Enough of death/closing from 2016. Let us start the new year with something new! A Bluetooth keyboard from BOW. The BOW Hangshi HB022 is a bifold keyboard that supports Android, IOS, and Windows. It comes with a hard carry case that works as a stand for your phone/tablet. A nice touch is the movement of opening the keyboard will turn on the Bluetooth.
BOW HB022 Bluetooth keyboard, picture from EzBuy
Key placements.
Most of the keys are easily accessible just like a normal keyboard. Unfortunately, the B key is on the wrong side. I am used to typing the B key with my right hand, whereas on the B key is on the left half of the keyboard. A tad far for touch typing to reach. The ? key is located below the shift button, that requires some eyeball and fancy finger work to press that.
Key controls.
The keys work well with my Android phone, OnePlus One with CM13 by Sultanxda. The launcher I used is the Action Launcher. Initially, the launcher hated the keyboard, but a quick update by the developer, Chris Lacy, fixed the crash.
The Home and Back key worked well. For some strange reason, I could never get the Menu or overflow key to work.
There are mapped keys for Select all, Copy, Cut, Paste and music playback. Listed below are some keys to launch the apps. Note if you set an app as the default, it is not remembered.
Apps that do not work.
Textra, SMS app strangely does not work. There was no response from the app at all.
Stock SMS
Signal
Telegram
Allo
Where to buy.
Taobao is the best place. Unfortunately, any email to the manufacturer bounces. http://www.bow.cn