Enermax's Crystal aluminum keyboard: quick, look away!

So you dropped a few grand on the latest aluminum Core Duo laptop with matching LCD for the home only to find that plastic-ass, white keyboard soiling your kit? We feel ya, so here's the Crystal keyboard from ENERMAX. Now this isn't one of those cheapo, aluminum-look keyboards; the Crystal is all aluminum, all the time and diamond cut to create what they call the first "massive aluminum keyboard" consisting of a not so massive 1.55-millimeter (0.06-inch) thick aluminum plate fused to the key assembly. It features scissor-mounted, laser printed keys (for good feel without fade) with an audio in/out interface and 2 x USB ports along the sides. Oh, and they'd like you to know that up close, this 2.42-pound peripheral is "not safe to look at due to risk of hypnosis." Yeah, whutevah. On sale in Japan starting July 10th for an expected price of ¥9,800 or about $86 of the green.

[Via Impress]

[Simon @ Jul 5th 2006 8:53AM]

Wow, that looks awesome. Very stylish, although there are very few aluminium keyboards on the market to compare it to.

[Dario @ Jul 5th 2006 9:11AM]

tell me when a kryptonite keyboard is made

[theCardinal @ Jul 5th 2006 9:35AM]

This doesn't solve one's divergent wrist problem though does it. Why does a keyboard need to be made of aluminium? Apart from appearance I can't think of a good reason. Adding cost without adding much value.

[themonsteraria @ Jul 5th 2006 9:40AM]

If you want to spend big bucks on a keyboard, look at this:
http://www.trustedreviews.com/article.aspx?art=1643

[Mark @ Jul 5th 2006 9:46AM]

...and the space bar looks much too small...

[bob @ Jul 5th 2006 9:56AM]

oooo, now that would go well with my powermac mmmmm, or even powerbook

[Matt @ Jul 5th 2006 9:59AM]

I had a similar one of these by Coolermaster for a few years. Stylish, light, yes, ergonomic? BIG NO. Kills the wrists and hard to play games on cuz the keys are really close together. This one might be better though.

[James @ Jul 5th 2006 10:01AM]

...and it has mushy chicklet laptop keys...

[tiuk @ Jul 5th 2006 10:08AM]

Much cheaper than I expected, but what is up with that spacebar?

[Simon @ Jul 5th 2006 10:16AM]

Look around their website, Enermax to do a larger aluminium keyboard with regular-sized keys.

[KG @ Jul 5th 2006 11:23AM]

That spacebar is absurd. This must be targetted at non-computer users. Power users and especially developers use a much wider hand position while typing, typically letting their index fingers rest on d and k, or atleast f and j, to allow for much better access to the symbolic and function related keys towards the outer edge of the keyboard. (Which are used with such frequency in code). Doing this cuases one to use the outside edges of the spacebar more, which this keyboard makes impossible.

[Wonderboy @ Jul 5th 2006 11:40AM]

That spacebar wouldn't be a problem for someone with big hands.

In other news, research shows that people with big hands... well, you know...

[Jeff @ Jul 5th 2006 11:44AM]

It's not just the spacebar - that's a pretty nightmarish layout all around. The page and arrow keys are where now? I can see quite a few people aiming for "enter" and hitting "page up" instead.

[Ihar `Philips` Filipau @ Jul 5th 2006 12:13PM]

Another [CENSORED] up keyboard layout?!?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. BYE-BYE.

I do not mind cashing out $200 provided keyboard is good. But with standard ANSI layout. I'm already pretty sick of European finger-twisting keyboards.

[Simon @ Jul 5th 2006 1:33PM]

@Wonderboy: ...have big gloves?

[Ryan @ Jul 5th 2006 1:45PM]

There is a review of this keyboard already here: http://www.pcper.com/article.php?aid=263

[Historian @ Jul 5th 2006 2:30PM]

I'm having TI99/4a flashbacks...

[yuppicide @ Jul 5th 2006 2:44PM]

This thing is very ugly. The spacebar is too small and the keys are placed too close together. Look where the stupid arrow keys are. Bad location.

[Scott @ Jul 5th 2006 5:57PM]

What about wireless?

[n3rrd @ Jul 5th 2006 6:28PM]

Yeah... why do people insist on screwing with the layout of the keys? The positioning of the arrows wouldn't have been all that bad if they didn't add seventeen extra buttons aroudn the spacebar.

Who is the person sitting around thinking that messing with the size of such a frequently used key is a good idea?

[Ryan @ Jul 5th 2006 7:26PM]

If it's not buckling spring (or at least alpine caps) then I don't care. Silicon feels bad and doesn't maintain well with usage.

[Ken @ Jul 5th 2006 10:48PM]

For the love of God. Could someone please put a TAB button on the right side of a keyboard? How about a TAB key around the num pad? How about a supersmart keyboard that knows when you accidently have the CAPS LOCK key on? i.e. You push "shift" at the beginning of each sentence, lIKE THIS, ONLY YOU FORGET. tHEN YOU LOOK AND SEE THAT YOU HAVE TO erase!!!!!

[Sirius @ Jul 6th 2006 7:28PM]

I'm sure there are notebook keyboards that are -much- worse (in terms of layout) than this one. I've seen a few myself.. and *tried* to use one to touch type fast.. it's not pretty..

[Edward @ Jul 8th 2006 3:34AM]

Just 'cause there's a lot of talk of the space bar issue here I felt compelled to join in.

IT'S JUST A SPACE BAR! GIVE IT A REST!
j/k.
really though.

The reason people "mess" with the keyboard layout is 'cause in different parts of the world they use certain letters (sound units, whatever) of their language in different frequency patterns.

Not everyone uses English let alone the alphabet - remember a QWERTY keyboard was designed to minimize finger movement by bringing the most frequently used letters to the center. In a different language -as in this case Japanese - they will obviously have different layouts. You'll notice even symbols are in other places -- above the 2? thats not a @ there, it's a " - also look to the left of the enter key and you'll notice the brackets and such in different places too.

As for the extra keys by the space bar and its size, at least one of them is to switch back and forth between typing in English or Katakana (Japanese characters) -- and they do that because the way of typing the Japanese language is different and spaces are used less so than the grammatical structure of English sentences.

Anyway, the point is, this is not a product for the American market (or outside-of-Japan market)- its layout means it was meant for Japan consumption only. If Enermax decides to make a US version, surely they'd change the thing to fit our needs, but I highly doubt that would happen (such designed-objects are usually marginal-interest products at best and not worth the logistics of exporting/redesigning).

Go look at a French, Spanish, Korean, German, Chinese or any other language keyboard -- almost every one will have things changed to fit the needs of the specific language.

It's different, yes, but it's certainly not screwed up - a keyboard that's not designed for export outside of Japan, perfect for the style-conscious PC user familiar with the layout. I like the looks, but unfortunately I can't use the layout and seems most of us here are not either. Hope you understand why it's like that though. So with that let's stop the "it's messed up, they shrunk the space bar" ranting and move on.

Or start writing to Enermax for them to make a true US/American English version, 'cause'd I'd buy in a second if I could use it, especially at that price. =)

[kk @ Jul 8th 2006 5:05AM]

I got mine yesterdays, after ordering it on tuesday. Payed 59,- Euro. My first impressions are good, it looks even better then on the pictures and the aluminium feels great & warm.