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A review of the Braille Sense U2 Mini, by Julie Roadway

When I first looked at the U2 Mini, I was struck by how tiny and portable it was. As someone who regularly has to take notes when out and about, the thought of having a note taker that I could easily slip in a handbag struck me as ideal. The ability to lock the keyboard eliminated accidental pressing of keys when carrying the unit, a feature I really like.

 

u2-mini-in-case

I felt the Braille display and was impressed by how clear and sharp the quality of the Braille was, and liked the fact I could silence speech on the go, making discreet typing in a meeting possible.
The function keys on the top makes shortcuts to menus very easy, and the ability to manipulate files, create folders, and save them to an SD card for backing up purposes is a facility I regularly make use of.
Editing text is very straight forward, and highlighting large blocks of text for deletion or copying I learnt to do very quickly.
Dropbox is a feature I use every day, because it makes interacting with the pc easy, enabling me to share files between that and the U2 Mini.
Checking e-mails on the go is very useful, and the “Google search” facility is a godsend.
Internet access is vital for me, and the ability to copy text from the web and save it to files is invaluable. An excellent example of this was when downloading and copying the HIMS manual for the Smart Beetle and the U2 Mini and saving these manuals in separate files for later reference.
The quietness of the keys when typing makes this a very unobtrusive tool when out and about, and the on-board help was excellent when learning the  many functions of the unit.
As an iPhone user, the terminal clipboard helps me to manipulate text before sending it to my phone or iPad, thus avoiding many of the translation problems with Apple and Braille.

Braille-sense-u2-mini-ios

The battery life is ideal for what I need; I either just charge the unit up over night or insert the spare battery that I charge in advance.
I like the speech voice on the unit, and sometimes use it to rapidly read long documents or when using the web.
When on a bus or sitting in a waiting room, to kill time, I listen to my daisy books using the media functions of the unit, and appreciate reading the horror and thriller books I enjoy in such a convenient way.
I saved very hard for this little device, and I am glad I did! I would highly recommend it as a very effective personal assistant always to hand, always at your fingertips and I know I couldn’t do without it now.
I own a Braille Note Apex but much prefer my Mini.
I received excellent help from Sight and Sound on the couple of occasions I telephoned Tech Support, and I definitely made the right choice when purchasing the U2 Mini.