Hello, YouTube. Today's video is going to be about
the Microsoft Surface Flex keyboard. I haven't seen a lot of videos about
the differences between the standard Flex keyboard and its bold keyset
variant, so we'll start with that. We'll then move on to the issues that
I encountered with the keyboard and slim pen combo and my workarounds for them. Let's get stuck in. Starting off of the left side here,
you can see that the standard keyboard presents the letters in a very restrained manner. As expected, the letters are a lot more
legible on the bold keyset variant. While they don't look weird at all,
there's something about the use of extra large text on the Tab, Caps Lock, Control, and
Function keys that's just a little off for me. the biggest difference that Microsoft
doesn't really talk about in their site, however, is the use of icons on special
keys such as the left shift button here. Moving to the top row, you can
see that the numbers and their respective alternate symbols are arranged
vertically on the standard Flex keyboard. This contrasts with the bold keyset variant,
where numbers and their alternatives are lined up diagonally. I find that this diminishes the
clean look offered by the standard Flex keyboard. You'll also see the same thing
going on with the top row functions. Function icons on both keyboards are
the same, but the bold keyset version of the Flex keyboard uses icons for
the Page Up and Page Down buttons, while the standard Flex keyboard uses
traditional 4-letter labels instead. On the right side brackets and slashes, you see the same vertical versus diagonal
contrast between the two keyboards. I find that the diagonal arrangement
gives off a very cluttered vibe. Ironically, I think that legibility could
have been improved on this diagonal and bold arrangement if Microsoft decreased
the size of the symbols by a tick or two. You also see icons used on the Enter and Right
Shift button instead of conventional text. While both keyboards perform pretty much the same,
with the bold typeface version giving an ever so slightly crisper feel on the keys, the type size
difference yields a better backlight experience. The keyboard backlight passes through the print, and the thinner apertures on the standard
keyboard's keys let a below average amount of light through. Depending on light
levels, you might have to turn the keyboard backlight brightness all the
way up just to keep the keyboard legible. The larger apertures on the bold
typeface keyboard, on the other hand, keep things legible even at low brightness levels. You can certainly turn the backlight
all the way up, but the practical benefit of this is not having to increase
brightness levels to keep the same level of legibility since you're not wasting power
shining the light on each key's solid undersides. Moving on to the functional side of
things, you've probably seen from other video reviews that the Flex keyboards
have wireless typing capabilities. When detached, you can fold the front edge under
itself for a more ergonomic typing experience. It's wide enough and stays rigid, so you can type away without having to worry
about missed presses from surface flexing. It also provides a little grip, so the keyboard doesn't slide around
when you use it on a smooth surface. Once you're done using the
Flex keyboard wirelessly, just hover the Surface on top of
it, and everything snaps together. The lower edge of the screen
also serves as a magnetic mount, so you can prop the front of the
keyboard up like this for ergonomics. Now, the cool thing about all of this is
that even with the Flex keyboard attached, the Surface Pro won't run its own battery
down trying to charge the keyboard. You can see here that the battery levels
between the two stay roughly in sync. This makes total sense since having
a fully charged keyboard is no good when you're main tablet laptop is out of juice. Same story goes when you plug the Surface Pro
in to charge it. The system tries to keep charge levels between the Surface Pro and the Flex
keyboard roughly the same when plugged in. Very smart. It's not all perfect when you pair it
up with Microsoft's Slim Pen though. You can see here that the
pen wakes up and connects even when it's docked on the Flex keyboard. The same thing happens even when you very
slowly tilt the keyboard upwards like I do here. Depending on the apps you use, this
makes for a very intrusive experience. In Microsoft Excel, for example, the interface
would keep on switching to the draw tab, which made it hard for me to actually
concentrate on work that needs to get done. Now, the Microsoft Slim Pen is certainly
handy when it comes to certain things. There's a quick shortcut button on the
butt end of it that you can assign press, double press, and hold functions to, And that end conveniently
serves as an eraser as well. Unfortunately, the constant and unnecessary waking and reconnections wasn't cutting it for
me and my Surface Pro's battery life. So I chose to go with this Renaisser
Slim Pen clone I found online instead. Unlike Microsoft's Slim Pen, this
stays asleep even when you move it around and doesn't turn on until
you press this button right here. It writes the same as Microsoft's
product and is tilt-compatible, too. I'll leave the link for
it in the description below. In case you want to erase things, it
has this dedicated button right here. Not as fancy as flipping the Microsoft pen around
and erasing things like you're holding a pencil, but I'll gladly take the savings
and better battery life instead, which nets me about $70 in savings once I
return the standard Flex keyboard and pen combo. There's also a right click button here, so you don't have to long tap on
things to call that function up. What you miss out on with this pen is the
wireless charging. It uses USB-C instead. It nevertheless stows away nicely
in the Flex keyboard's pen slot, automatically turning off after being idle for
10 minutes, regardless of detected movement. This next one's more of a personal thing. Coming from the Thinkpad world, I'm used to the Page Up and Page Down
buttons being near the arrow keys, and the Home and End keys being
close to the upper right corner. The up and down keys on the Flex
keyboard are spaced tightly, and I kept on hitting the wrong key as a result. The Home, End, Page Up, and Page Down
keys are all lined up next to each other, which made locating them without looking
at the keyboard difficult for me. I had no off-the-shelf way to
get the standard Thinkpad layout on the Flex keyboard, so I got
these textured stickers instead, carefully cutting them up to serve as locators
on the keys that I was having trouble with. Not bad for a cheap fix. And there you have it: my quick Flex keyboard comparison and real life usage
experience - for now, anyway. If you found this video useful, do hit that like
button below and consider subscribing as well. Maybe I'll find a way to make a
frankenstein wireless Thinkpad keyboard for the Microsoft Surface down
the road. That should be a fun project. Thank you for watching; I'll see you next time.