PC Concepts The Wave: Never Wave Goodbye to This Guy
Written: Oct 29 '00 (Updated Jul 13 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: letters stay on keys, touchpad drivers easily updated, windows buttons, EXCELLENT-key-springs, durable,well-made, versatile-keys-in-numeric-pad
Cons: none that I have found-even comes with an adapter on keyboard PS/2 type connector
The Bottom Line: In an industry where we are often told that expensive is better, PC CONCEPTS THE WAVE disproves that. About half the price of MS , this keyboard is superior.
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| Caprig's Full Review: Pc Concepts PC Concepts Wave TP5.0 (61585) Keyboar... |
BETTER THAN MICROSOFT NATURAL
When I first began to use computers extensively quite a few years ago, my wrists began to ache and I could not type as fast as I used to. I was very frustrated and even thought of forgetting the computer completely.
Then they came out with the Microsoft Natural ergonomic keyboards. I waited some time before getting one as I rarely purchase new products that are not tried over time. I am tired of companies using consumers as beta testers that PAY THEM to test their products and are left for months with a crippled product until the company works out the bugs.
Finally after I could not stand the pain anymore, I purchased the Microsoft Natural Keyboard. I was amazed at the difference that it made in my typing speed and ability. The mouse was still difficult for me to use and I had some trouble with my hands there.
I was very disappointed in the quality of the keyboard, however. In 2 months, the letters and numbers wore off of almost every key that I used on a regular basis. The others were half gone. That made me mad. The keys also were not as easy to make work after only 2 months. I cleaned the keyboard thoroughly and cleaned the contacts for the keys, but it did not do much good.
So out to the store I went to find another keyboard to buy. I was so upset that Microsoft had pretty much owned the market for natural keyboards. I liked the idea, but the keyboard was not working well, so why buy another?
PC CONCEPTS HALF THE PRICE
As I was ready to leave the store, I saw a display of the PC Concepts keyboards. The price was about half of the Microsoft version, and it even had a touchpad mouse on the keyboard!!!! I was impressed.
I did not hesitate to purchase this keyboard. When I took it home (there had been no model to look at in the store) I tried it out and was thrilled with the spring to the keys, the way that they worked was high calibre and I did not have any trouble reaching anything.
HOW I FOUND THE KEYBOARD TO BE
The touchpad was wonderful. It worked very well, and was a welcome relief for my wrist pain too.
Although my keyboard model number was a bit earlier than this particular model, the board is exactly the same(in fact, I have been in contact with tech support over there and this board is exactly the same and can be used with the TP5.0 keyboard software). I am so impressed with my board, that I want to let you all know the longevity of the board and some of the features that you will find with a PC Concepts keyboard with the mousepad (touchpad- I use both terms for the same thing).
TOUCHPAD
First of all, the touchpad makes it possible to have a larger area on your desk for other things. I have used this pad with 3 OS, and 4 different computers- all with flawless results. It will work with the generic mouse drivers (actually it is a PS/2 connector) and you do not have to use the drivers that come with it.
DURABLE LETTERS ON KEYS
I have had this keyboard for about 5 years now and only the E has the paint worn off. The spring is exactly the same as when I bought it, and it still works wonderfully.
SET UP OF THE KEYBOARD
There are F1-12 buttons on the top row. The enter key on the right hand side is very large, making it easy to hit from different hand positions. I LOVE that feature. It takes up 3 key spaces. The backspace key is also bigger- taking up to side by side key spaces.
The right hand shift key is wider than one key space and the backslash key is to the right of that. There is another of the same size on the left side too. The space bar has a few windows keys to the right of it- one for START button and one for the PROGRAM menu. This is particularly handy if you have your mouse driver suddenly incapacitated and need to get somewhere or need to reboot without just hitting the reset button on your computer.
It has the usual printscreen, scroll lock, pause buttons on the top over the 6 button block that houses the INSERT, HOME, PAGE UP, DELETE, END, PAGE DOWN keys.
4 arrow keys are below that.
The numeric pad is nice and can double as arrow keys as well, but I do not use that feature. There are ways to program the numeric keys to be like clicks on a mouse as well as using them for the usual numeric functions.
MY IMPRESSIONS OF THIS KEYBOARD
What impressed me most about this keyboard is that it is about 5 years old, and I just put in Win98. For the first time, the drivers that came with the pad did not work. It was a new system, and I could have been happy with just the generic touchpad drivers, but decided to see what was available.
I was shocked to see that they had developed a whole new driver that has amazing abilities in the touchpad(the touchpad and the keyboard have different drivers you have to download separately). You can program the four corners of the touchpad area to do different functions (you have a long list to choose from) and in certain OS, it will support a scroll setting that allows you to run your finger on the right or bottom of the pad, and when you hit the edge of the pad, instead of having to go up and start over to get the scroll to continue, you just leave your finger at the bottom corner and the scrolling continues until you release.
There are ways to program the two touchpad buttons to be different clicks or a few other settings, but I have not tried them all out yet.
This pad is an awesome pad. I really love the fact that after all of these years when so many computer accessories become obsolete that this pad is still very technically sound and up to date with just a new driver.
This keyboard is truly one of the best deals I have ever seen and this company has produced great keyboards. I have put in these keyboards for other customers who also love them and they lasted a long time for them too.
Hopefully their paint and quality remains high. I have not seen another keyboard so well made in the many years I have worked with computers.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 40
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Epinions.com ID:
Caprig
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Location: NE US- 2 email me delete REMOVETHIS
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Product-Evaluation/Information-Specialist. Too Busy to Be KIND to Others? You are TOO BUSY.
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