Fujitsu LX900
The Fujitsu LX900 has all the features you'd associate with a higher-end keyboard. But other than 128-bit AES encryption and spill resistance, it doesn't exactly rock my boat. It just looks too square and has a fairly inexpensive appearance. To be fair though, it's an all-round decent keyboard and was one of the quieter models to tap away on. It's sponginess felt great and typing was better than my first impressions led me to believe it would be.
The hotkeys run along the top in the form of strip membrane buttons, which feels a bit tacky. There is a battery indicator though and it comes with a dinky dongle and decent mouse. Its rubber coated base feels lovely too, and while in deep thought between sentences, makes a great alternative to stroking one's chin hair.
Reg Rating 80%
Price £50
More info Fujitsu
HP Wireless Elite
HP's Wireless Elite is a fairly smart-looking, full-length keyboard, with a matt finish and compact feel. It's very light, ultra thin and sits nicely on my desk without taking up huge amounts of room. The F keys double up as the hotkeys, but there's separate volume and mute buttons and although no indicator for battery life on the device itself, warnings do appear on-screen. When typing, the feel is definitely above average, with fairly flat nicely-shaped keys and the action isn't so plaquey. The keyboard is splashproof too and comes at a reasonable price.
The huge downside to this one though is the moderately large dongle. The annoying aspect is not the size, but rather a completely unnecessary blue LED, which lights up every time you hit a key. If it was tucked behind a desktop out of sight, it wouldn't make a difference, but in the line of sight, it's distracting and for all its plus points as keyboard, you soon grow weary of the blinking thing.
Reg Rating 85%
Price £50
More info HP
Next page: Kensington Pro Fit
COMMENTS
Volume
The louder a keyboard is the better... it's not a good keyboard unless your colleagues are forced to wear ear muffs!
A buyers guide to keyboards
Give a tick for each category. Most ticks == best keyboard
1) Can it be used as an offensive weapon.
A good keyboard should be solid enough that you can grasp it two handed (right thumb on ctrl, left thumb on escape), and smash an intruder around the face with it. It should still be fully usable afterwards.
2) Cleaning
A good keyboard should be able to go straight in the dishwasher. An excellent keyboard can go in the washer.
3) Clickety-clickety
When you press a key, there should be adequate travel (there should be enough space between keys, keys should not be small or hard to access) and action (the key should depress noticeably, and should reinforce that the key has been pressed with some sort of click)
4) Abuse (see #1)
A keyboard is your primary interface with a computer. Sometimes you need to show the computer who is boss, and should be able to abuse it by thumping the keyboard.
5) Durability (see #2)
Sometimes, you just don't have time to fix every little thing, so when the reports server has died, your keyboard shouldn't let you down, just because you've poured your latte/coke inside it.
tl;dr? Buy a Model M
you *like* spongy keys? eww! (bet you had a spectrum when you were a kid)
At that point I realised how useful the rest of the reviews were going to be to me, given i'm also happily clattering away right now on a unicomp keyboard. Yea verily the spring doth buckle!
(Having said which, I also like and frequently use the current apple chicklet keyboards; somehow they make it work even for a buckling-spring enthusiast, when most others of that ilk are godawful. Must be that positive non-spongy feel they have.)
Sorry...
but any keyboard without a numpad cannot get 95%. It's a major issues for anyone that deals with numbers.
Is this 2003 again?
I remember when wireless keyboards came out and all us techy types went out and bought them.
Then three weeks later when the batteries ran out during an important moment they then all went in the bin.
I always felt they were a bit of a fad.
Wired forever.
