[Galaxy Note 10.1 (2014 Edition) Q&A, Help & Troubl] dpersuhn:
I don't doubt that it works for some people, with some keyboards. If bluetooth devices didn't follow any standards, I'd also be OK with the notion that a keyboard that works with one device just won't work with another. Problem with this notion is why bother with bluetooth at all. We may as well just have one Samsung "wireless" proprietary protocol keyboard that works and that would be the end of it. The point of bluetooth devices and standard profiles is so that interoperability does exist. That said, it isn't a perfect world and incompatibilities will happen at times, but they should be an exception, not the norm.

Here's where I'm going with this. I purchased a 12.2 to see if it was a platform I could move to and unfortunately, that form factor is just too large for my purposes. What is did provide, however was a great cross-reference platform to make sure that the keyboards I have been trying aren't just oddballs that have general compatibility issues. I already knew that my laptop and iPhone worked flawlessly with them, as do several older android phones I have from days long since passed, but testing Froyo or Gingerbread for compatibility doesn't add a lot of value to the case at hand. The five keyboards in this test group are:

MS Wedge

Joy factory KT1063

Motorola KZ450 v1.2 (Has an integrated pointer nub)

Motorola KZ500

Asus Transpad cover keyboard

The results of a slew of testing is very consistent. All five keyboards work flawlessly with numerous other platforms:

Macbook Pro / OSX 10.9

Iphone 5 / IOS 6.x and 7.x

HTC Incredible

Motorola Droid

My old Galaxy note 10.1 2013

yada, yada, yada...

And now, the Galaxy Tab Pro 10.1, and Galaxy Note Pro 12.2

Only the 10.1 2014 seems to have a problem, but it is with MOST keyboards. Lets consider a few more details about BT behavior with this device. I use a Nyko gamepad that uses the HID profile, it works very well. I use bluetooth tethering, that works well, I use BT headphones, those work reasonably well. So why do 3 out of 5 keyboards have a major problem here? The wedge and joy factory ones work OK. The Asus drops and reconnects constantly, but when we get to Motorola KZ450, something interesting shows up. Here we have a combined device that incorporates a keyboard and mouse function. The keyboard works OK, but the mouse is completely unusable. Interesting in the fact that the RF path is the same for both components, but the mouse functions are more severely impacted. The KZ500 is very similar, but the connection drops and reconnects regularly. When it is working, the keyboard functions properly, but the mouse is a wreck.

Given that observation, what can it tell us. I've seen the exact same results on 3 out of the 4 10.1 2014s that I tried. My first one was a lot worse. The last three have behaved exactly the same. None have behaved acceptably. I'd put money that the first one I got was bum hardware. This is why I support the position that hardware was at fault early on. Statistical probability just doesn't support the notion that three separate tablets from three separate stores in two states, purchased several weeks apart would all have the EXACT same hardware defect unless it was a design flaw that they all did (and still do) have.

This is why I'm interested in the fact that the 10.1 tab pro and 12.2 don't exhibit this behavior. If the chipset is exactly the same, then I have some hope that an update will finally put this nasty bug to rest. For the record, I'm not suggesting that I have found anything conclusive, merely interesting correlation at best. Given Samsung's poor track record on update timeliness, I wouldn't for one second suggest that anyone should hold onto one of these tablets if it isn't working exactly the way they need it to right out of the box. Regardless of the origins of an issue, you paid big bucks for a device and it should function as advertised. If it doesn't, exchange it or get samsung on the phone to fix it.

For me, I've found a combination of keyboard and mouse that work, but don't represent the input devices that I WANT to use with this device. Hiding behind excuses of bluetooth compatibility on something as simple as a HID profile device isn't really comforting when a plethora of diverse, competing products all support the input device in question without any issues.

---------- Post added at 05:53 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:45 PM ----------

I guess the next step would be to do a packet capture of the BT traffic between the KB and the tablet, along with signal strength graphs to put more objective data around all of the symptomatic observations and resulting deductive rationalization.