Fantastic keyboard
Written: Jan 07 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Thin, long cable, excellent action, featureful.
Cons: No Windows key, cable is hard to stow properly.
The Bottom Line: Best USB keyboard period, and one of the best keyboards I've tried period. Trackpoint and trackpad -- something for everyone!
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| dougluce's Full Review: IBM (31P8977) Keyboard |
A computer professional AND hobbyist for over 20 years, I spend 10+
hours each day in front of a keyboard. I touch-type, and can test at
120+ WPM. Therefore, I am extremely particular about what I use. It
must be comfortable. The character of the keystroke is also very
important: there must be adequate feedback to the keypress, and the
travel has to be just so. Too little and I can't be sure the key was
pressed. Too much and I slow down.
I'm a particular fan of the old "clicky" buckle-spring keyboards,
especially the ones released with the original IBM AT. The feedback
is absolute with those. I'm also a big fan of the original IBM split
ergonomic keyboards, later spun off as Lexmark ergonomic. I have been
able to find only one, and spent well over $300 on it (only a couple
of years ago).
So I had quite a bit of prejudice worked up when I decided to take the
jump into the USB keyboard field. I peered through several online
catalogs and descriptions, and tried a few off-brand keyboards that
just didn't cut the mustard. For a USB keyboard, I wanted something
that would be very portable and have a long cable in addition to being
a decent keyboard.
In comes the UltraNav. Ignore, for the moment, the lack of buckling
spring tech, and the fact that it's not a split Ergo keyboard. IBM
may have come up with the perfect keyboard.
Surprisingly thin, this large-format keyboard has a fantastic feel.
I'm a convert to the trackpoint, after using a touchpad for a couple
of years, and this trackpoint is wonderful. After about 5 months of
use, I've never accidentally touched it. While I do not use the built
in touchpad, it has been completely unobtrusive. I've never
inadvertently dragged my thumb across it or otherwise activated it.
The cable is straight and long, and has been the perfect length,
allowing me to sit on my couch in my office and type on my desktop, or
sit on the easy chair in front of the low table at home and connect to
the home PC. The USB interface and proliferation of front-mounted USB
ports makes this a wonderful travel companion.
The straight cable not only allows me the best efficiency when it
comes to extension, but it also wraps neatly around the keyboard.
There is a recessed, lipped compartment in the back that is ostensibly
for cable shortening and storage. In practice, i find it not well
suited for the task. It's difficult to keep the cable in the little
well.
It's nice having the function keys separated into groups of 4, as my
touch-typing does not extend to function keys. I can instead land a
finger in the middle of a group and "index" another finger onto the
proper function key.
It's sometimes a little hard to hit the Esc key, and I'll often nail
F1 instead (I'm an Emacs and Opera user, so Esc is vital to my
existence). I've also not much experience on the numeric keypad,
since I do most numbering on the main keyboard.
I love the fact the enter key is blue, while everything else is
black. I don't know why it matters, but it's just nice.
The trackpoint works wonderfully, and I've never had a mis-hit on the
mouse buttons. Compare this to one of my previous favorite, a
late-model NeXT keyboard with function button below the space bar. I
used to smack that thing all the time by accident.
One odd omission on this keyboard: no Windows key! While a Unix head
by nature, my entrepreneurial day job forces me onto the Windows
platform. I had just learned to use the windows key in conjunction
with E for the windows explorer or R for run, when I started using
this thing.
I had tested out the smaller, "space saver" version of this keyboard
beforehand. I far prefer this Ultranav version. It's thinner than
the space saver, making for a lower profile in my messenger bag. The
trackpoint is much sturdier. I've broken a couple of trackpoints on
the space saver editions. The trackpoint takes regular square heads,
and replacement was dirt easy.
And black, how can you beat the color?
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 90
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Epinions.com ID:
dougluce
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Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
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