Nice failed attempt, Microsoft
Written: Jul 18 '03
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quiet, Natural Shape, Function Keys, Hot Keys
Cons: Shifted "Edit" keys, no right WINDOWS key
The Bottom Line: You can get better for your buck.
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| midknight2k3's Full Review: Microsoft Natural MultiMedia (K50-00001) Keyboard |
MY STORY
My old Microsoft Internet Keyboard was plainly dying. It had so many spots of dirt on it that were unreachable, and recently the right WINDOWS key has begun to stuck (I use it primarily for switching users, shortcut WINDOWS-L). I just needed a new keyboard! After checking around, I liked the looks of the MultiMedia keyboard from Microsoft. It was a reasonable price for a not-so-reasonably-fast computer (my old 466 Celeron). The price was $29.99. But at second glance, I saw the Natural MultiMedia Keyboard by Microsoft for the same price. It had some 㦀 Years of Hardware” instant rebate. “Hey!” I thought, “What a deal!” I went and bought it. Thrilling tale, huh?
THE BOX
The box was pretty good looking. It was mostly red, and labeled the miniscule section of blue at the top of the keyboard as “Vibrant Color”. Perhaps they were instead referring to the gray palm rest?
THE KEYBOARD
The contents of the box are as follows: Microsoft Natural MultiMedia Keyboard (WHY do they capitalize the M in Media?), Microsoft IntelliType Pro 2.2 software, and a little pamphlet on how to plug it in and insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive. Anyhow, the keyboard itself it nice looking. It has Microsoft's “natural” keys, meaning it’s split down the middle into two sections for more comfortable typing. For hunt-and-peckers, however, this isn’t all that great, but it’s not too hard to get used to. Along the tope there are numerous hot keys to perform various functions, such as volume control up and down, My Documents, My Pictures, and My Music. There are also extra functions attached to the F-keys. There are functions such as Print, Cut, Copy, Paste, Save, Reply, Forward, etc. To use the normal functions of the F-keys, however, you must press the F-lock key and you are then granted access to all of the normal functions (F1 is help, etc).
TYPING
Typing on this keyboard is pretty nice. It’s got soft keys, and it’s comfy to rest your hands on the palm rest (not detachable). It is nice to have the natural version in some ways, because it’s comfier to have your hands away from each other as opposed to scrunched together on a normal keyboard (which isn’t a big deal but a nice touch). The keys are soft and quiet, and comfy to press.
SOFTWARE
The included software lets you customize just about any hotkey there is, including every one of the Functions attached to the F keys. So you could change (fictional example) “My Computer” on F7 to “Internet Explorer”. However, the function written on the key itself will not change so you might get confused about which is which. The software is easy to use, and even simpler when you assign it to a hotkey for easy configuration changes.
PROBLEMS
I encountered a couple problems with this keyboard, and the main one is the moved “edit” keys – Insert, Home, End, Page Up, Page Down, and delete. They are now vertical, and insert has been moved upwards attached to print screen. This can not only mess up navigation, it can ruin a game where you used the bottom row and now you have to reach up further to get to them. There is a reason for it (if they stayed the same it would make the keyboard another couple inches long) but still! Why? Another blab is the omission of the right WINDOWS key, so now the right CTRL key is far away from the right SHIFT key. There are a few other very minor annoyances, but nothing big otherwise.
CONCLUSION
For it’s few annoyances, it can still ruin the keyboard. I returned it for a full refund, and went to buy the Logitech Elite Keyboard (not natural but much improved). I am glad I did. It was a good keyboard, this one, but it just had a few dumb things wrong with it that I hated. Nice try, Microsoft, but next time please leave the keys alone.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 30 w/ rebate
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Epinions.com ID:
midknight2k3
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Member: Zakk
Location: Seattle, WA
Reviews written: 40
Trusted by: 13 members
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