Having been driven utterly crazy trying to type on my old stiff-keyed backlit keyboard (a Xenta that is no longer available) I was in the market for a replacement. For the cost, this Perixx keyboard had good reviews, with the exception of a few negative mentions of certain keys sticking after a while (which, I've discovered, is a frequent problem with cheaper keyboards).
However, I don't consider £26.99 cheap, so when it arrived and I flipped out the legs to place it on my desk, I was amazed to note that it had a wobble of something close to 7mm when the top right corner was pressed down. Flipping the legs back into place I tried laying it flat... with the same result. So I held it edge-on to the light.
The entire body of the keyboard is TWISTED.
*sigh*
Since I desperately needed a new keyboard to write with I don't have time to go through the rigmarole of an RMA (which one reviewer noted didn't even get a reply in their case) so I've done what I can to mitigate the problem. A bit of that well-known blue non-sticky-sticky-stuff under the wobbly foot didn't help much, but wedging the lead underneath that blue stuff has finally balanced it to a point where it doesn't move.
As to general features of the keyboard (in case you want to risk getting a wonky one), they are:
- The keys feel good to type on and have a decent space between them. This is ideal for non-touch typists like me, who use two fingers on each hand but go at a very fast rate. On a close-spaced keyboard I am forever hitting the key next to the one that I want, but this one has enough spacing to prevent that.
- The white backlighting is easier on my eyes than I thought it would be. My last backlit keyboard had a red or blue option, and I always chose red as I found the blue hard to see against the black keys. I find the lowest level of light is just enough for me to work by.
- The image on the box does not show a UK keyboard, but the item inside *is* a UK layout, so no worries on that side of things.
- One downside (apart from the wobbliness of the one that I received) is that the enter, right shift, and backspace keys sometimes sound squeaky or squishy when they're hit, especially if they're not pressed right in the middle.
Overall, it seems that most reviewers received a non-wobbly keyboard and I just seem to have been unlucky in this regard. However, I've managed to effect a decent fix for the issue and will continue to use it for as long as it works. It looks as if, for this item, you take pot luck in getting something decent or something a little bit wonky.
UPDATE (1st March 2015) -
I'm revising this review after a serious issue with the built-in USB port. Today I tried plugging my flash drive into the USB port on this keyboard. My computer didn't recognise the drive at all, so I removed it by pulling it out (since it wasn't recognised it didn't show up in the 'safely remove hardware' option) and plugged it into the main computer. I copied the file I wanted, and then ejected the flash drive.
I then tried to type something. My keyboard was unresponsive and the lights had gone off. So I rebooted the PC. The lights came back on, but the keys were still dead. Nothing happened when I tried to type or use the backspace key when browsing. In the end, the only way to get the keyboard working again was to unplug it completely from the PC and then re-plug it.
Others may not have had this issue when using the built-in USB port, but I certainly did, so be warned. Other than that, the keyboard is still working normally.
UPDATE (28th Nov 2015) -
I suspect this keyboard is now beginning to fail. At least once (sometimes twice) a week, when I power on the PC, it fails to recognise the keyboard and nothing happens when I start typing. A quick remedy for this is to whip out the USB from the back of the desktop tower (easy for me, since the tower sits on top of the desk; if yours is in an awkward place then you might have more problems with this) and plug it back in.
Other than that, the keyboard is still going strong (and still wobbling if I don't get the lead seated just right under the back-right flip-out foot!) The only signs of wear and tear are that the cutout of the H key is beginning to wear in the centre, but that's probably due to my fingernails tapping the key at that point, because of my unusual typing style.
| Brand | perixx |
|---|---|
| Product Dimensions | 46.41 x 19.2 x 3.2 cm; 821 Grams |
| Manufacturer reference | 11113 |
| Are Batteries Included | No |
| Item Weight | 821 g |
| Guaranteed software updates until | unknown |
