It’s a new year filled with the promise of new products hitting the market. So, before we go off reviewing the newest toys and gadgets of the coming year, let’s take a moment to look at one of the more overlooked parts of most computer systems; the keyboard. The kind folks at pcusacorp have provided us with the X-Slim keyboard to take a look at. Now, we’ve gone through a fair number of keyboards here at HardwareHounds due to wear and tear, accidents or poor craftsmanship. Just because a keyboard looks nice or has a lot of bells and whistles does not by obligation make for the best experience when you are sitting in front of your computer. So, when we took a look at the X-Slim we were a little dubious that it would perform under prolonged usage. Don’t get me wrong, this is a great looking keyboard but it looked kind of fragile.
Well, we couldn’t have been more wrong. This keyboard has been put through every test we could think of. It has been used as my primary keyboard for the last couple of weeks and it has performed admirably.
First off, let's talk about size. This is smaller than your average keyboard but a bit bigger that the keyboard you would find on a laptop. The specific dimensions are: 436mm X 187mm X 30mm, with the keys placed very close together. Now, if you have really big fingers this might not be the keyboard for you but we had no problems with this at all. The perks of a small keyboard are many though. If you have a small amount of desk space, this keyboard will fit nicely and by having the keys so close together, there is less opportunity for dust and dirt accumulation.
That's not all this unit has though. In the upper right had corner there is a small silver button. Push it and all the keys glow a subtle blue (nothing so bright that it is distracting though). This explains why on the front of the box this unit is called an “Electron Luminescence” keyboard. The option to turn the lighting on or off is a really nice touch and the letters are still clearly visible on the keys even in a dark room.
Our only problem with this keyboard lies in the key configuration. In order to create a keyboard of this size some rearranging of the keys was required. Nothing drastic but if you are used to a full-sized version you may find yourself hitting the delete key when you meant to hit the backspace.
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