Recommend me a keyboard!

[DarkStarr]

I want something backlit, something with smaller thinner keys, similar to laptop keys. What I am looking at is the Razer TRON keyboard, it looks awesome and seems to be perfect and AFAIK Razer has them available. The cool thing is that I can swap the number pad to either side or remove it (maybe, I dont use the numpad a lot)

Example:

 

[Psi*]

Did you get this k/b? At night I prefer to work in low light & hve thought that this could be a good thing for myself. If you have it, how is the feel? Is it available only on their web site? Seems a bit pricey at $160.

 

[DarkStarr]

No I haven't gotten it but I am thinking about it, there is a wireless one from logitech but I may get a wired version since battery life is only 10 days. It is similar, all the keys are backlight with adjustable brightness. The keys are also done in a similar way to laptop keys so I may look at getting the logitech one, the wireless version was $99 so a bit cheaper.

 

[Kougar]

You mean this model, right? Logitech makes one model with small, laptop-thin keys and backlighting http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126194 Seemed nice enough (best buy has these on demo to play with)

Don't have any others that come immediately to mind though, Microsoft doesn't seem to have any quite as slim as those.

 

[DarkStarr]

Yep, that's the one, the wired one is this one, http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard/devices/4740 which I may go with since its wired, if I do go with Logitech, I dont want to recharge every other day or so.

 

[Tharic-Nar]

I actually bought a friend that Logitech KB for his birthday a couple years back. It's a good KB, the illumination is subtle and not overpowering, and each level fades into the next, rather than an instant switch. The Keys are not strictly laptop style, they feel slightly different and have a mix of concave and convex keys, and behave more like a Mac KB, even though it isn't Chiclet style. They do have a good balanced weight to the keys.

My only problem is with Logitech's implementation of USB; for some reason, a lot of it's peripherals seem to take a while to respond at windows login, or fail to register straight away. It's more of a problem with it's mice than anything, but it does happen with it's KB's. The PS3 will also play nice with it most of the time too, but again, USB can be a little flaky. Don't let that put you off, it won't do it in the middle of a game.

The other problem arises from the layout too. The extra large DEL key, no gap between CAPS and A, but if you've come across these before, then it shouldn't be a problem. It's a good, well made, clean and modern keyboard.

 

[Greg King]

Saitek Eclipse II keyboard. Hands down the best board I have ever used.

At work I use a DiNovo Edge and it's an awesome piece of hardware but for the classic feel of a keyboard, the Eclipse II get's my nod.

 

[Kougar]

Darkstar, the delete key layout differs on the one in your link, so it's not identical. I point this out as I MUST have the large delete key layout, it makes touch typing much cleaner and quicker for me given I've used that layout for years. You may or may not have a strong preference here but most users that do a lot of typing do prefer one or the other.

I use the MX5500... my previous Microsoft keyboard averaged a six month battery life, this one seems to top out at four months.

My only problem is with Logitech's implementation of USB; for some reason, a lot of it's peripherals seem to take a while to respond at windows login, or fail to register straight away. It's more of a problem with it's mice than anything, but it does happen with it's KB's.

Interesting. I've not had the displeasure of experiencing that on any logitech products thankfully. Did buy one Logitech keyboard where the shift had to be held down from the middle, holding the edge of the key would cause it to stop registering the keystroke and that quickly became annoying, but my current Logitech keyboard doesn't have that issue.

The other problem arises from the layout too. The extra large DEL key, no gap between CAPS and A, but if you've come across these before, then it shouldn't be a problem. It's a good, well made, clean and modern keyboard.

The model I linked has the small delete key, although I do prefer the larger alternate style for the large DEL key and the home/end keys as it's much less likely for me to hit the wrong key when typing by feel. Some Logitech models do include the spacing around the capslock key, although lately they are adding a feature where the higher end models will give a small audible notification when you hit the capslock too. The MX 5500 keyboard has both, but uses a large delete key style layout, while the G11, G15, and Saitek all have both the small del key and capslock spacing.

Completely random, but I've seen a crazy number of Saitek keyboards at garage sales around here... old OEM keyboards and Saiteks, dunno why.

 

[DarkStarr]

I dont have a preference on the keys. I just had my first problem with logitech, well 2nd but I swapped the speakers and its great now. My mouses unifying receiver died but I just called em and they were great, sent me a replacement and it should be on the way.