Keysonic Illuminated Keyboard ACK-5000HL

Testing

As there are no quantitive measures of a keyboards performance, you will have to rely on my judgement.

I have several keyboard that I have compared the Keysonic to:

Saitek Eclipse Keyboard
Saitek Eclipse II Keyboard
Dell Standard USB Keyboard
Evoluent Mouse-friendly Keyboard


I used the following environments for testing:

Gaming

Using Counter Strike: Source and BioShock I tested how the keyboards felt during gaming.

Extended Typing

I have used the keyboards for writing up several reviews and other longer periods of typing. This will show how easy and comfortable the keyboard is to type with.

Media Playback

I watched a DVD and listened to some music to see if the extended functions of the keyboard actually worked.

Results - Gaming

The Saitek Eclipse and Eclipse II were the superior keyboards whilst gaming. The slightly more laptop style keys on the Keysonic weren't quite as responsive as the more gaming-orientated Saitek's although gaming was still perfectly possible and certainly far superior to a laptop keyboard.

Note that the Keysonic is not aimed at the gaming market at all, though I think once you have got used to it it could be one to take a look at.

Results - Extended Typing

Both of the Saitek Eclipse's and the Keysonic were perfectly comfortable and easy to use during extended typing. The Keysonic's key-presses were accurate and gave good feedback.

Media Playback

The Keysonic has a couple of semi-media keys in this department but blatently not as many as the Eclipse II. Whilst the volume keys are a cool extra, the addition is more gimmicky than any actual use.

Overall View - Keysonic Illuminated Keyboard

The Keysonic performed well during testing and was generally a positive experience to live with. Whilst gaming wasn't as strong as the heavily gamer-oriented Saitek's, general typing was a decent experience and the Keysonic grew on me, despite my dislike of laptop style keyboards. I have been using the keyboard now for several weeks as my main keyboard and whilst I didn't really like it to start off with, I have grown quite fond of it.

For a little more of an objective view I gave the keyboard to my better half to try out for a while. She browses on the Internet and does a lot of "Facebook-ing" so I thought this would give me a better idea of what others thought of the semi-laptop keys. The feedback was generally good, after I got past the "but why does it need to light up?" (*sigh* - Ed) and she liked the keys as they were like the ones on her laptop but a little more "clicky" and easier to type with.