REAL-WORLD TESTING Keyboards For Less Talk is cheap—and so is Loyd Case. Our man hits the stores for $20 keyboards. 86 PC MAGAZINE MAY 9, 2006 YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for <strong>Support</strong>
BY LOYD CASE if you do find them, they may not be as cheap in your local store as they were in mine. It takes some hunting to be a true cheap geek. Cheap Fry’s Gear In disgust I turned to my giant Fry’s shopping bag and pulled out the $8.99 Labtec Media Keyboard. Labtec is part of Logitech now, although you’d never know it from this keyboard, which feels nothing like most Logitech keyboards. The Labtec’s keys feel mushy and take a fair amount of pressure. Tactile feedback is also poor, and often when I thought I had pressed the right key, I found that I had made a typing error. I got better over time but still made a lot more mistakes than I would have on a good keyboard. Playing UT2004 was just fine, although after the session my fingers were a bit tired. Overall, this keyboard is hardly a joy to type on, but it gets the job done. And some users may appreciate the full set of customizable buttons. I’ll pass. Another Fry’s gem was next, from Key Tronic—a brand that’s been around about as long as the IBM PC. The overall spacing, layout, and key depth of the $9.95 Key Tronic KT800PS2 are actually reminiscent of the original PC keyboard, but the Key Tronic doesn’t offer that clicky key feedback that endeared the original IBM unit to its users. In fact, the Key Tronic required the greatest pressure of any keyboard I tested—an excessive amount, really. Nevertheless, this keyboard is built like a tank, so if you need a rug- IT’S TRUE. WE’RE FINICKY ABOUT KEYboards. We write a lot of stories here at PC Magazine, and the right keyboard makes typing thousands ofwords a week much easier to bear. We also play a few PC games. It’s a shocking idea, I know—after all, it’s obvious that we’re a very serious bunch. Interestingly, the needs of PC gamers and the wants of touch typists aren’t always the same. A touch typist needs to be able, well, to type—often at fairly high speeds, with reliable key presses and tactile feedback. A gamer needs a responsive keyboard with a layout that’s not too odd. Therein lies the problem with dedicated gamer keyboards, like the Wolf Claw, a mostly normal keyboard with a wacky circular gaming area. It’s great for gaming but impractical for most anything else. Logitech’s G15 is a good compromise, or Microsoft’s Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000, but these are pricey, and not everyone needs (or can afford) a $50-to-$70 keyboard. I wanted to help. Knowing the ideal solution was out there somewhere, I grabbed a credit card and did a little shopping. The keyboards I found weren’t oneoff, Internet-only specials, and none were special sale items. Four were on the shelf at a local Fry’s Electronics, and two were bought at Central Computers, a white-box outfit in the San Francisco Bay Area. But all were under $20, and three were less than ten bucks. Of the six items I found, all were essentially straight keyboards, not split designs, though the Microsoft model does add a curve to the keyboard row to relax the wrist position slightly. Oh, and none are wireless. While you may occasionally see deals on wireless keyboards online, the cheapest one I could find was $29. All connected via the PS/2 port except the Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000, which is USB. I tested the keyboards by typing parts of several articles on each one and gaming with Unreal Tournament 2004 for relatively extended sessions—working around here can be a tough job sometimes. With these thoughts in mind, let’s take a look at the individual keyboards. We’ll start with the lowest-priced keyboards and work our way up. A final thought: These keyboards may not be available everywhere. And even ged model, this will serve you well. YYePG Proudly Presents, Thx for <strong>Support</strong> Smaller, Not Better First out of the shopping bag: the Inland Pro Keyboard Typematic, pulled from the shelves at Central Computers for a mere $7.99. If you have a snug work area, this may be a useful keyboard. It offers buttons for Power and Sleep, plus a unique Turbo button. When you press the Turbo button simultaneously with one of the first seven Function keys, you can increase or decrease the speed of repeated keys. The Inland feels cramped. The width of the home key row is 2mm less than on most of the other keyboards—a minute number but a big difference: It felt small, and my fingers felt too close when typing. And it’s a noisy keyboard, making lots of loose clicking noises and requiring extra force to press the keys. Pressing the Turbo and F11 keys locks and unlocks the keyboard. If you have cats or small children, this is a useful feature, but it’s not for security, since you don’t need a password to unlock it. The only things this keyboard really has going for it are its low price and compact size. Everything else is something to avoid. Next! Jim Louderback’s Keyboard Tips I’m a bit of a keyboard nut. I’ve got a basement full of old IBM PS/2 keyboards, because the buckling spring action delivers the best tactile feedback of any I’ve found—way better than those rubber domes inside cheaper models. If you can afford a few more bucks, check out my favorite, from Unicomp (www.pckeyboard .com). Unicomp purchased IBM’s keyboard technology and continues to make what I consider the best keyboards on earth. If you touchtype and value mechanical tactile feedback, these are the ones for you. Even better, they’re not too expensive—they start at $50. For a few more bucks you can get an integrated pointing stick, and the space-saver model emulates the best of IBM’s notebook keyboards. MAY 9, 2006 PC MAGAZINE 87
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