OT? - keyboards for mobiles - X-post

[David]

What is the current state of keyboards for mobile devices? That is, phone and tablet.

Back in the day (way back) I seem to remember that for my Sony tablet I had an OTG cable and connected a USB keyboard and mouse, which worked very nicely. That was by micro USB.

I now have a phone and tablet, both of which have Bluetooth and USB C. Do the same rules apply? That is, get a USB C OTG cable and use USB devices?

I'm looking at Bluetooth keyboards as well but it looks as though Logitech (manufacturer of choice) doesn't do a keyboard and trackpad combination in Bluetooth (although I have one with wireless USB Unifying receiver.

Tablet is a Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 2022 and phone is a Realme 6 Pro.

I assume that I could get a cable to allow me to OTG and also charge the device?

Cheers

Dave R

[John Rumm]

Yup that should work...

For example, if I plug a USB A socket to USB-C plug adaptor onto the end of a USB on my KVM switch, and plug that into my phone, both mouse and keyboard work as expected.

Not tried it, but I would expect the wireless receiver to connect via the OTG cable in the same way as a wired device.

I don't know about that - it might be harder when the phone is in USB master mode and potentially powering your peripheral devices.

[Jacob Jones]

David [e-mail] wrote

Lots of bluetooth keyboards around.

Bluetooth is better.

Yes they do, but trackpads wont work with smartphones and tablets.

Dunno, I have only tried the bluetooth route.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

No I only use keyboards myself, Logitech 380 is the one I have. Obviously there are the flimsy foldable ones but do they last? Myself, I'd have thought somebody like Apple would have actually made a phone with a querty keyboard by now, that clipped to the phone magnetically on the back when used as a phone. Brian