Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard Review

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(More customer reviews)I work in a dark room at night, while my spouse sleeps. Occasionally I need to hit a letter, function, number or some special key like "[". Being the poor typist that I am, this usually requires either trial and error or worse turning the light on enough for me to read the keys. The older I get, the more light is required to actually see the keys.
My search was for a well built backlit keyboard to help prevent my need for any other light source. There is another model the Microsoft Sidewinder X6 that seemed interesting, however on a search this model was available for pre-order and seemed interesting.
My need is not as a gamer, just a sometimes past bedtime typer. This keyboard comes with software from Microsoft and on the USB cable over the USB connector there is a piece of cardboard that says to install the software CD first. When opening the box, the CD wasn't noticed by me. However it was there. It installs Microsoft Intellitype. Which seems to do something for my PC, what I have no idea.
After software install on Windows XP, my old keyboard was unplugged and this new keyboard was put in. It has worked out very well. The color is a solid red, and it is easy on the eyes. This is an extended 102 / 103 key keyboard (it has some extra keys). There is a non-detachable numeric pad. There is also a non-detachable hand rest.
While the hand rest is comfortable, it would have been nice to have it removable. Space is an issue in the area of my keyboard, and the hand rest uses about 1/3 of the keyboard surface area.
The black for most of the keyboard is glossy, the hand rest is matte and has a textured feel. All keys are lit, with the exception of the space bar. The space bar isn't hard to find even in the dark as its a large area flanked by lit keys.
Only the tops of the keys glow, there is no light leakage on the sides of the keys or on the base of the keyboard. A choice of color would have been nice. Red isn't bad, I'd have preferred blue.
Some keyboards have a key to orient your hand for touch typists (usually a physical bump on the letter "J" if I recall correctly). This allows you to orient yourself to the QWERTY keyboard without looking. Unfortunately all keys are the same, and you must learn by use which key is where.
This keyboard is a bit louder than other keyboards. I do not much care for the noise. During long periods of typing, my thumbs seem to get a bit sensitive to the space bar. Overall when typing longish posts (like this review) my fingers get more tired on this keyboard than on my very old basic dell keyboard.
There are 6 keys labeled S1-S6 along the left side. Additionally there is a menu key on the lower right of the main keyboard close to the space bar. These are non-standard keys. What the S keys do I have no idea, the menu key seems to work like the right click button. Unfortunately hitting it a 2nd time doesn't undo the right click (it doesn't take down the menu).
There are also multi-media keys, for play / pause, skip fast forward, sound up and sound down also mute. There is a key that changes a light from one of 3 positions, I suspect its related to the game capability of this keyboard. There is also a key to set the light intensity. There are 3 levels of light plus and off, you change from one to the other by repeatedly hitting the light button. A final non-standard button is the calculator button, which launches the Microsoft calculator.
Overall it is a well made keyboard, a detachable hand rest would have been nice. My hope is over time the sensitivity to the space bar will decrease. Most of the extra keys are useless to me. I do really appreciate how well lit this is, and how there seems to be no bleed through of light between the keys.
I'm happy. Amazon sold this at a lower price than it is listed at today. Today it is listed at $59.99, my price was $45.10. For $45.10 this was a very good purchase in my opinion. With any luck as this device becomes a bit more mature the price will settle down.

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Microsoft SideWinder X4 Keyboard

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Microsoft Wired Keyboard 600 (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this keyboard as a replacement for the original one came with my HP computer which is a USB wireless. I liked the original one but it can't be used with rechargeable AA for a long time. I had to keep recharging constantly. And I didn't like the idea of wasting throw away batteries.
This new keyboard is just as compact and light as the original, it's a minimalist's dream. Key stroke is very quiet and requires very short stroke kind of like using a notepad keyboard. Plug & play operation is extremely trouble free, you'll need no instruction at all. Some of the photos I have seen showing PS2(old type connection) adaptor included but mine didn't include it, which wasn't an issue for me. There's a special key for "calc" but I didn't have a problem starting it in a couple of key strokes, so it's not a big advantage. Another feature is its "spill-resistant design". It's nothing more than a several slits under the keyboard. If you spill water, it may help drying quicker, for anything else, you'll have a hard time getting it clean, probably never completely like any other keyboard.
Over all, I like everything about this keyboard with no negative opinion. Only thing I don't know about it is its durability but from the way I feel, it seems well made and will last for a long time.
The photo showing on this page is misleading. It comes with keyboard only without a mouse.

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quiet touch keys, integrated water channels, Start button key for Vista, Calculator Hotkey and Media Hotkeys, USB-Connected Devices

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Microsoft Wired Desktop 600 with USB Port (Black) Review

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(More customer reviews)I was looking for, ideally, an ergonomic keyboard with soft touch. Unfortunately after reading many of the reviews here on Amazon, it seemes to me that the two are mutually exclusive. (One of the most common complaints of ergonomic keyboards is that several keys either stick or require a harder-than-normal keypress.) I was also thinking of getting a freestyle solo keyboard, but most of them don't have the ten-key number pad, which is required for both my work and recreation. So I went in to Office Depot and checked out a bunch of the keyboards. My absolute favorite for softness of touch and shortness of keystroke was the Kensington Ci73:
Kensington Ci73 Wired Keyboard, Low Profile Design (K64397US)
Unfortunately many of the reviews I've read of this product describe total failure from within days to weeks. Even with all of the positive reviews the Kensington received, I wasn't willing to make a purchase with such a high chance of needing to be returned. Also, I prefer not to use wireless devices, as I don't want to risk signal loss (which at best is annoying, and at worst can get you killed in your favorite MMO).
The Microsoft Wired Desktop 600 was my second choice among the available keyboards. I bought one for home use last night and used it all evening with absolutely no pain in my hands or wrists at all. I came into work this morning and within an hour of using my work keyboard my wrists were hurting again, so I bought one for work too. It's extremely comfortable and I have no pain at all. It's also very quiet. The mouse click is a little louder than the normal HP or Dell mice but it's not terrible. Also the scroll-wheel is a little stiffer. I may go back to my old mouse, but the keyboard alone is worth the price!
The only warnings I have about this keyboard is for gamers: The ESC and Function keys are not like the normal letter and number keys, they're smaller and have a different key-press structure. As such, I highly recommend getting familiar with exactly how the escape key needs to be pushed *before* you get in a situation where you're mashing it because you just accidentally queued up a power that you didn't mean to. It's not difficult, it's just different, and you want to pay attention the first couple of times.
Also, the number pad zero key is lower (as is every key, since the whole keyboard is lower profile), which means if you're used to hitting number pad zero with your thumb, you'll need to do a tiny bit of adjusting there. (For perspective, I usually use the first joint in my thumb to hit the zero key, but now because it's lower I have to use the fleshy part of my thumb. Like I said it's not difficult, it's just a very small adjustment.)
I am extremely happy with this keyboard, it's so wonderful to be able to type without pain. Someone asked me if there was really that much of a difference with the soft touch, and YES, there definitely is! My previous work-keyboard didn't even seem all that stiff, but when compared to this keyboard the difference is noticeable. And of course, the most noticeable difference is that there's NO PAIN.

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Logitech Keyboard K120 Review

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(More customer reviews)Finally! A basic keyboard where all the keys are in the right place, the layout is familiar, and my touch-typing fingers don't have to learn anything NEW.
What's with all the wrist rests, bubble shaped gigantic keyboards that take up the whole desk? Give me a basic keyboard that WORKS. Logitech continues the tradition of the basic IBM style keyboards with the logitech K120.
When you're typing for years and years, you get tired of companies switching keys around on you. Some of logitech's other models I had to pass up on because they swapped the Insert/Delete/Page up/Pg DN section and made it vertical. But on this keyboard, everything is proper and right.
The price is right: There's no reason to spend $50 on a keyboard unless you want to use your keyboard 45 feet away from the monitor - which is rather absurd for most uses. (perhaps if you have a 60" LCD TV with your computer hooked up to it). But if you're an old fashioned, sit up close, task-chair (not the dreadful "manager's chair") kind of person, this is the keyboard you want.
It's not fancy. Nothing extra. No wrist rest. No "media keys". No programmable function keys. And thank goodness! The only thing the basic microsoft keyboard has over this is it has the "calculator" button, which would really be cool to have on this. But really, there was nothing wrong with the way keyboards were before, and there's nothing wrong with this one now. I love this keyboard, right out of the box.
It's surprisingly quiet too.
Why did I get this keyboard?
My new netbook (Acer Aspire One) doesn't have any ps/2 ports - which is fine 'cause they're not really used much anymore.
BUT - all of my old keyboards use PS/2 connectors. So while I DID order a PS/2 to USB connector from Amazon - it's going to take a couple of weeks to get here and I didn't want to wait.
And who knows? Perhaps when the connector comes in, my fancy keyboards from yester-years may be overshadowed by this new, basic, no-nonsense, works instantly keyboard that I picked up for $12.

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Microsoft Wireless Desktop 3000 Keyboard and Mouse Combo Review

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(More customer reviews)As somewhat of a keyboard/mouse collector (16 mice and 12 keyboards) due to the "unfortunate" quirk of being left-handed and desiring a comfortable mouse, I've tried quite a few over the years. I bought this set because Microsoft advertise that it's Mac-compatible, which is important seeing as I use Macs primarily.
Previously, I'd been using the standard Apple keyboard (slim aluminum), but wanted a keyboard with a few function keys. I scoped out the Logitech G15, as I had the older flip-LCD version and Logitech now supports Macs with their new G-series Profiler software, but I decided against the G15 because Logitech annoyed me with their Desktop Wave Pro set - which inexplicably is NOT supported by their SetPoint Mac software, even though the original Desktop Wave set IS supported. Grr!
This set from Microsoft is my favorite Microsoft set in years. The keyboard is fairly slim for an MS keyboard, which I like, and the keys are somewhat low-profile, which I also like. It took me an hour or so to get used to typing on it, as it has a bit of a weird contour to it - not quite as weird as the Logitech Wave, but a definite contour.
As mentioned by another reviewer, the keyboard is loud. I don't notice anything particularly loud about the spacebar, but the keyboard is most definitely loud in general. This doesn't bother me, as I tend to like the clack of a keyboard, but I can see how other people might be bothered by it. There's no way I could type on this keyboard stealthily while talking on the phone, for example.
For Mac users, the newest Microsoft IntelliType software is fantastic. Swapping a few settings allowed me to set the Alt keys to be equivalent to my Command keys, and the Windows Menu key (next to Ctrl on the right side) to be Alt, which is convenient while gaming - as I have easy access to Ctrl, Alt and Shift. The function keys are all customizable, allowing you to perform special functions, bind them to applications on your system, and so forth. One minor nitpick is that although you can bind a key to open your web browser, you can't bind it to a specific website - so I cannot, for example, bind my Mail key to automatically open my Gmail website. A minor nit, but it may also bother some people.
Another minor nitpick is that the F-keys are insanely small and are right above the standard keyboard, and below the special function keys. It took me a little while to get used to this, and I had to disable the iTunes functionality on the media keys because I kept hitting them while gaming, and popping up iTunes in the middle of a game. Not good! Due to per-application profiling, however, it's easy to disable them when in certain applications.
Apart from the above, I really like the keyboard. It's slim, low, the wristpad is of a material that's comfortable, and the keys are very nice to type on once you get used to them.
The mouse - which I believe is a Microsoft Wireless Mouse 5000 with a special white underside, instead of the solid black - took me a while to get used to as well, but I love it now. The mouse is very tall, which was a definite change from my previous mouse, a Razer Copperhead. It's ambidextrous, which is a big plus for me, and the sides are rubberized and very comfortable and keep it from slipping in my hand, which has been a problem with other MS mice.
The mouse is quite heavy, which I like, though others may not appreciate that. As is usual with Microsoft mice, the scroll wheel is heavenly - it scrolls so perfectly smooth, with just the right amount of tension. The rubber track on the wheel keeps your finger from slipping and gives good traction for scrolling. The scroll wheel isn't a click-wheel, but it's still very easy to scroll only one or two steps at a time, unlike the free roulette-wheel scroller on Logitech's new mice.
Though another reviewer complained about the loud clicks on the mouse, I don't think it's any louder than some Razer mice (Copperhead, Diamondback or Lachesis are the three I own) or Logitech mice (the G7, VX Nano and VX Revolution are about the same loudness), though it is definitely louder than some of Logitech's "squishier" mice, such as the MX610 and MX620, or the LX8.
I can also definitively say that the BlueTrack is amazingly responsive and accurate, especially for a wireless. After using it for a week, I still haven't had any problems with the pointer slipping or ghosting, or just plain teleporting all over. Very nice.
My only complaint - and it isn't a big one since I don't plan to travel with this mouse - is that although the transceiver snaps into the mouse, it's neither a Nano transceiver, nor does it snap flush into the bottom - it hangs out, which means if something brushes it enough, it could flop out. It would take a good bit of brushing, as there are four rubber teeth that hold the USB transceiver in, but beware if you store it in a laptop bag; your transceiver may be sitting at the bottom of the bag if you clunk it around.
All in all, I really am happy I purchased this set: it's a great value (combining a $40 Wireless Mouse 5000, and a $40 Wireless Keyboard 3000) for two high quality, rugged components - particularly the mouse. If you don't mind the loud clicks or loud keyboard, you'll probably love this set.

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Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 3000 Review

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(More customer reviews)I ruled out Logitech keyboards because of their arrangement of the delete key. I'm very meticulous so it had to be a "standard" keyboard layout. I also wanted flatter and quieter keys, and I wanted them to be easier to press down. It's extremely easy to type on this keyboard, and although it's not as quiet as a laptop keyboard, it is much quieter than your normal run-of-the-mill keyboard that comes with a purchased computer. It's very sleek, and looks absolutely great next to my Logitech mouse. The glossy black finish just around the keys can attract fingerprints, but you're not supposed to touch that part anyway, and the rest of the keyboard isn't glossy like that. Battery life is supposed to be good, but I don't know for sure (I guess I'll find out in a year.) One of the things that shocked me was that this thing comes with real Duracell batteries, which is a real surprise in the tech world. Usually included batteries are cheap knockoffs from some brand I've never heard of. All of the extra buttons around the outside of the keyboard are useful and changeable through software. You can even assign macros to all them except the 1-5 and * buttons on the top (due to the functionality of that set of keys) if you'd like. This is a very sturdy, solid keyboard; stylish and professional-looking (which is good because I bought it for work!) I've spent $200 on a keyboard before, and this is easily the best keyboard I have ever bought. I'd recommend this keyboard to anyone for uses for anything from general computing to hard-core software development. 5 stars for this one.
Pros:
+ Build quality is top-notch
+ Flat, easy-touch keys help type faster
+ Most extraneous keys assignable to macros (including "F" keys)
+ Standard keyboard layout
+ Real Duracell batteries!
Potential Cons:
- Quieter than standard keys, but not as quiet as laptop keys
- Glossy black finish around keys can attract fingerprints
- "F" keys are smaller than normal
- Can't assign macros to the 1-5 and * keys
- 2.4GHz USB receiver and keyboard backing are white (in case you care)

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