Venue 11 Pro - Slim Keyboard not behaving as expected or it should.

I recently received the slim keyboard from dell for my Venue 11 Pro - Baytrail tablet.    Overall I like the quality and functionality, although I too like others have encountered the intermittent non-functional keyboard, but that's not the subject of this post. I have noticed a couple items in its behavior that don't work as you would expect and I hope can be corrected via software.  1. When the keyboard is attached but folded back behind the tablet (ie the keyboard is not in use) the on screen keyboard will not appear.  This makes it hard to use the device as a tablet as anytime data entry is required you need to unfold the keyboard and hold it somehow while you type then fold it back behind the screen to continue tablet use.   When folding the keyboard behind the unit its just as important to make the on screen keyboard available as it is to stop the keyboard itself from functioning,  right now the keyboard stops working as it should be no alternative input is available.  We discussed this during development - I'll follow up with engineering on why this wasn't implemented. 2. In much the same way as item #1.  When the keyboard is attached but folded back behind the tablet orientation is locked so the screen will not rotate to portrait or landscape mode at need.  So if you were carrying it with the cover / slim keyboard on and opened it up, folding the keyboard behind the screen the screen is stuck in landscape mode.   The only method ive found to change its orientation is to go to desktop and run the intel graphics app to edit the orientation. This was by design to prevent the screen from rotating while docked, but once the keyboard has been disabled, perhaps we can re-enable the sensor. Combined this makes the slim keyboard worse than useless in several usage scenarios.   I want the slim keyboard for the occasional need to input more data than is practical on the touch screen AND to protect the tablet.... but if your usage is more tablet than notebook you will find yourself constantly working around these limitations.    You have a great product here, but you really need to take a page from the surface playbook here.   They kind of set the standard and expectations for how keyboard covers on tablets should work and while I really like the hardware the usage is awkward as it stands.

That would be great,  I did more than my share of digging today, didn't come up with much....

In online chat, Microsoft techs confirmed that there is currently NOT an option in windows to override the on screen keyboard and rotation behavior.  In other words while a keyboard is attached rotation auto-rotation is disabled, the rotation option under display is locked and the on screen keyboard will not automatically come up in metro/modern when text entry is required.   

In a phone call to an apparent india based dell support office I was told that the keyboard is working as designed and they would forward my request up the line.   

Essentially it seems the microsoft surface keyboard covers fully disable (detach so to speak) when folded back so windows doesn't recognize that a keyboard is present, but the dell slim keyboard just disables the keys but still reports a keyboard present to windows, even though there is no usable keyboard present.  

In my opinion this is a design flaw... people that want to use the V11P as a notebook are better served by the mobile keyboard,  the slim keyboard acts as a cover as much as a keyboard and unfortunately using it as a cover significantly limits the functionality of the tablet. 

This unit is replacing an iPad as my daily carry.  I also have an XPS 18 as my tablet for design work (I have never even opened the keyboard box on my xps 18, its 100% tablet although I did swap out the HD for an SSD) and an XPS 2710 for my programming and 3d animation work.   In the past 12 months ive become an all dell shop again after a few years with everything from apple to asus. 

In any case,  the ipad pretty much set the standard for inteligent lids...  the unit turns on/off when the cover is removed or replaced,  magnetic latches easily snap the cover into place.   The surface enhanced this adding keyboards to the cover.  There are certain things that are just common sense and anyone coming from the ipad or surface is going to expect them.  It never even occurred to me that dell wouldn't implement them. 

On my ipad I probably 'peak' at it a dozen times a day...  leave the calendar app up and open the lid enough to see appointments, etc.   This is much more awkward on the V11P as the screen can't be rotated so instead of lifting the cover away from to look undernearth you have to lift the cover toward you and open it much more fully to see what you need to see. 

A usage pattern i was looking foward to was as follows... the tablet is on my desk being used as a laptop more or less, then off to a design meeting... flip the keyboard behind the tablet, hold it in portrait mode with the pen in one note and its very natural....  except the V11P won't allow screen rotation with the keyboard attached. 

Its kind of like you saw the keyboard on the surface and knew you needed to offer something like it but no one bothered to think through tablet usage and just thought of it as a light PC. 

Brian,

I was playing and experimenting with different things tonight and I tried rebooting the device while the keyboard was folded back.   Miraculously everything worked...  the on screen keyboard popped up,  rotating the screen worked...  flipping the keyboard out and the keyboard worked and the other things stopped as they should... folded the keyboard back behind the tablet and the on screen keyboard and rotation worked again as it should.

This behavior lasted for about 15 minutes.  I set the unit down for a few minutes, came back and it had lost connection to the keyboard again.  Removed the keyboard and reinserted it to get it to recognize and it went back to the old behavior.

So it is possible and possibly even the designed behavior...  but its buggy as hell.     Hopefully this can be fixed.    

Thanks,  Btw,  I did the registry hack last night and rebooted...  it recognized the keyboard...  a bit later i opened it again and it awakened from sleep and couldn't find the keyboard.  So then i tried the post someone posted last night... go into device manager and disable the option for these devices to suspend to save power...  rebooted and it found the keyboard...  opened it up this morning and it didn't find the keyboard.   So these fixes don't seem to have solved the keyboard disconnect for me, although ive always assumed that problem would be fixed so it hasn't been my primary issue.

On the subject of magnets...  i noticed something odd but likely works as designed.   Lets say you have the back cover folded in position to prop up the screen...  then you slide the back cover up the back of the unit to the fully flat position it is in when carried.   when it reaches about 3/4 the way up the back the screen will turn off.    I'm guessing that magnet is being moved over the same spot where the battery on the front of the screen indicates the lid is closed.  

I doubted it would, but after I somehow stumbled on it all working how it should for a good 15 minutes or so last night (until i let it sleep) I thought id at least make note of its effect or lack there of on rotation and on screen keyboard.  

Oops... when i did the registry hack apparently one of the three edits didn't take or got set back to 1 somehow.  I rechecked them and fixed the problem, now testing it out to see if it solves the disconnect problem.     Doesn't seem to address my issues with rotation and on screen keyboard though. 

Just got our first Venue 11 into the office and was very disappointed to find this thread already active.  Yes, this is a very simple use-case where someone will have the slim keyboard connected and then flip it back to use the onscreen keyboard for the modern UI.  Auto screen rotation and pop-up onscreen keyboard really are a must when the keyboard is flipped back.  Not sure how that very basic behavior could have been missed in testing.  Hoping for a resolution soon...

I'll just add to the voice of having auto-orientation enabled while the slim keyboard is attached - I regularly view PDF's in portrait mode with the keyboard folded back, it is the definition of a Windows convertible.

- Woody

Still trying to determine what we can do with the current design to meet the needs requested here.   Looking into it.