Have you ever wished the PS3 had a real physical keyboard/keypad to type in text instead of the virtual on-screen keyboard? There are full sized Bluetooth keyboards available for the PS3 but one of their drawbacks is that they take up a little too much space in a living room table that is already crowded with multiple remotes.

Well, Sony has come up with a clever little device that clamps onto the PS3's SIXAXIS or Dualshock 3 controller and provides both a keypad (similar to ones you might see in a smart phone) and a touchpad (that operates in a similar manner as a laptop computer's touchpad).

There is a button that toggles between keypad and touchpad mode. The touchpad shares the same space as the keyboard – you just move your finger over the keys to move the pointer or cursor on the screen. It's really quite clever.

When I first heard about it, I didn't think there was anyway this idea could be any good but now that I've played around with one for a little bit I think it's a really good solution.

One of my concerns was the physical connection of the keypad to the controller. The clamping mechanism is very well designed and implemented as the keypad is solidly held in place by the clamp.

Since the USB connection is on top of the SIXAXIS controller, I wondered if having the keypad on top of the controller would block the USB port of the controller. As you can see, the clamp of the keypad provides a hole for the controller's USB port so you can charge the controller with the keypad still clamped on top of it.

The Sony Wireless Keypad is a Bluetooth device so setting it up with the PS3 is very simple. It requires you have firmware v2.50 or later. Pairing the keypad to the PS3 is similar to how you pair the SIXAXIS controller to the PS3. All you do is turn on the keypad and connect a USB cable to the keypad and PS3 and it is automatically paired.

Since the keypad is a standard Bluetooth device, it is also possible to pair it with other Bluetooth compatible products such as a computer although I haven't tried this. You can put the keypad into pairing mode by turning on the keypad while holding down the blue button. Pairing with the USB cable is only available with the PS3.

During my time with it, I found entering text to be quite comfortable. If you are comfortable with using the keypad on a typical smart phone, you will have no problems with the Sony Wireless Keypad for the PS3.

Finally, the built-in lithium battery is removable by removing 8 screws on the back of the keypad so it's possible to replace the battery when it eventually wears out.