Labtec Ultra-Flat Keyboard keyboard

Author's product rating:   

Responsiveness	Very responsive
Reliability	Excellent
Ease of Use	Very Easy
Quality	Excellent
Value for Money	Excellent

Advantages:	Nice to use, pretty, useful features
Disadvantages:	None

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

I was given a Labtec Ultra-Flat Keyboard for Christmas by my other half (he knows me well enough to know I'd be thrilled with this). He knew that I'd been wanting a new keyboard for a while, and specifically wanted one that was more like a "laptop keyboard", i.e. flat and with 'clicky' keys, and this is exactly what I got with this keyboard.

Made by Labtec (who cite themselves as "a leading provider of value-priced peripherals and accessories for computing"), the Ultra-Flat keyboard does exactly what it say on the tin. It is less than a centimetre in depth, and also only around 38cm across, so it is ideal for someone with limited desk space. The other advantage of it being flat (and what I would call slate-grey in colour, with black keys) is that it looks great. It goes very well with a flat screen monitor, especially a similarly coloured one, so if you're style-conscious, this one's the one for you.

As well as being super-pretty, the Labtec Ultra-Flat Keyboard is functional. Obviously, it has all the usual keys (you know the ones, A-Z, 1-0, Enter, a Spacebar and all that), and as I do a LOT of typing, I'd say it was fairly sturdy and hard-wearing. Fair enough, I've only really had it for 3 months, but it's still like new - all of the keys are still in perfect workng order, and none of the writing has faded from them (not even off W,S,A or D - by far my most used keys!).

As well as the usual stuff mentioned above, this keyboard has the added benefit of having additional buttons at the top. I know lots of keyboards have these, but the difference here is that these ones are actually useful. Before I go any further here, it is worth mentioning that this keyboard is designed for Windows XP (It says so on the box), so I would just do a trial run before committing if you have another operating system. Having said that, looking at the Labtec website, it does state in the 'requirements' section that your pc can have XP, 98, NT, 2000 or ME (*shiver*), so I'm sure that would be no issues.

The additional buttons we are offered are (from left to right):
Play/Pause: This is designed to automatically work with Windows Media Player.
Stop: As above
Back: As above
Forward: As above

All of these in addition to the next ones (Mute, volume down and volume up) are wonderfully useful if, for example, you are in a game whilst listening to music and don't want to have to exit just to skip a song or alter the volume a bit.

We then have a 'Home' key, which opens up your internet browser to your homepage, and finally, an 'Email' key, which (suprise suprise) opens up your email client.

These last two keys are entirely flexible to fit your requirements too. The keyboard comes with a straightforward, easy to install software CD, and after installing it just once (unless of course you re-install Windows), you can change your settings at will. You can set your homepage to be anything you want, and also tell it to open any email client (or website, such as hotmail), which is handy.

The whole keyboard, being smaller than average, is compact. It takes a little time to get used to there being no gap between the 'enter' key and the numpad, although as with any new keyboard, it becomes normal after a few days of use.

Comfort-wise, I think this keyboard is perfect. It seems to be at its most comfortable for me when it is flat, but it does have those little 'legs' on the back if you would rather it tilted up. The pressure in the keys is just right - you only have to lightly tap on the keys, not hit them with any force, so this makes speedy typing nice and easy. It is also fairly quiet when typing, unlike some keyboards I have used.

The keyboard is connected by USB, but it also comes packaged with a USB-P/S2 Adapter should you need it.

Overall, I would highly recommend this product, although I would strongly suggest anyone with anything other than Windows (e.g. Linux) contact Labtec for advice before buying to check compatibility.

It retails at a fairly reasonable price for its quality - it's just £14.99 on Maplin.co.uk, so I'd say a bargain really.