Today BoxWave announced its new iPhone 5 Keyboard Buddy Case. Built into the case is a slide out QWERTY keyboard with physical keys that connects to iPhone 5 wirelessly via Bluetooth.
“There are quite a few smartphone users who prefer and find it more advantageous to type on physical keys,” said Wing Onn Lum, CEO of BoxWave. “The Keyboard Buddy provides them with an excellent feel of tactile buttons and enables them to type emails, text messages, and input data with accuracy, speed, and comfort.”
BoxWave managed to add a backlit keyboard to iPhone without adding much thickness to iPhone 5 and without dramatically impacting the look of the phone.
When the keyboard slides out, iPhone’s onscreen keyboard disappears giving users the ability to enjoy iPhone’s full size Retina display.
The keyboard consists of five rows of evenly spaced keys with numbers, letters and special function buttons that serve as shortcuts for quickly increasing or decreasing screen brightness and controlling iTunes.
The Keyboard Buddy Case contains a built-in battery to powered independently from the iPhone 5, and does not reduce the battery life of the iPhone. The built-in battery has the capacity to hold enough power to last approximately 2 weeks between charges, and it is charged with an included micro USB cable.
BoxWave has been building Bluetooth physical keyboard cases for iPhone since the iPhone 3GS. This most recent version is available directly from the company’s website with a special launch price of $89.95.
