Keyboard recommendations

[Kadayi]

Anyone have any user recommendations on a decent backlit keyboard? Preferably one that isn't too clacky when it come to typing?

 

[Escaep]

I have a Razer Lycosa and it is good. The backlighting is decent but not great. Unless you are a master with the keyboard you will have trouble finding the keys in a well lit room. But if you are in a dark room, the blue lights look sexy. The keys are not loud at all and they have a nice non-slip rubber coating on them and they feel very durable. Also, the "touchpad" multimedia controls are very handy. You can forward songs in iTunes/Windows MP, you can also pause songs, control the volume, turn the backlighting on/off, and dim all other keys accept WASD. One thing I wish Razer would have done is had an option to make all the keys as bright as the WASD ones.

Overall it is a very sturdy board and nothing on it feels chinsy.

edit: I'll take some pictures of it in full darkness after the sun goes down.

 

[Warped]

Saitek Eclipse, Got mine for around $30 and its amazing! looking for a site for you to check right now...

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=saitek+eclipse&oe=utf-8&hl=en&cid=6930712996139801912&sa=title#ps-sellers

really for $30 you can't go wrong. Gaming in the dark is amazing and easier now

 

[VirusType2]

Creative Fatl1ty is the best keyboard on the planet IMO. It's minimalist though. Besides the backlight, it has no extra features.

Fast as hell, quiet, cool blue glow, durable, small footprint keeps it out of the way of your mouse, and better centered with your monitor

My brother got one and didn't like it though, and just uses some Dell stock kb

It's got a small keystroke like a laptop KB, but that's part of the reason the response time is so good, but also the patented microswitches.

My typing speed increased quite a bit, and it's a great gaming keyboard (obviously)

 

[Kadayi]

Cool, cheers for suggestions boys I will look into those. I was pondering this:-

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-96...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1241734929&sr=1-1

but it is a little pricey tbh. However I'm such a night owl and hate having the main light on backlit seems the way to go. Presently using an Apple flat keyboard, which is lovely (hardly any clack at all), but no backlight...:|

Warped, that hand rest detaches yes?

 

[Warped]

AH ****! my PS3 won't play games anymore. how gay is that, just got Demon's Souls today and it ****ing broke!

 

[Escaep]

I didn't take these:

 

[Sir Phoenixx]

I second the Saitek Eclipse. I got the red version:

Warped, that hand rest detaches yes?

Yes. You can move the hand rest from flush against the keyboard to where it is in that photo and remove it entirely (or not attach it in the first place).

 

[Raziaar]

You guys are nuts.

I have a generic Microsoft ergonomic keyboard.

It doesn't look cool. It doesn't do anything special. It's a keyboard. It suits me just fine.

 

[kupocake]

Backlighting seems a bit of unnecessary flashiness to me. And I wouldn't go back to a keyboard without flat, laptop style keys. That's the upgrade everyone should make.

 

[Vegeta897]

Backlighting is entirely useless. I have the Saitek Eclipse and I've never needed to use the lighting... Especially when my monitor is more than enough illumination for the keys. I don't need to look at my keyboard when typing, and especially not when gaming (when the hell would you ever need to? your hand is in one place the entire time, except when typing, which requires your wasd hand to move one inch over, and then back. how the hell can you get disoriented??)

Just a cool effect really...

 

[AtomicSpark]

I have a Logitech G15.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823126179

 

[VirusType2]

The backlight is [very very rarely] useful for multitasking and one handed typing.

- One hand on the keyboard, and your mouse hand (yes mouse hand) finds it's spot on the keys faster, easier, without having to look at what your doing.

-or if you have a controller in your hands and just need to type a few keys (in very low light), it can be useful.

I find that it doesn't help much at all unless the room is darker than I like it, which makes it useless - not because it isn't bright enough, but because the light doesn't shine through the keys properly at the angle that I sit in relation to the keyboard.

Looks cool in the dark. as you can see also, the actual switches beneath the clear keys block light, making it less effective.


This is still an amazing keyboard, and the blacklight is just a cool effect, if not every effective.

I paid nearly $70 for mine about two years ago. It's only about $50 these days.


BTW I bought a $99 Razer keyboard and it was the biggest piece of shit I've ever used. The keys didn't always work. You had to press them directly down and it was very slow and very sloppy. They were slow to respond and slow to recoil and felt like the cheapest plastic available. It took up half my desk (seriously it seems about 9 feet long) and it's features were half-baked.

I got my money back.

My suggestion is that you should try these keyboard displays out at the store first. The Sitek seemed pretty poor. The Logitech keyboards are generally good for their money. Some of their keyboards feel excellent and others average, so try them out in-store!

 

[Warped]

i like backlighted keyboards because its more fun in the dark even if i'm watching movies.

 

[Quixoticism]

The current G15s only have 6 macro keys(sad day) but the G11 has 18 if you can live without the fancy LCD screen.

As for me I have a $5 keyboard from Newegg.com that's pretty minimalistic and has a great feel to it. I absolutely love it.
This is the closest thing I could find that looks like mine. The main differences are the row with the media keys and the function keys on my board are the same size as the other keys.

 

[Kadayi]

Backlighting seems a bit of unnecessary flashiness to me. And I wouldn't go back to a keyboard without flat, laptop style keys. That's the upgrade everyone should make.

I use the keyboard a lot for photoshop/illustrator/cad work (in conjunction with my graphics palette) and generally esp for photoshop prefer to work with the main lights off so I get good colour consistency. Although I can see the keys from the light of the monitor, backlit would make it a tad easier.

 

[kupocake]

That makes sense I suppose, though how often do you use the keys when working on art?

 

[CyberPitz]

Backlighting is entirely useless. I have the Saitek Eclipse and I've never needed to use the lighting... Especially when my monitor is more than enough illumination for the keys. I don't need to look at my keyboard when typing, and especially not when gaming (when the hell would you ever need to? your hand is in one place the entire time, except when typing, which requires your wasd hand to move one inch over, and then back. how the hell can you get disoriented??)

Just a cool effect really...

I'd agree if the way my desk setup made it to where the light from the monitor didn't hit the top half of my keyboard. That's why I bought my Eclipse a few years ago.

 

[Asus]

I have the old style G15. The lights are not distracting since they are only coming from the cut-out shape of the characters (keys are solid black otherwise). If I don't have the best light, a lit keyboard like this helps me see the keys a bit better vs if a white letter was painted on. In the dark is when they stand out the most obviously. Although that's not a situation for getting work done but it's nice when you are relaxing and want the room's lights dim or off.

If I were to buy a keyboard again I probably wouldn't get one with all of these extra keys. I don't use them at all any more. But I would keep the LCD and lit media buttons if I could. Helps a ton with anything running in the background. Seeing what song is playing without having to bring up the app. See who is talking on Vent/teamspeak etc while I'm in a game. That kind of stuff. Just a small extra screen to help multitask. I don't use it for game features.

 

[MuToiD_MaN]

My keyboard isn't sold anymore but it was awesome. An ultra-slim scissor-key with full layout.

 

[Eejit]

G11 is a good keyboard, possibly too clacky for you, I'd rate it as average clackiness.

 

[Kadayi]

That makes sense I suppose, though how often do you use the keys when working on art?

Pretty much all the time. You can flip between all the tools in Photoshop with single key presses, it's a lot more efficient than using the mouse or the pen and going to the toolbox all the time. For example Brush is B, Eraser is E, gradient/bucket tool is G (use Alt G to toggle between modes) "[" decreases the size of a brush, "]" increase, etc, etc

I pretty much have the keyboard to the right of me (I'm a leftie) and palette in front (when I'm working).

G11 is a good keyboard, possibly too clacky for you, I'd rate it as average clackiness.

I stopped off at PCworld after work and had a look at a few. I think inevitably I'm probably going to have to accept a degree of clackiness Vs the advantage of backlighting. I'd like to see a Logitech diNovo to see how that shapes up Vs the others, but I'm not set yet. Plenty of time to weigh up the pros and cons of each. Thanks for input from everyone though.

 

[Qonfused]

I heart laptop-style keyboards. Therefore all these "fancy" keyboards fail.

 

[CyberPitz]

I heart laptop-style keyboards. Therefore all these "fancy" keyboards fail.

I really dislike the laptop keyboards. All the keys are so small and they always get in the way of whatever key I want to hit

I'm getting better...when I first got my Lappy for work, i couldn't help but hit delete at least once every word.

 

[Eejit]

Sausage fingers! Sausage fingers!

 

[VirusType2]

I really dislike the laptop keyboards. All the keys are so small and they always get in the way of whatever key I want to hit

The keys are standard size, but shorter, so, what?


I hate those huge keys about 9 feet tall, that take 10 minutes to press. No seriously, but besides being slower, your fingers get tired having to go up the steps for the keys at the top. Talk about retarded design. The keys should all be level. Flat.

once you get used to it, it's way better. So much faster. Immediately when you press the key, it registers on the screen.

 

[Asus]

The keys are standard size but the gap between isn't there and there is no shape to the top of the key (flat). Harder to touch type imo.

 

[Hectic Glenn]

I heart laptop-style keyboards. Therefore all these "fancy" keyboards fail.

I have the G11 which is a little clackity like eejit said, what are the best laptop style keyboards? Those are way more up my street, but I guess you pay through the nose for them...

 

[VirusType2]

^ Creative Fatality. As long as you don't have long fingernails then you will type like a demon. It's $50. Mine is still working like new after a couple of years. You can't say the same for $20 keyboards I'll bet.

 

[kupocake]

For example Brush is B, Eraser is E, gradient/bucket tool is G (use Alt G to toggle between modes) "[" decreases the size of a brush, "]" increase, etc, etc

Crap, that's pretty obvious I guess I'm curious now whether they have shortcuts in the GIMP, since the UI is utterly horrible.

The keys are standard size but the gap between isn't there and there is no shape to the top of the key (flat). Harder to touch type imo.

Ultimately, you get used to whatever you use the most. And even though I have laptop-style keys, typing on a laptop still irks me because they're not full-sized keyboards.

Less work overall, once you've got used to the marginal difference in height.

 

[VirusType2]

Typing on my laptop is maddening. It's just a really shitty keyboard

USB KB FTW

 

[DEATHMASTER]

Never look at my KB, lights would be a distraction. Not that it's uncool. I might want to get a gaming KB sometime just to see if response times change. I do notice a bit of a delay on different keyboards when playing games. It's all about the speed.

 

[Kadayi]

Crap, that's pretty obvious I guess I'm curious now whether they have shortcuts in the GIMP, since the UI is utterly horrible.

This might help:-

http://epierce.freeshell.org/gimp/gimp_ps.php

Shortcuts are absolutely the way with any graphic package in my experience as it allows you to concentrate the mouse/pen on the work and not the interface. You don't need to be a master and know them all (Photoshop has a mind bending number of obscure shortcuts tbh), but just learn the ones that will save you time, conciously use them a few times and eventually your muscle memory will kick in and they'll become second nature.