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Build-in either a keyboard or the gamepad. I have BT mice, keyboards, gamepads, and other things that already handle how they charge (USB-C).

But it's not a single thing if you're carrying around other parts anyhow, and those appear kind of flimsy. And I already have a general purpose computing device with networking capability that goes in my pocket, a smartphone... so why would I want to put it my pocket if it does less?

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You might want a dedicated device to control some lights or scan some barcodes that you can hand off without handing off the most expensive thing you own, that unlocks almost every piece of personal data you have.

A built in keyboard could be a failure point, and gamepads are well known to fail. I'd trust five layers of frameworks and thousands of lines of code more than a cheap switch.

If they really wanted maximum reliability, I would prefer they charge the keypad with NFC and talk to it over either BLE or just the NFC itself.

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