T
he question is, how much more black could it be? The answer, in the
words of the inimitable Nigel Tufuel, is, “none.” With no extraneous adorn-
ment—such as labels for the keys—the Das Keyboard is really, seriously
black. This is a keyboard that leaves hunt-and-peckers crying for mercy.
When you put a plank like this on your desk, you’re sending a mes-
sage. You’re saying, “I’m a badass typist, and I know it.” The truly beautiful
thing is that the Das Keyboard also says, “I’m a discriminating typist.” Even
without the no-label gimmick, this is a keyboard worth cherishing—we
wouldn’t attach just any keyboard to our Dream Machine, after all.
The Das Keyboard’s secret is in its individually weighted keys. While
all the keys on standard keyboards require the same amount of force to
depress, the Das Keyboard has five different groups of keys, each of which
responds to a different degree of force to accommodate the way most
people use a keyboard. For example, the space bar, where you might natu-
rally rest your thumbs, requires substantially more pressure than normal, so
as to avoid inadvertent depression; while keys you press with your pinkies
and ring fingers (also known as the wussy fingers) require much less than
the normal amount of pressure, so as not to strain those delicate digits.
Though seemingly minor, the differences in pressure make typing on the
Das Keyboard a sublime experience.
The key action is extremely satisfying, with just enough of a click to
let you know you pushed down the key, but not so much noise it’ll keep yourspouse awake in the next room. We’d love it if the Das Keyboard included
an integrated USB hub and came in an ergonomic split option, but we’ve
got to hand it to the folks at Metadot, nonetheless. The company took a
standard Keytronics keyboard shell and built a board whose praises we’ll be
singing for years.
—WILL SMITHMetadot Das Keyboard
Introducing the official keyboard of Spinal Tap
T
he keyboard and mouse make a fine game controller, but the experi-
ence could definitely be better. The keys, while grouped in a way that
makes sense for typing, don’t always make sense for gaming. The DX1 lets
you custom-place up to 50 keys on a special surface, then bind those keys
to damn near any in-game function.
Here’s how it works: Each DX1 comes with a pad, a tray, and 25 keys.
You mount the tray on the pad, then stick the keys on the tray in whatever
configuration you’d like. Each key has a reusable sticky gel-pad on the
bottom, so if you’re unhappy with a key’s placement, you can simply twist
it off, and re-stick it in a better spot. We tried several different placement
options with a variety of games.
Once you’ve positioned the keys to your liking, you can either open
the key-management software that comes with the DX1 or simply fire
up the game you want to run, and then start programming macros while
you’re playing your game. Making a new macro, complete with properly
programmed timings, is as simple as pressing the macro button on the
pad, keying in your macro, pressing the key you want to assign the macro
to, then pressing the macro button again. It took us about 15 minutes to
program macros for all 25 keys that ship with the card.
The ability to create macros is the truly beautiful thing about the DX1.
We used World of Warcraft to test the board, but it will function similarly
for damn near any game genre. After a few minutes of mucking around, we
had macros that attacked a monster, cast our three attack spells (and left
the appropriate length of time between actions), and then sent our pet into finish the monster off, all automatically. This type of manual assistance
could be considered cheating, or at least unsavory, but we don’t have a
problem with it when it’s used to minimize unnecessary repetitive hand
movements. We wish there was a way to stop a macro once it started, but
that’s a small price to pay for this
much gaming convenience.
—WILL SMITHErogdex DX1
With proper tweaking, this customizable keyboard kicks ass
reviews TESTED. REVIEWED. VERDICTIZED
84 MA XIMUMPC OCTOBER 2005
Look Ma, no labels! The keys on this seemingly blank slate, hold
untold secrets.The Ergodex DX1 is a totally configurable keyboard. Move
the keys to suit your play style, then program them to do
anything you want!METADOT DAS KEYBOARDMA XIMUMPC
KICKASS$80, http://www.daskeyboard.comERGODEX DX1
$150, http://www.ergodex.com8