What do Keysonic tell us about the keyboard?

• Heavy-Duty aluminium keyboard
• Notebook Computer Styled flat-key layout
• Perfect match for Web PCs/LCD
• Fully compatible for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP
• On/Off button for EL function exchanges

Most of those specifications are quite standard at first glance but there are a couple of differences.

What’s the EL function?

The ACK-720E is equipped with translucent keys. Effectively every key on the keyboard is semi “see through” and there is a illuminating membrane behind the keys themselves. The keyboard will light up a light blue hue with a touch of the “EL On/Off” button.

Notebook flat-key style?

Full size keyboards traditionally have a bowed surface on each key and a distinct “long push” touch is required for the keyboard to present a key stroke. Laptop keyboards are generally alot lighter in push and require less pressure for the keyboard to register the key stroke. It’s all about pressure. Users familiar with laptop keyboards often wish for a keyboard for their desktop PC’s that emulates that of their laptop compadre. What keysonic have done is take the laptop keyboard style and integrate it into a full size keyboard. A brave move as some users detest laptop style keyboards and find them almost unusable. It is very much a question of personal taste and it’s very much up to to the end user to decide what suits best.

So how does all this work in practice? Let’s take a look at the ACK-720E and see.

Packaging

The base packaging is the same as most products. A cardboard box with large amounts of printed details on it which indicate its selling points and various product information. It also gives the prospective buyer a taster of the illuminated look of the keyboard and the notebook style layout.

The package contains the keyboard and a multi language instruction guide.

A quick examination of the keyboard reveals that it has no PS/2 legacy style connector and is USB ONLY. This is confirmed in the first line of the installation guide. Users with PS/2 only KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switches beware! The reason for the lack of PS/2 support is simple. The illumination circuit requires more power than the PS/2 can deliver.

Lets take a closer look at the keyboard itself.

The board of keys

The keyboard casing is an exquisite brushed aluminium top with a plastic underside.

The edges are all smooth. There are no rough or sharp areas on any part of the aluminium casing.

The sample sent to Short-Media is a UK QWERTY layout with an additional hotkey with aqua text. There are no other non-standard hotkeys.

The “EL On/Off” button turns on the illuminated display for the keyboard.

The illumination is very bright when the EL key is invoked. A light aqua hue can be seen even in a well lit room.

The keys are easy to make out even with the illumination behind and it makes typing a breeze in a dark room. It was tested in a room with no artificial or natural light and there were no problems at all with typing. It looks fantastic in a dark room from this reviewers perspective. There is no way you can miss any letters no matter how dark!

A slim, functional keyboard with a great look is not much good if the keyboard is horrendous to type on. How does it feel to use? Let’s find out.

SlimJim

Typing on the ACK-720E is absolutely down to personal preference. This reviewer uses a laptop during the working day constantly and feels very adept at using a notebook style keyboard. This keyboard is very easy to use and is snappy & responsive as notebook computer keyboards generally are. Only very gentle presses are required to type on this keyboard and users used to a more traditional keyboard may find themselves struggling at first to use it. A struggle that will go away with a period of adjustment and daily usage. This reviewer found the keyboard overall to be a joy to use and extremely comfortable to type on. This is purely subjective to personal taste.

The footprint of the keyboard in relation to deskspace is of equal relevance. Less deskspace is required for the keyboard due to the smaller nature of a notebook style keyboard. Those users looking for a keyboard to physically take as little space as possible but not lose the right hand number pad would certainly find the keysonic to suit.

Conclusion

Overall the keysonic ACK-720E is a fantastic keyboard. Keyboards are not traditionally something to get excited about but the ACK-720E could change that. It’s slim, functional, looks beautiful and the illumination isn’t a low weight gimmick. You won’t miss a key in a dark room playing an FPS. The illumination is about the right level of brightness to be clear without blinding. It also looks great aesthetically.

The only negative would be the lack of PS/2, but that is a techical limitation of the PS/2 standard and the lack of hotkeys for features such as volume control. Realistically this keyboard is not for those who live for those features in their keyboard.

The other subjective point to raise is the use the notebook style keyboard. Some users will love it and some will hate it. It is recommended to try it first before committing to the purchase. The style of keyboard is very much personal taste.

Personally, I have now swapped my beige keyboard for this extremely comfortable keyboard that is just like my work notebook keyboard and means I can see what I’m typing late at night.

Our thanks to Nanopoint for their support of this site and many others like it.