When I first heard about Eve community I was fascinated by the idea that consumers could shape the product they need. It is a radical idea given the fact that most companies design their products with profit in mind. For example companies remove headphone jacks from their flagships at the same time they introduce wireless earbuds.
I joined the community ans was gradually convinced that the people behind eve truly believe in the power of the community. So I decided to ignore the bad press and ordered a V. It was a big decision for me as it costs almost a months of my income! But I thought that I would put my money where my mouth was, help a company I believed in and get a tool I could use to do some light programming, and text editing.
I got my Eve V on September and the device felt great however the keyboard had the wrong layout. V felt (and still feels) a very premium device, the device felt very responsive and overall I am very impressed by its performance. I contacted the customer support about the wrong layout and a noise the charger made.
The next day I decided to test the keyboards bluetooth connection which never worked but I did not mind a lot about that. However the day the keyboard stopped being recognized by the V! That meant for me that the device became useless for my use-case! But I still had hope because the support had replied that they would sent me a new keyboard and charger due to the wrong layout.
After exchanging a few emails with support for a few weeks trying to convince they stopped replying. Since I though they couldn’t send a new keyboard, I even tried to offer workarounds like getting a refund at the cost of the keyboard and charger to order new ones or even sending V back but again they never replied.
To sum up, I am impressed by the performance of the V and by the community. Customer support and the keyboard have both been a failure, which means that the V is almost useless for me.
Is the keyboard not recognized but the pc sees there is a peripheral, or when you physically connect the keyboard to the tablet simply nothing happens?
I have a problem with the keyboard backlight: when the color is changed all the keyboard stops working, but after managing how to switch the backlight off the keyboard works normally connected.
How come to make a 2in1 useless without its keyboard? Every other Bluetooth keyboard works with the V. They are available for 20€…
But anyways… I’m sure eve is in heavy discussions with the keyboard manufacturer about his quality… That can lead to problems with spare keyboards to replace the bad ones… I don’t have numbers, but I’m sure at least 30% of the sold ones have to be replaced within 2 years…
The keyboard stopped being recognized when being connected.
I tried at the time removing and reinstalling the drivers but nothing happened.
I will try during the weekend to play with the backlight to see if anything happens.
Thanks for the information!
For my use cases I need to type a lot and I do not see carrying an extra keyboard around the offices as a solution, it would have to have the same form factor.
I am considering a keyboard mentioned in other posts which appears to be a more elegant solution of which the price is closer to 100 €, not 20 €.
Also a device that costs 1000 € should not require such compromises.
And there is the matter of the support, IMHO it is unacceptable to go radio silent on a client. Especially having admitted your fault.
As for the discussion about the quality, an alternative future design consideration would be to make the keyboards (and maybe V) more serviceable. I do not know if the it is technically possible but if the keyboard was made easy to be opened maybe we could repair it or take it to a technician to repair it.
Many Chinese stores no longer require you to ship the products back and forth for known problems, instead they refund you say 50 $ to get it repaired yourself locally. It is faster and cheaper for both parties.
this sounds sad. When I was reading the forum before getting my V, I already half decided to … not use the keyboard…
I tried… I tried to use it, but … it had many … minor… issues… (would need another page) but too much hassle so… I sold my keyboard on ebay b/c: it was NOT defective, but it’s just not a good combination, the keyboard and the V…
I use the BT-only keyboard which I bought for my Surface4 (which I also sold b/c the V is better…)
In short: EVE People should look into that keyboard thing… look at ALL the complaints & suggestions about it and go with it for a possible V2…
Which particular keyboard do you use?
Sorry if this has been answered before, do the Surface4 magnets and the V magnets align?
In other words can you use any BT keyboard for Surface4 with V?
The Surface 4 magnets and V magnets do not allign, but you can always use a bluetooth keyboard that you use for surface. Currently I am using the Brydge keyboard for surface.
The keyboard has by far been the biggest complaint for me as well. The pogo pins on mine became stiff a few months into owning the V, resulting in having to hold the part with the pins a certain way when attaching the keyboard to ensure all of the pins make contact. It turned what should be a quick and easy attachment process into kind of a pain. Also, the battery/bluetooth is problematic as well, the battery never shows more than around 60% charge in my pc settings and has terrible life when in bluetooth mode. Also the touch pad is sporadic in whether it works right upon bootup, have to disconnect and reconnect physical connection to get it to work right again. Other than a few occasional driver issues with the V itself and a tight spot under the screen that causes a dark area whenever I touch the screen, and just a little bit of flaking of the anti-glare coating that started right after I received my V, I have been really happy with my device. The issues that I have had have not been enough to endure the lengthy return/exchange process that prevailed during the time I still had a warranty.
I personally have the 1byone https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01LRR2GJC/ but I would not specifically suggest this one. There are many. Like I said, I just cut (yes, with a pair of scissors) the upper part where the pins are on, as they are plastic and not used by a bluetooth-only keyboard. I do not need to “connect” the keyboard to the V.
It does still good (after 3 years; 2 years with Surface, 1 year with V ) but the battery indication does not work very well anymore.
Same here. I was delighted with V movement, especially when I read V for Vendetta comic :). We bought two V’s and one keyboard had faulty bluetooth. After six months support just stopped responding. We give up and used that keyboard without bluetooth and then another keyboard just stopped working entirely. As we have two Eve’s we could double check and it just didn’t responded when was connected but on that one bluettoth was working (until battery died). We tried with support once again, got response to send serial and then two weeks nothing. As a company we really wonted to use Eve’s as we grow, but support is just terrible.
I bought the Brydge keyboard which was available in black color. I have used it a little bit but it seems a good fit. The only problem is that it adds weight and volume bringing the V closer to a laptop.
However forcing customers to buy separate equipment to replace equipment under warranty is not cool, and it was one of the reasons partial refund should be considered.
correct b/c I did not want it to connect to the then-Surface, to much fuzzing around… and now, a Surface keyboard (with plastic pins) would not be able to connect to the V, anyway…
Yeah unfortunately this seems to be a common thread regarding the quality of support.
As excited as I was about the monitor I haven’t pre-ordered it and won’t do so for a while. I may miss out on a great device but the support from Eve is horrible and replacements/repairs just never seem to happen. Not worth the risk on expensive devices.
That being said I love my V even though the touch screen is not usable any longer. Hope it lasts long and I won’t need to contact Eve for support any time soon
) but the battery indication does not work very well anymore.