Don't buy the iConcepts keyboard!.
Written: Jun 25 '03
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Great Size
Cons: Extremely poor ergonomics.
The Bottom Line: Very poor ergonomics cripple this keyboard. You will be frustrated if you want to touch type.
|
|
|
| tgmcnaughton's Full Review: Sakar iConcepts Portable Keyboard for Compaq iPAQ ... |
I like the size of the iConcepts Mini Keyboard but that's where my praise ends. There are some design flaws that made me return it five minutes after opening it.
#1: Keys H and Y are on the Left hand side - c'mon guys! Does anyone at iConcepts know how to touch type? How many touch typists press the H and Y keys with their Left hands?
#2: Pressing the space bar requires difficult thumb contortion. It requires elevating one's hand and angling one's thumb to press with the tip rather than the side. This is because the key is recessed beneath a 4 or 5mm decorative gutter.
#3: MOST EGREGIOUS OF ALL - The rounded rubberized keys roll beneath one's fingers and give very poor tactile feedback.
#4: The latch seems excessive for its task.
#5: The tilde key has been moved from its top left standard spot to a location immediately right of Home Row thus displacing the ENTER key 15 mm to the right. The 1/! key is extra wide to fill in the space where the tilde used to be - this is utterly asinine.
Are these problems inherent in a small keyboard? No. The Psion 5mx keyboard (which is only 7x17cm) affords quite comfortable typing and provides the same 15mm keyspacing as the iConcepts board - and the Psion keyboard is even smaller - only about 70% as wide.
Also the Toshiba Libretto was even better suited to touch typing and it only had 14.5mm keyspacing. It was also significantly smaller overall (albeit not foldable) than the iConcepts job.
Print http://users.rcn.com/jdreyer/libretto/libretto.ps
to see an actual sized libretto keyboard printout.
The folding keyboard is a great idea - but I give the folks at iConcepts a D- for this sorry attempt.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tgmcnaughton
|
|
Member: Timothy McNaughton
Location: Redlands, CA, USA
Reviews written: 7
Trusted by: 0 members
About Me:
Emergency Physician with an engineering background.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.