ElumineX Slim Keyboard

I bought a new keyboard today and am pretty happy with it. I knew I was going to be typing more on my XP computer than I have in the past because I want to add more material to the XP portion of my web site. The keyboard has the key feel I’ve been looking for. There is a downside to this purchase; it cost me a lot more money than I wanted to spend. The reason it cost so much was because it’s illuminated. Now, the illumination is not something I really need, at least right now. The PC is located in my office; and whenever I’m in there, I have the room’s lights turned on. This keyboard would have done me a lot more good when I lived in my two bedroom apartment. When we had visitors, Connie and I moved to the back bedroom where the PC was located; and I would get up to use it to scan the Net or do some other task while my wife was asleep. I could have really used a lighted keyboard then.

Still, I bought it because I have bought keyboard after cheap keyboard looking for something that felt right. I love Apple keyboards and one works great under Windows XP; but under Windows 98SE, I have to “refresh” Device Manager whenever I’m using the USB keyboard to get it to work. I also run some DOS based flight simulators I am not sure will respond to any USB keyboard. Additionally, when using a USB keyboard, my PC would sometimes not respond when running under just its BIOS. Because of all that, I run PS2 based keyboards on my PC.

The keyboard I bought is an Auravision EluminX Slim Keyboard. HardDrive.com is located in a storefront just a block away from me; I bought it there for $79 + tax ($85.14 total). The keyboard has a really nice feel (moderately gentle tactile feedback and a quiet but audible “click” when each key is hit). It’s a full sized keyboard with a numeric pad. The Delete key is in the upper right hand corner of the regular keypad, just above “Home”, “PgUp”, “PgDn”, and “End” keys stacked vertically. The only downside to this keyboard, other than its price, is the absence of any multimedia and PC management controls. That’s probably also why it has not been necessary to load any drivers. I just plugged it in. It’s working great under Windows 98SE and XP, though admittedly there’s no reason to think it wouldn’t.