It's touch and go as Jorgen Sundgot puts Think Outside's Stowaway XT foldable keyboard for HP's iPAQ line of handhelds under the looking glass.
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When Think Outside first introduced the original Stowaway keyboard, infoSync gave it a rave review - despite its admittedly large size, but back then everything was larger. Times they are a-changing, however, and Think Outside now has a new state-of-the art foldable keyboard available for Hewlett-Packard's line of iPAQ Pocket PCs which is not only sports an improved construction but is also smaller and lighter as well.
 | When collapsed, the Stowaway XT is incredibly thin - and small
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The Stowaway XT keyboard is amazingly small at only 13.6 x 9.9 x 1.2 cm when closed, making it as thin as most recent handhelds and only slightly wider - easily small enough for a jacket or pants pocket. A bulge on one side hides the connector for the handheld, and the remaining casing consists mostly of brushed aluminum.
The keyboard opens by pressing a button on one end, which releases the catch for the top half. It then unfolds with one hinge point to a full QWERTY keyboard, minus the number key row, complete with full, desktop-sized key size and key pitch. The number keys, as with many portable keyboards, are doubled up on the top letter row, and the keyboard conveniently locks open, making it rigid enough to rest on a lap while typing.
To connect the handheld, a user will simply slide the black bulge outward to reveal the connector and move up the connector, a process which can take as little as five seconds. To unlock the keyboard, the user need only slide a small switch on the top-right of the keyboard to unlock it, then fold closed and press to lock.
In addition to the alphanumeric keys, the keyboard also includes configurable Control and Alt keys, four directional arrow keys, and the usual assortment of Shift, Backspace, Enter, and so on, in most cases exactly where they would be on a desktop keyboard. The spacebar splits in half to allow the keyboard to fold. Because of the reduced key count, there are not one but two Fn keys, color coded Green and Light Blue. Many keys serve triple duty, with a normal, Green Fn, and Blue Fn function.
The Green functions map to punctuation characters usually found on the number keys, as well as others not common on US keyboard such as Yen and Euro characters. The Blue functions map to various Pocket PC-specific operations, including 12 launch keys for the standard applications as well as common button commands such as Ok, New, Send, and soforth. Additionally, a Windows key calls up the start menu which can be navigated by means of the arrow keys.
Tactile feedback and responsiveness from the keys proved excellent throughout our review period, however the keyboard did exhibit two flaws, both of which could prove to be inconveniences depending on the situations in which the keyboard is employed. First, the less-than tightly fitted parts of the keyboard makes it prone to rattling while typing, which would certainly be frowned upon in business meetings. Second, a time-delay annoyingly occurs when taking after pauses of approximately 1,5 seconds or longer when writing, causing loss of a variable number of initial letters typed depending on speed. The latter appears to be a software or platform issue, however, as the Palm branded version of this keyboard does not exhibit similar behaviour: as such, a fix may be possible.
 | | The Stowaway XT for iPAQ is compatible with a wide range of models |
Thus, it helps little that the keyboard driver allows users to quickly and intuitively adjust key repeat rate and delay settings; configure hot keys to open any application or data file on the device; and adjust other minor settings. On the bright side, the keyboard does include an iPAQ charger compatible charging jack, allowing the handheld to charge while cradled.
Availability
The Stowaway XT foldable keyboard for HP's line of iPAQ Pocket PCs is now available from the Think Outside web site, where it sells for $99.99 USD. Versions are also available for Palm and Sony handhelds.
Conclusion
Despite what amounts to an almost perfect concept, the Stowaway XT keyboard takes a couple of blows to its bow as a result of its noise and input delay issues. Indeed, it offers an excellent keyboard that could rival that of any laptop in an extremely small package, but users lacking continous mind-to-finger throughput and frequently taking notes under quiet conditions will find themselves challenged. Should these not be issues, however, the Stowaway XT is an excellent purchase.
- What's positive: Super sleek; excellent key size, spacing and tactile feedback
- What's negative: Input delay issue; slight rattle; no dedicated number keys
Overall: 
Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in December 1969.
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