The Shift towards Slim Keyboards
Posted 1 year, 5 months ago at 1:29 am. 0 comments
Posted in Life Tutorials.
Ever since Windows Vista came out, I’ve been noticing a change in keyboard design. They have shifted towards smaller, more compact designs. I’ve found myself pretty much steering clear from those huge multimedia keyboards that dominated over Windows XP and 98 era. For some reason at that time, keyboard manufactures felt consumers loved those lavish big keyboards. Some of them take up a considerable amount of room for no reason at all. Remember the time when computer safety experts pushed those large ergonomic keyboards. These "Shamu" keyboards were split along the center providing you with the most awkward feeling.
What is up with the Huge Multimedia Keyboards?
I mostly shyed away from these type of keyboards mostly because they don’t fit well within the space of my desktop. I never could quite understand why companies pushed for multimedia keyboards that took up too much space. They added extra functionality such as buttons for your favorite websites, volume control, and sleep mode, the button thats pressed at the most inconvenient times. They might be useful to lazier people, but I don’t have need for it. I’m perfectly fine with controlling the volume manually through a knob on my speaker.
Logitech whats up with these big keyboards? The larger than life wrist rest makes this so uncomfortable for me. Not only does the wrist pad get in the way, I have to push the multimedia buttons so far away from me.
You see if Logitech could cut out the crap by taking the front silver peice off, I’d probably buy this. Its already sleek and refined, just cut off the wrist pad and we’ll have a deal.
Not only is this keyboard a fashion crime, its also HUGE. Slim it down some please…
How to Shop for A Slim Keyboard?
Its pretty easy to shop for one. All you have to do is look for the dimensions of the keyboard. Height x Width x Depth, are the 3 measurements used to figure out how it should fit on your desktop. When your buying keyboards online you can’t really predict how big it is without this. Most companies will tell you the dimensions up front. Logitech however seems to want to hide this information, may be they don’t want you to know. Stick to keyboards that are less than 9 in depth. You can pretty much see that keyboards without the wrist pad in the front have dimensions around 7 to 8 inches. Multimedia keyboards can go from 9 to 11 inches. Ergonomic keyboards always stay around 10 inches. Sometimes the dimensions are shown by Length x Width x Height, these websites list the width as the actual depth.
My recommendations for Slim Keyboards:
HP Multimedia Keyboard: PERFECT & CHEAP! Its silver with black, and its small enough to not bother you with big wrist pads. The depth is excellent 7.5 inches
Saitek Eclipse II: It has a detachable wrist pad with 9 inches average depth, volume control functions too.
Razer Tarantula: 8.6 inches of width isn’t bad for a keyboard with a large wristpad. Plus you can press 10 keys at the same time.
MaCally USB Slim Keyboard: Mac, Very Slim, can even curve when standing up. 6.5 inches depth is just WOW.
