is slim enough to use as a regular folio case, even when you don’t need the keyboard, and looks great. It also has a grille for the speaker and a hole for the camera. And, at a penny under £80, it’s well-priced.
My only concern is that when it’s closed, the keys on the keyboard press on the iPad’s glass screen. Other than that, it’s stylish and compact keyboard case. ®
Reg Hardware chooses its Accessory of the Week every Friday. Got one in mind you want us to consider? Please let us know.
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COMMENTS
convertible
I've got a really expensive open-top Mercedes*. (that has a massive fuel tank)
It's very rarely sunny here, therefore I have a rigid plastic roof that came from Halfords. It wasn't very cheap. It clips on top of the Merc, making it a bit like driving a rattly 2-seat saloon-car, but one that is more cramped inside than if I'd just gone and bought a normal car.
It's cool though, because underneath there's my really expensive Merc, and I make sure everyone knows it, and for 2 days of the year I take the roof off to prove the point of it being open-topped. I keep a raincoat in the boot just in case.
*(I haven't. this is figurative.)
Re: Fantabulous
3. Buy a proprietary connector just to be able to save your work to another drive.
Call a spade a spade
So this is basically a rescue deal for Apple-obsessed fashion victims...
"Bought one of those crappy laptops without a keyboard? Feel inferior no more!"
It's like buying a roof and doors for a quad bike.
Fantabulous
1. Buy an etch-a-sketch from the Rotten Apple
2. Then connect up a dodgy, wobbly keyboard that would shame a laptop from Trotters Independent Traders.
= you have something almost as usable* as a cheapo laptop.
* usable that is, if you ignore the wobbling, case/keyboard combination that is wobbling about on your lap and is a pain in the arse to type on.
Only £80 extra to turn an iPad into something useful? Like a notebook that costs less than half the money and is vastly more capable.
Can't see any fanbois buying it, it's just not overpriced enough. Or Shiny™ enough. And it's practical. Doomed I tell you, doomed.





