Two days left.
In a
previous post about this keyboard, I gushed about it being the greatest keyboard ever made. I stand by that claim, but I wanted to point out a few things I find annoying, and make it less than perfect:
1) The CTRL and ALT keys are sized and designed for touch typing with the fingers rather than the thumbs. Unfortunately, their position is far from ergonomic for this purpose. Unless you're double-jointed. (Try pressing your ALT key with your middle finger while keeping your other fingers on the home row. Yeah, I didn't think so.)
2) It's LOUD. Prior to my M15, I last used a Northgate Omnikey Evolution, one of the loudest keyboards ever. The M15 is significantly louder. Forget using this keyboard around anyone.
3) No palmrest. This might have been deliberate, as the "proper" (and fastest) typing position is one with the hands floating above the keyboard, but I'd like to be "lazy" when speed isn't essential.
4) The plastic is not as tough as that on regular Model Ms. Indeed, the case appears to be susceptible to hairline fractures. The M15 that sold before mine had a hairline fracture reported near the ESC key, and mine seems to have developed one on the right side of the housing, in the blank area near the edge. It doesn't affect the functioning of the keyboard at all, but the material could be a little tougher.
5) It's hard to get the rubber feet unscrewed to extend the legs further. As far as I'm concerned, though, the ability to extend the feet beyond the legs is a bonus.
6) In some configurations (all the feet extended), the "n" key sometimes bounces and registers two keypresses. This could just be my model (and keyboard tray) but it slows down my typing a bit.
Speaking of speed, this keyboard inspired me to learn to properly touch type (as I've seen people claim about other good-quality keyboards). I've consequently upped my typing speed from around 55-60 to 65-70 WPM. I'm still faster on my Thinkpad though, hitting around 80. I've used Thinkpads for six years, so it's probably mainly an issue of familiarity.
Overall, the M15 is a comfortable, tactile, and LOUD keyboard that can make your PC "truly personal," to paraphrase HP's cheesy ad campaign.
Would I pay $500-$600 for it all over again, knowing what I know now? Absolutely. Would I ever pay $1600? No way. If I were going to spend that much on a keyboard, I would just pay someone to make one for me.
A friend used my computer last night and encountered the M15. Imagine this in an Oxford-educated southern English accent:
Pulling out the keyboard tray: "Someone ripped your
keyboard in
half."
Upon discovering Erase-Ease: "Is there a
delete key where the
spacebar is supposed to be?"
What fun.
