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Elite Keyboard Review - Hardware

There comes a time in everybody’s life when they get bored of the standard keyboard and want something more comfortable than a grey rectangular piece of plastic that would look more appropriate hanging out of a trash-can than it does on your desk sitting in-front of your $2000 computer. The Logitech Elite Keyboard offers just this. A stylish design with all the functions you need including iTouch, iNav, and media buttons ensure that you can operate your computer without having to use complex buttons, or scroll through many menus with your mouse.

Although the Logitech Elite Keyboard is corded, it doesn’t mean your freedom is taken away. The keyboard handles perfectly, and you never need to charge the batteries. Wireless keyboards and mouses are yet to have reached the stage where they are affordable and usable yet. Cheap wireless keyboards often cut out while you are typing, and can’t be used efficiently from very far away. Corded keyboards work like a charm, and the Logitech Elite Keyboard is the best of the best when it comes to being corded. The keyboard is designed basically the same as any other keyboard you’ve seen, only it has a whole array of function buttons that you can use to optimise your performance. These include iTouch, iNav, F-Lock, and the Media buttons.

iTouch makes up nine buttons above the standard part of the keyboard. Ignoring the Media area in silver, from left to right the iTouch buttons are F-Lock, E-Mail, Messenger/SMS, Webcam, iTouch, Search, Shopping, Favourites and My Home. They can all be modified to open up whatever program or file you want, however you’ll probably want to stick to what the buttons are called. iNav is a scroll device on the left of the keyboard which you can modify for different functions such as volume, scrolling, or even changing the size of the font. You may or may not find a useful function for the iNav, but it’s worth having there as it makes the keyboard look even better.

F-Lock turns on and off the F buttons, which turns your F keys into all new functions ranging from cut & paste to Windows XP shortcuts. The media buttons are pure bliss. Using the buttons, you can open up any media player you have installed, and operate them with these simplistically designed buttons, including Previous Track, Next Track, Play/Pause, Stop, Mute, and of course the volume control dial. All of these functions of the Logitech Elite Keyboard come up on your screen when you use them, and there’s even a volume meter which we’ve spent many hours toying around with.

Features

• Enhanced function key commands
• Stylish Zero Degree Tilt
• Easy to install and set up
• For Windows and Macintosh
• iTouch buttons to die for!

Installation

This is where the keyboard has a downside. If you don’t update your iTouch ... (continued next page)