MS Keyboards

Microsoft Internet Keyboard
Reviewed by Tachyon (21 November 99)

Microsoft has long been making in roads to the desktop PC market not only with their software but have been steadily building up their hardware product lines such as mouse, keyboards, joysticks and joypad. This time round we have the opportunity to review their keyboard products namely the Internet Keyboard and the Natural Keyboard Pro, the successors to their earlier keyboard products.

When I first received the keyboards, they came in 2 beautifully packaged boxes. The boxes were also surprisingly big. Both packages came with the same Getting Started booklet and CD which contains the necessary driver software that the keyboard requires. The keyboards both looked very good and solid. At first they looked strangely familiar to some of the keyboards that we begin to see bundled with PCs from Compaq, Dell, HP and others since they all spot similar looking set of buttons on the top row of the keyboards. They also looked strangely familiar to those keyboards designed by Logitech. I couldn't say for sure but I would not be surprised if they were. Logitech is well known for making these type of high quality products. One look at the label at the bottom of the keyboards revealed that they were manufactured in Thailand although the quality and finishing looks more like those from Japan.

The first keyboard which I tried was the Natural Keyboard Pro. This keyboard is actually similar to one of their earlier product ie, the split keyboard. Since I have not used the previous product before I couldn't say what the differences are exactly. They key layout and the contour looks the same though. The first thing I saw different in this keyboard was that it was actually capable of both USB or PS/2. Since I have not tried USB before, I decided to give it a try. The installation steps requires the user to plug in the PS/2 port first and after the PC has booted, to plug it into the USB port. If you are installing the USB keyboard for the first time, have your Windows CD handy as you will need to install the USB HID class drivers in order for your keyboard USB drivers to work at all. I wonder why it wasn/t installed by default when Windows 98 was installed. If you are using Windows 98 make sure you have the latest release, similarly for Windows 95, you will need at least OSR2.1. I haven't tried it on Windows 95 but I believe that is what you will need. Once the software is installed, I was able to switch to the Internet Keyboard without any need to re-install the software as it seems that the drivers for both the keyboards are identical. I didn't feel any different using the USB keyboard compared to the PS/2 version but I did have to do something different in the BIOS of my PC, enable USB keyboard support, make sure to set this when you plan to use a USB keyboard.

The Natural Keyboard Pro also has a 2 port USB hub built into the keyboard. This makes it easy to connect devices such as joysticks/joypad or mouse into the USB port without reaching for the back of the PC or the need for a USB hub. This feature is a definite plus for a USB keyboard and I am pleased that Microsoft has recognized this important feature.

Back to top

The Tests

I did not specifically have any good way or method to test the keyboard excpet by actually using them for the tasks that I do everyday with it. The Natural Keyboard actually took quite a bit of getting used to with the split of the keyboard. It actually forces a non-conventional typist like me to type correctly, in other words not to cross the boundaries of the split keyboard while typing. It was difficult to do at first but after several days of usage I was able to so call type correctly. In fact I had somehow captured the split of the keyboard mentally and my fingers instinctively knew where to go to hit the keys. I like the way the keyboard is contoured and that the curved surface at the back of the keyboard is designed just right for you to rest your wrists on. I would have preferred a softer material like all those gelled wrist rest that you can buy from a computer store. It still served its purpose though. Users whose palms tend to sweat will find it quite of an annoyance. The keys have a positive feel to it in that they give you the assurance that the key that you depressed actually made a contact. They do not feel clicky and have a somewhat damped feeling as the key hit the bottom. The key travel is also quite substancial. Overall the keys feel good and have a pretty good tactile experience.

The top row of buttons on the keyboard are hot linked to your favourite browser buttons, your favourite multimedia controls as well as some of the more frequently accessed applications like My Computer, Calculator and Sleep. The application hot keys are configurable so you can configure them to launch other applications or control panel. I mapped My Computer to launch Quake 3 Test so that I could play Quake at the touch of a button ;-) The Internet Keyboard has far fewer buttons and as the name suggests it is truly an Internet keyboard since the buttons only support the browser functions. The 3 buttons on top of the numeric keypad are the same on both keyboards.

The Sleep button is not configurable and exclusively activates the power saving feature if enabled otherwise it enables a screen saver.

Natural Keyboard Pro. Notice the USB and PS/2 connectors on the cable. You have the flexibility to use either one. The USB hub is just beneath the hot buttons where the interface cable comes out from the keyboard.

Internet Keyboard. The keyboard doesn't look very mcu different or special compared to other brands but it does have a row of buttons hot linked to your browser. Notice the curvy surface at the back of the keys serving as a wrist rest. This piece is detachable.

Conclusion

Overall Rating (Out of a maximum of 5 Star)
Installation	*******
Performance	********
Price	*******
Build Quality	********
Overall Rating	********