Expanding My Samsung Ativ SmartPC Pro

Full Expanded

This is the 2nd review after I bought my original keyboard dock for my tablet. The question you’ve been asking me…It’s this a good keyboard addon for the ATIV Smart PC Pro? My answer is…

Hell YEAH!

Keyboard Dock with Touchpad

Firstly, let’s take a look at the keyboard dock in a glance. It’s a standard Samsung keyboard lappy with a touch pad. All you need to do, is to plug your tablet into it. You will get the usb connected sound bleep from Windows 8 – once that is done, the tablet capability expanded with it. You get the follow expansion…

  • 2x USB 2.0 port (nope it’s not 3.0 like the one comes with the tablet) . Well extra two is better than none.
  • DC jack now plugs into the sideway. Nope, it doesn’t come with a battery expansion as was rumored earlier.
  • Keyboard comes with Fn LOCK. Many of you did not noticed that Microsoft “conviniently” again removed the need for Function keys. This means desktop software like photoshop will need to use Fn keys pressed together with Ctrl to execute the shortcut. I find it very troublesome. Luckily for us, Samsung did it right by maintaining the tradition!
  • Samsung keyboard dock doesn’t come with windows 8 shortcut that replace the function keys as default. Which is GOOD! Meaning the F1 – F12 continues to function just like they should. But, if you need the Windows 8 shortcuts e.g. turn off volume, project to screen etc, you can always turn the Fn Lock on.  This makes the keyboard way much better compared with Microsoft Wedge keyboard.
  • The overall thickness after combining with keyboard dock is only 1.5 cm. For a total weight of 3.5 (~1.5kg) pounds (just tablet weight about 1.9 pounds)
  • Touch pad also comes with windows 8 gesture, customizable using Samsung Drivers. Although due to the size of the tablet’s width and the keyboard does makes your finger/thumb too close to the touchpad when typing. This may result in our thumbs ‘accidentally’ touches the pad while typing which can be annoying. Well, lucky thing, there’s a shortcut to turn off the touchpad on demand, useful indeed.
  • I got the keyboard dock from Amazon.com
Eject Button
DC Jack, left side
USB Port (Left and Right)
Fn Lock, pretty handy
1.5cm thickness

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