The joys and griefs of having a hardware keyboard with a smartphone

My awaited TOHKBD arrived among the first batch that was sent out, just before I started my early summer vacation in mid-June. The package actually arrived before the software had even passed QA at Jolla, so I had to wait for a couple of days before being able to actually use the keyboard - that certainly was a chilling factor. Another chill was the M key which I noticed didn't have any tactile response, and I assumed it is faulty. That was confirmed when the SW was made officially available and I was able to test the keyboard for real, the keypress was registered only after applying much force. I joined the few others with similar issues by whining about it on TMO forum, also reporting it by email to FunkyOtherHalf. Dirk van L, the one responsible for the coordination of HW development, responded and asked to wait and see if it settles with use - OK, fair enough, getting a replacement keypad won't be easy anyway for a gadget that has been manufactured in a small volume, strictly based on orders. As I'm not typing this post with my TOHKBD it is obvious that things have improved a lot, although there's still huge difference in the response and the required force. There's also another key which needs more force but has normal response (if any Os are missing from this post, there's the reason) and that's perhaps even more distracting.

There are still SW issues open even after the couple of updates by Kimmo L, mostly prominent being the lack of other layouts than American. Support for other layouts requires changes in Sailfish, and it'll take some more time until Jolla releases an update with those changes.

Despite all that, I'm happy for spending the money in the project. There's no way I could (and would) have written text this long with the on-screen keyboard. I'm also confident that the SW issues get resolved sooner or later. Even now it's a delight to use the terminal app, and writing in English is fine already. Seems like not all apps support all keys (tab, home, end, page up/down being the most prominent), but the community will fix that, too, eventually. Jolla, together with the community, will also eventually enable landscape mode everywhere (definitely something wait for from Sailfish 2.0). The greatest remaining issue is the faulty keys. According to a Kickstarter project page update, all keypads should have been manually tested, but it is evident that if that really was done for all batches (or even to this batch mine came from), it was done badly. I'd hope that there would eventually be some sort of a compensation with replacement keypads for those who need them. Hoping for the best!

Oh, one more "grief": Now the originally slim-fit phone has a rather bulky look which certainly will cause comments like "is that from the 90s or what" (hey, it is still thinner than my previous trusted phone, the E90!). Due to that, also my Mapbagdrag case don't fit anymore. Well, maybe someone will, some day, make a nice case for sturdier TOHs, too.