Logitec illuminated keyboard
Follow the light
A keyboard typically makes for an uneventful review. They have keys that function, designs that vary ever so slightly, USB ports and….err, err…
As you scratch your dumbfounded head and pull Logitech's latest keyboard out of its multi-lingual box, you wonder just how much there is to write about an illuminated keyboard that offers no USB ports. Why couldn't they just give us both?
Perhaps it's a hidden ploy to assess tech reviewer skills. Dish out a minimalist keyboard, throw in a backlight and scout for potential product manual writers.
When you take off the plastic and lift it off its perch, you suddenly realise there's a lot more to this unassuming bunch of keys. Ridiculously light and mysteriously thin, this Logitech keyboard is a subtle treat. Black, wafer thin keys on a plastic board that offers a convenient matte, black rubber wrist rest make this one of Logitech's smartest designs yet. You can plug this into a PC without loading a driver and adjust its two little feet for your preferred inclination. Once you've set up, the fun begins.
Its flat key surface comes from Logitech's PerfectStroke key design that leaves 3.2mm of space between keys and offers uniform tactile feedback. Since typing on it is much quicker it takes a little while to get used to it. Once you do, you can't imagine returning to any other type of key input. There's an ease about these keys that makes any other seem prehistoric.
Its main feature – backlit keys – delivers on colour and usability. The pale-blue light is non-intrusive and you can adjust the intensity to one of three fixed levels, or simply switch it off. For me, however, playing with Logitech's SetPoint 4.6 software is the most fun. It allows you to assign macros and customise its dozen shortcut keys. You can launch programs and open web pages, custom menus and specific files or folders.
After using it for a few days, fingerprints on the wrist rest begin to annoy you just as much as lint on suede, serving as a minor setback for an otherwise exemplary keyboard. The bigger setbacks are in what's missing – no wireless connectivity and the absence of USB ports. Methinks Logitech's perseverance to roll out an inch-thick keyboard made USB ports implausible. But I do feel they could have squeezed in wireless connectivity, if only to give us something more to tinker with and write about.
Price: Dh3999
Verbatim
'We definitely have an intention to get it going here'
Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, who was in Iraq this week along with executives from Google and YouTube on a trip organised by the US State Department. Eighty-five per cent of Iraqis have mobile phones, compared to a home broadband penetration rate of five per cent. Dorsey said he was looking to partner with local mobile service providers.
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