Das Keyboard Ultimate and Professional keyboards

Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

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Cool Yule Rating: 5 stars

Price: $129 (both models)

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Description: The original Das Keyboard was a very cool wired keyboard with the distinction of being all black, including the lack of any labels indicating what keys were what letters or characters. Aimed at professional touch-typists and other geeks who thought this idea was cool (including me), beyond this "gimmick" the keyboard had a really nice feel and touch. The company has updated its keyboards, providing two new models to the line. The new keyboards are smaller in surface area, and have a new "click" feel thanks to new gold-plated mechanical key switches (on the inside of the keyboard, there's no gold that you can see). For those who were annoyed by the lack of key labels, the Professional version includes key labels; for those who want to continue the all-black look and feel without labels, go with the Ultimate.

While the new clickier keys take some getting used to (I used my original Das Keyboard for a few years), after a while I did feel that I could type even faster with these keys. The additional sound certainly made the office a bit noisier, and of course noisy keyboards in a newsroom implies additional productivity. I also liked the inclusion of two USB 2.0 ports on the side of the keyboard, although the company warned that while both ports can be active at the same time, one of the ports could temporarily shut down if too much power consumption was occurring. If you're plugging the keyboard into a non-powered USB hub, you might experience this problem.

After a few months of using the keyboard (I originally tested these keyboards in August), I can say that I've fallen in love even more with them. My typing has definitely gotten faster, and the clickety-clack feel of the keyboards has not been as annoying as I thought it might. As a help to the IT help desk, I'm mainly using the Professional version, so if they need to jump onto the computer in order to type a password or do some work, they can without having to ask me where certain keys are.

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