Review: Nillkin Cube Pocket Folding Keyboard

Review unit provided by Nillkin

The Nillkin Cube Pocket Foldable Keyboard is a beautiful ultra-portable wireless keyboard selling at USD 69. Colours available are black, blue, olive and brown. Keyboard layout available are English, German, Spanish and Arabic.

The keyboard comes with a carrying pouch, USB-A to USB-C charging cable, quick start guide and the keyboard.

The keyboard is just barely bigger than my Samsung Tab S25 Ultra with a 6.9-inch display.

The exterior of the keyboard has this rubberised padding, or maybe it's PU leather, that provides some grip on the table.

The keyboard is not thick when folded. Folded dimensions are 182 x 108 x 16 mm, and when open it's 342 x 108 x 9.5 mm.

Weight is just 238g so it's not heavy.

And it's just smaller than an iPad mini.

This portable setup can get you a much better and faster typing experience compared to typing on the virtual keyboard of tablets.

They keyboard is made with plastic throughout but overall build quality seems and feels alright. The keyboard does not feel cheap and does not feel like a toy.

When unfolding, the keyboard is almost full-width. This provides a much better user experience compared to mini keyboards with small keys.

There are only 64 keys. There's no function row so to use the function keys (F1 to F12) or function key shortcuts, you'll need to use the Fn + Tab (fn) or Fn + Shift + Numkey to access them. If you're someone who uses function keys or those function shortcuts often, not having the function row is quite inconvenient.

The keyboard can be connected to three Bluetooth devices. Bluetooth pairing requires holding down Fn + C. Switching between devices requires holding down Fn + Q/W/E.

Below are the Bluetooth and connection specifications:

• Bluetooth 5.0
• Keys: 4mA
• Touchpad: 11mA
• Input: 5V⎓1A
• Battery: 140mAh
• Auto sleep: 10 mins
• Wake: Any key
• Range: 10m
• Use time: Up to 10h

This keyboard has no backlight.

I find the spacebar too short. Left edge of spacebar with other keyboards are usually under the X key, but here it's under between the C and V keys. So the left edge of the spacebar is 1.5 keys away from where it should be. I guess this spacebar design is unavoidable since the spacebar is on the fold. It will take some time to get use to this shorter spacebar.

For Mac users, there's Right-Cmd and Right-Option.

The folding mechanism looks good enough.

Typing experience is good, better than expected. Typing experience is similar to most chiclet keyboards, laptop keyboards. While the typing experience is not as good as premium chiclet keyboards, the experience does not feel bad. Keys are quite firm with good travel and feedback. There's slight flex to the keyboard deck if you press down hard but otherwise the keyboard deck is quite stable. They keys do not feel flimsy.

It is easy to get used to the feel of typing, but more time is needed to get used to the short spacebar.

This keyboard even has a numpad on the side that can also double as a touchpad. There's no haptic with the touchpad and I'm not sure why I was expecting there would be. The touchpad is quite small to use though but at least there is a touchpad should you need one to stand in for a mouse.

Above the numpad are status lights for Bluetooth connection, Capslock, numpad and battery life. The company advertised 10 hour battery life with a single charge, and you can use coloured lights to estimate the battery life, e.g. red 0-30%, blue 30-70%, green 70-100%. If your phone or tablet supports reverse charging from the USB port, you can even charge the keyboard while it's in use.

The Nillkin Cube Pocket Foldable Keyboard looks good and works well.

Pros and cons at a glance
+ Design looks good
+ Compact and portable
+ Good typing experience
+ Has touchpad/numpad
+ Auto keyboard layout switching for Windows and Mac
- Short spacebar
- No Function keys

Availability

This keyboard is available for purchase from Nillkin online store and AliExpress.