Rapoo E6300 portable Bluetooth keyboard review: elegance with utility at an affordable price

Published On: August 19, 2014

“Looking for a portable keyboard for your mobile device? Read on to find out whether the Rapoo E6300 fits the bill“

Smartphones and tablets are a great companions due to their portable form and wide range of utilities they offer. However, when it comes to using them for work, specifically for writing, one can’t use them for long stretches. That’s where wireless keyboards come in to picture, as they seamlessly connect with the mobile device and allow for faster typing that’s also less prone to typing errors. Accessory brand Rapoo is bringing its entire portfolio to the Indian market, and today we have its portable Bluetooth keyboard for review. Christened as the E6300, the keyboard looks extremely premium, but does it work well too? Here’s how it holds up.

The Rapoo E6300 is extremely small in size, so much so that you start to wonder that if it packs all the keys of a regular keyboard or not. Well, not to worry, as the keyboard comes with all the keys including a dedicated row of function keys that also double up as shortcut keys for media playback, volume control, search, etcetera. In fact, the 80 keys on the keyboard offer almost the similar functionality like any standard keyboard. Additionally, the shortcut keys are immensely useful and works across all platforms even though they’re mainly designed to work with the iPad.

The keys are densely packed, meaning that there is very less free space in between. Our review unit falls in the brand’s Gold series, and it bears striking looks, with white keys sporting gold embossing for signifying the characters on the front and shiny gold shade at the back. The keyboard is also available in simple black or white. The slight bump at the rear gives it a slight slant, making it easier for typing. The same bump also houses controls and indicators. A power key is located alongside the pairing button. The first LED blinks when you’re trying to pair the E6300 with any device, while the other LED lights up when the battery is low. The rest of the rear is fairly minimal with Rapoo branding and the keyboard’s serial number.

The device has been engineered in such a manner that it looks stylish as well as being extremely portable. In fact, you can easily carry it around in your jeans pocket or a small bag, making it an ideal mate for your mobile device. It challenges mobile devices with its 5.6mm sleek body.

Coming to the usability aspect of the keyboard, the pairing is as easy as 1-2-3. All it requires is a verification by entering the pairing code and you can use the keyboard along with any mobile device or a computer irrespective of the platform. Typing on the keyboard takes some getting used to for the simple fact that the keys are a tad small and packed closely together. At first, we did make a few typos here and there, but once our hands were set on the keyboard, the typos were very few. However, it you have plump fingers then it might be a little difficult to get comfortable typing on the keyboard.

There’s almost zero latency between pressing the key on keyboard and the character typed showing up on the screen. However, there’s some lag when you press the key after sometime of inactivity since it goes in to sleep mode to conserve battery.

The E6300 houses an in-built battery that’s rechargeable via microUSB. However, you’ll need to charge it rarely as we used it for a couple of days without the need of charging it. If the company’s claim of battery life of up to one month is to be believed, then you surely need to worry about juice whilst heading out for that all-important business trip.

As an accessory, the Rapoo E6300 doesn’t disappoint at all and works well for the most part, unless you have big digits. As mentioned earlier, our review device was in gold, but you can get the same utility albeit in classic black or white. The keyboard is priced attractively at Rs 1,999. What works in its favour is its sheer elegance which complements your high-end iPad or any mobile device for that matter. Talking about the competition, there aren’t many worthy options available in this price bracket, apart from the offerings from Indian vendors like Amkette and Zebronics. We have reviewed the Zebronics Tabmate, which is good for its price but can’t match the E6300’s build quality. You can also take a look at the keyboard covers from the likes of Logitech and Belkin, though those options are exclusively meant for the iPad only and are also pricier.