Does anyone know of a braille display that's small enough to fit in a pants pocket?

By Emily, 20 August, 2021

Forum
Braille on Apple Products

Hi all,
I'm in the market for a braille display that I can shove into a pants pocket that I'll mostly be using with my iPhone. I had the Refreshabraille 18 for awhile (at least 7 years) until it finally broke. I checked APH's website to find that they were no longer selling the Refreshabraille 18. I bought the Focus 14 made by Freedom Scientific because it had only 14 cells and I assumed it would be smaller than the Refreshabraille 18. I assumed wrong. Does anyone know of a braille display that's on the market (that's still being sold) that I could shove into a pants pocket?
Thank you all in advance!

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Comments

By Maldalain on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

I have the RB18 that I do like, it serves me really well, based on long experience with braille displays and notetakers I believe there is nothing as compact and small as the RB18. The only device that can be comparable to the RB18 in terms of size is the BrailleSens
U2 ÿMini whiich is a braille notetaker not a dispay.

By kjw810 on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

The Beetle from HIMS is very small & could fit in a pocket. It works beautifully with my iPhone and is quiet and small.

By Siobhan on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

I am making a joke because if anyone's seen women's clothing, they have long decided we carry purses and don't need a decent sized pocket ever. I have shorts that are so small, my keys won't fit. Keys! :) So good luck. I'd also make sure a good case is around the display.

By Holy Diver on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

As has been mentioned already the smart beetle is very small for a braille display and should fit in your pocket assuming you have actual pockets haha. Also the old Braille Pen was pretty compact and might work but I don't know if it's still being sold.

By Travis Roth on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

I've not seen the Smart Beetle. I looked up the size and I found:
Dimensions : 5.86 x 3.38 x 1.06
So it is probably one of the shorter displays. If memory serves the original Refreshabraille 18 was about this long. 1.06 inches thick seems pretty chunky though.
And the Beetle has been around for awhile, can anyone comment if the software is still updated? Nevertheless this may be about as short of a display as we can find.

By Emily on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

Thank you all for your responses! I'll look into the Smart Beetle display a little bit more.

By Holy Diver on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

I think it's honestly an underrated little display. If you're used to other Hims keyboards it will feel really familiar and you can emulate qwerty keys like control, command and altogether without any extra screen reader software. If you're looking for the most portable display I think this is it.

By Maldalain on Monday, September 6, 2021 - 01:47

A review erfor the Smart Beetle on AppleVis mentions that iOS treats the Smart Beetle as an 18 cell braille display, you will read the first 14 cells then you need to scroll down to read four cells more. Is this still the case? Down is a quote from the review by Scott Davert: ‘While it’s better than nothing at all, you should know that the Smart Beetle will display the first 14 cells correctly, but when you pan forward, you will only get 4 cells on the next display width. This is because, as I just noted, VoiceOver treats the Smart Beetle as an 18 cell display, so when you pan forward, the display gets fed 18 cells of braille before it moves forward.’