Review: Good for kids and people with small hands with a few caveats
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 16, 2014
This keyboard case for the 2013 7" Kindle Fire HD and the 7" Kindle Fire HDX is attractive and stylish and beautifully made. The keyboard is bluetooth and paired easily for me with my Kindle Fire. The keys are slightly tactile and have a faint audible click. The case folds in such a way as to support your Kindle while you type and that works very well as long as it is on a flat surface and not, say, your lap. (In your lap, it has a tendency to collapse.)Because this is for 7" tablets, the size can only be so large. I think Belkin has done a nice job in arranging the largest keys possible in this small a space but due to that, it is not the traditional layout. Touch typists should pass this up and go for a full-size bluetooth keyboard and a separate case. However, for kids, tweens and young teens with smaller hands, this is a nice set up. They hunt and peck anyway so the arrangement of keys won't be a problem at all.The 11 and 12 year old boys in my house like it a lot. They feel it lets them type emails and searches faster than the on-screen keyboard and I think they enjoy learning to use a real keyboard. This is important to me because I think every kid should have a Kindle Fire and all of mine do. A keyboard makes it even more useful for kids as an educational tool.The case is very nice but not what I would call a protective. It's more a way to attach the keyboard to the Kindle for easier use. The Kindle is held in place by two plastic clips on the top and the bottom and I'm pretty sure the Kindle would pop out if the case were dropped on it's side. Still, if this is a "house Kindle", I'd say the protection is adequate for kid use.The keyboard must be charged periodically and the battery life is very good. There is an included mini USB charging cable for this purpose. The big thing I noticed is that having the bluetooth on when using this drains the Kindle battery must faster. Not to an alarming extent, but you will need to charge your Kindle more often.If this keyboard case were priced at around $40, I would give it a solid 4 stars but the price (currently ~$80) is just too high IMO, compared to other bluetooth keyboards.