One of my biggest pet peeves with a keyboard is the “L” shaped enter key. It may seem ridiculous at first to gripe about a keyboard having an “L” shaped enter key, but if you take note as to where the “\” key ends up on these keyboards, you might understand a little more what I mean.

When the enter key is “L” shaped, they locate the “\” key usually to the left of the backspace key. This actually poses to problems if you are like me, and used to the straight enter key. If you are typing in a location on the hard drive for instance you will type something like “c:{ENTER}windows” when you meant to type “c:\windows”. Not only is this annoying, but very time consuming each time this happens. Another issue that it poses is that the backspace key is not long enough, so when reaching for the backspace key, you are likely to hit the “\” key.

Okay, with that said, this keyboard was a good choice as to why I bought it, because of the long-straight enter key. The other thing that interested me with this keyboard was the multimedia support. If I could minimize WinAmp while playing songs, and just use the keyboard, that’s would be one less thing on the screen. Unfortunately, it did not work out this way. First off, it didn’t work with WinAmp out of the box, so I had to download a new update. No problem there, it was quick, painless, and very easy to install an update provided on Logitech’s website.

Problem with the “programmable keys” is that the Internet keys are programmable, and the multimedia ones are not. Yes, it will work with WinAmp 2.x (any version of WinAmp 2.0 or higher), but it will not work with it while it’s minimized. If only they had an option to make the “default” player WinAmp, this would most likely eliminate this problem. (I think if you play with the registry a bit on classes, you could probably change the default player there, but would be nice to change it within the drivers for the keyboard).

Other than that, the only other thing I found to be a bit negative about the keyboard is the “cheesy” construction, but in Logitech’s defense, they keyboard is only $20 (not a $50 keyboard), and almost all keyboards are made as cheap as possible anymore. I came from an OLD Tandy AT Keyboard that was a tank, so it’s hard to compare the construction of the keyboards nowadays to that keyboard. And final problem I found, the cord is way too short. I suppose that this is yet another way to keep production costs down. Luckily it was just long enough for me, but others may need to buy a keyboard extension cable to get this keyboard to work.

Aside from the few minor problems with the keyboard, it’s actually a pretty good keyboard, and for $20 I would highly recommend it. The keys are pretty smooth feeling (easy to type on that is), they don’t have a high resistance, and so it makes typing quickly a breeze.

The Internet programmable keys actually work very well. It’s easy to configure the keys to your own personal favorite “home page”, “E-mail client”, “Search Engine”, and one last programmable key pretty much for any other website you would like to plug into that slot.

If you aren’t as picky about your keyboard as I seem to be, and you aren’t looking to spend a fortune on a keyboard, I would highly recommend this keyboard. Just make sure that you are already familiar with the two different enter keys that I’m referring to, because this can lead into a lot of headaches if you are already used to one or the other.

Best of luck with your keyboard purchase, and happy typing! ;)



Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 19.99