One of them came....
One of the (I hope) two LMP WKP-1314 keypads arrived at our post office. Upon first (and second and third) impressions of this Made In (Mainland) China product, I remain seriously impressed.
FIT AND FINISH:
It's not made of aluminum like the Apple Compact Bluetooth Keyboard. The profile is also different; there's more of a "belly" on the back side of the keypad than there is on the keyboard. Also, unlike the nigh well on invisible "On" light on the Apple product, on this one you get a small LED shining through a visible hole.
Having said that, it's still a very, very good match. Considering the dissimilar structural materials, the LMP folks did an excellent job of getting a finish match on both the keypad and the "junction bracket'. The keys look much the same, excepting only the serif at the top of the "1" key. (For the record, I don't notice the previously commented upon differences in the belly of the "5" keys.)
The bottom of the keypad has a number of rubber feet to keep it from sliding all over the place, unlike my Kensington USB keypad. Also, the feet are arranged so that the pad is stable from all angles - the Kensington has its feet put on so that the pad wobbles if the upper portion is accidentally struck. The rubber feet are all placed in locator holes, not just stuck on the bottom as with some other keypads and external hard drives.
When fitted together with the included bracket, the two keyboards look good together. Not perfect, of one piece, but good. The joining piece is contoured to disguise the junction, but you can still see that it is there. Also, if you view the combination together, you can see (if you look closely) the different thicknesses.
WHAT YOU GET FOR YOUR MONEY:
First of all, there's no driver to load, no software issues at all. This is true Bluetooth connectivity, not the half-assed version that you get with other Bluetooth or Wi-Fi keypads (or, for that matter, with the Kensington USB keypad).
In addition to a traditionally arranged 0 through 9 keypad (bottom to top, as on an adding machine or calculator), with "clear", =, /, across the top, and *, -, + and "enter" down the right, you also get a row of function keys across the top (F13 through F17), and a left hand column of "page up", "page down", "up" arrow, "down" arrow and "delete" down the left. Same key throw as with the Apple Keyboard. When clipped to the keyboard, here's a "pass through" plunger that activates the main keyboard switch; the keypad is is turned on by a small black button on the side of the keypad.
There is no "Numeric lock" key on this keypad. That also means that there are not right arrow, left arrow and diagonal arrow options for gamers. I know some value this, but I also remember from my early Mac 128K days that there were ways to enable this other than a straight numeric lock key. Not owning any "first person shooter" games, there is no way for me to test if this is still the case. (There is those "up" and "down" keys on the left.)
I also tried to add some keypad shortcuts through the Systems Preferences Shortcuts menus. Nothing there worked either, leaving me wondering just how to use the function keys at the top of the keypad.
HOOKING IT UP:
The pairing procedure is well described in the multi-lingual instruction book, but it took me a few times before it worked for me. Once it did, the keypad worked just fine, although I did encounter "pairing messages" now and then.
If you do encounter problems (the original passcode was an unwieldy eight or nine digit monster - I opted for the much simpler "0000" instead), there are a number of alternative routes you can take.
The whole "Is it on/Is it off?" thing was also a bit confusing at first. Once you do have it on, you punch a black button on the bottom to start the pairing process.
USING THE THING:
Once all activated and paired and all of that there, it works pretty much like the full sized keyboard with numeric keypad. I used it combined at first, but quickly dropped off to using it detached, my original intention.
All of the keypad keys worked as intended, and the left side keys functioned as intended as well. I was unable to test the function keys (as described above), but I will spend some additional time with the manual to see if I can puzzle that little problem out.
I'm not doing much straight figure stuff right now, but I was able to give it a workout when entering ISBN numbers into my library program. (The scanning module normally uses the iSight camera at the top of the screen, but on older books there are no UPC symbols for it to read, so you go the manual route instead.) After a bit of early confusion (my Kensington has a raised dot in the center of the "5" key, while this keypad has a raised bar at the bottom of the "5" key), I was keeping centered while punching in numbers of gay abandon (as they used to say in the 1890's). The move to the "Enter" and + keys is natural as well.
As for the function keys, well they're still a bit of a stretch, just like on the regular keyboard. On the keypad, the function keys are deeper/taller than those on the regular keyboard; the width is the same. (They are also not staggered above the numbers, unlike those on the keyboard.)
In fact, about the only flaw that it has from my standpoint is the ugly plunger sticking out of the upper left corner when it is not clipped to the Bluetooth Keyboard. I guess that I could take a razor saw to it and cut it off flush, especially since I normally won't be using it with the keyboard. Some sort of carrying case would also have been nice...
But, if you do a lot of number stuff, this one is for you. It works with the Mac, it looks like the Mac, and it matches the keyboard height of a Mac Book Air very well.
