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The LG Rolly Keyboard looked like a pretty great keyboard when we first saw it announced. The full QWERTY keyboard was engineered to roll up like a yoga mat into a beautifully thin profile, allowing you to stash it pretty much anywhere with ease. It was briefly listed for $79.99 at BestBuy, a discount of $40, which prompted much of the tech-loving blogosphere to suggest it as a great deal.
I’m here to tell you that the LG Rolly Keyboard is probably not a good deal, no matter the price. I had the chance to play with the keyboard briefly at CES and was left completely underwhelmed.
LG’s product proposition is solid: it fits in a very compact form and elegantly rolls out.
That part, LG has down pat.
The problem is that for LG to make the Rolly Keyboard actually roll, they had to space each row of keys far enough away so that they could fold over each other. The distance required to accomplish that was just far enough to make typing on it extremely awkward. Reaching that top row always seemed like a stretch.
My fingers felt like this poor little puppy being uncomfortably forced to push his physical capabilities to the limits while barely escaping his demise.
Okay, okay, so I’m being a bit dramatic. The point is that the LG Rolly Keyboard will likely infuriate you by causing a lot of typos and misfires, something a trusty keyboard shouldn’t do.
The concept of the Rolly keyboard is great. Unfortunately the execution leaves much to be desired. I understand that the benefit of portability means you’ll have to sacrifice comfort, but in this case, the sacrifice is too large.
That being said, just like phones, keyboards come down to personal preference. I don’t have the largest hands in the world, so if you’ve got pretty big hands it’s quite possible that the gap causing me so much trouble is insignificant to you.
My last words of advice: try it before you buy it… you won’t regret it. Or you will. The choice is yours.
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