So are you in the market for a new keyboard, but you want something that does more and looks better than others available today? Well today for review I have something that you might be interested in, it is from Logisys, it is a clear acrylic keyboard that even features blue EL back lighting. It looks great and has some actually useful shortcut buttons as well. Read on to learn more…

Logisys Clear Acrylic Blue EL Keyboard

Reviewed by: Kristofer Brozio AkA Dracos

Sponsor: Logisys

Tech Specs,Features or the Basic Info:

Model #: KB605CLL

Name: All Clear Blue Illuminated Acrylic Keyboard USB + PS2

Description: 

This keyboard is made of high-end totally transparent acrylic. With blue EL lighting and specially selected fully clear keys, the keyboard will light up for working in the dark. There is an EL On / Off switch conveniently located on the top of the keyboard, you can choose to have it on or off for day and night. The keyboard comes with double sized BACK SPACE key and large sized ENTER key. With the philosophy of simplicity but functionality in mind, minimum multimedia keys, and necessary letter and number keys have been carefully selected in order to keep the keyboard as simple as possible for fast, easy and enjoyable typing.

Specification:

Interface: USB & PS2

Operation System: Windows 98/ ME /2000/ XP / NT or above

Mechanical Data:

Total travel (mm): 3.8 0.5 mm

Switch life: 5 million life cycles

Weight (g): 1.0052 kg

Dimension (mm): 465 * 200 * 28/20 mm

A Better Look at Things

:

First up we have some box shots; the front of the box is mostly a window so you can check out the keyboard and get a good look at it, the name of course is there along with the Logisys logo in the bottom left corner. The back of the box lists the specs of the keyboard.

Opening the box up we find that there’s not much there really, just the keyboard, driver disc, and PS/2 to USB adapter/connector.

The back of the keyboard features retractable feet to prop the Logisys Acrylic keyboard up at an angle if desired, there are also non-slip rubber feet near the front edge as well. The keyboards’ cable is an interesting design, it is bright and metallic, essentially see through, a nice change from the normal black cables we see so often. The cable matches the keyboard nicely.

On the far right top side of the keyboard are the status indicators for the various ‘locks’ like CAPS, NUM and SCROLL. They are blue LEDs and I have to say they are extremely bright when lit, I looked into them and it was like the flash from a camera, I kept seeing the blue dot for a few minutes after looking away. The Logisys logo is also found in the top right corner as well above the LED indicators.

There are several multimedia button located across the top of the Logisys Acrylic keyboard, we will be taking a closer look at all of them. Going from the right to the left, the first three buttons are Sleep, Calculator and My Computer access buttons, below those in the group of three keyboard buttons, you will find a Scroll Lock button but it is also the EL ON/OFF button as well to control the EL back lighting of the keyboard. Moving to the next grouping of button to the left, we find the volume controls, they are standard, Up, Down and Mute.

I really like the addition of the Calculator button and the My Computer buttons, I use the calculator all the time in Windows and create a desktop shortcut for it normally, but now I just hit a button and there it is for me to use. The addition of the My Computer is also cool as well, just hit the button and up pops the My Computer folder so you can access everything.

The next two sets of buttons are for controlling more multimedia functions and internet access. The first set on the right is for controlling your media, Forward, Backward and Play/Pause buttons. The second set is for the internet browser of your choice, there are Back, Forward and Stop buttons.

The last set of buttons located on the far left of the keyboard is another set of three to open your default browser, your default mail client and your Favorites. The addition of these extra keys is actually very handy as they are very useful shortcuts to have, it seems Logisys has done some research into this.

Just by taking this close up look at the Logisys Acrylic Keyboard we can see that it is feature packed and can be a very useful and welcome addition to any computer user’s system. The addition of the shortcut buttons or quick access buttons is something that needs to be on all keyboards, in this day and age where we want everything NOW, these keys fit right in to that mind set.

The Logisys Arcylic Keyboard is basically your standard keyboard setup, with the addition of some very cool and useful buttons, it also is clear, and has nice blue EL back lighting as a bonus.

Installation, Testing and Comparison

Installation is easy, Windows XP recognizes and installs the Logisys Acrylic Keyboard automatically, you don’t have to install the optional software, but if you wish to fully customize your keyboard then you have to.

Once thing to note is that the EL back lighting is very dim when used in a very well lit room, but when you turn the lights out it looks really cool, so gaming or doing whatever on your computer in the dark doesn’t require much light.

Before we get into the review of the keyboard let’s check out the software that is included with it, it is made by a company called Netropa. I did some digging on the internet and found that is is basically harmless stuff.

Normally to find things out about programs I check with Neuber.com, they have a nice comprehensive list of all sorts of system process and they give you lots of information about it. It’s a great site to see if something you think might be spyware is. Here is the link about the Netropa software: http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/process/nhksrv.exe.html . And here is a short excerpt from the site regarding Netropa, more can be found by following the link I just gave you:

Process name: NetropaTM Internet Receiver

Product: multimedia keyboards

Company: www.netropa.com

File: nhksrv.exe

Security Rating:

Dell uses Netropa software for their multimedia keyboards. This is the program that figures out what to do when you press one of the multimedia/internet buttons on the keyboard.

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From the NewsGroup: "it may well be your multumedia keyboard software as i have a facility called netropa tickertape that links to a news server in Hong Kong i think"

From the developer www.netropa.com:

NetropaTM Internet Receiver

Your Personal 24-Hour Internet Information Service

Changing the Way You Surf the Web

With the Internet growing everyday, getting the information you need can be tedious and time consuming. Stop wasting time surfing the web! 

One thing to note is that the file or process can run under a couple different names, I found through my research that both Dell and HP among others use this same software to control their multimedia keyboards as well, so it is very common stuff.

To access the keyboard commands you need to click on the icon that appears in your taskbar, and up pops a small graphic interface, from there you can change the buttons actions.

If you go to the start menu and find the Netropa menu item it will open to give you another option that is called Internet Receiver, this is the process, I mentioned above. You don’t have to use the Internet Receiver to use the Keyboard Configurations tool, it is only active if you run the program.

Running the program creates a ‘ticker’ bar at the top of your desktop screen with various things to do, I’m not going to go into all of the options as this is a review for the keyboard and not for Netropa software, but it does allow you to do various things.

Here is an excerpt Netropas’ site regarding what it does so you can get a basic idea of it:

NetropaTM is a free service intended to make your life easier, keeping you up-to-date with the latest news, information, and events from your favorite Internet sources. You simply subscribe to the channels which interest you, and NetropaTM Internet Receiver automatically downloads highlights for you. The user interface is a compact ticker which scrolls a steady stream of information across your screen. The ticker can be docked on the top or bottom of the screen or float freely.

Personally I think it is kind of pointless and just wastes space and CPU time, but there are some people who might find it useful…. I think….at least I hope….

Now onto the keyboard itself, I found the Logisys Acrylic keyboard actually a bit hard to get used to at the beginning as I was using a TypeMatrix EZ-Reach keyboard (you’ll see the review soon for that). The Logisys Acrylic keyboard is your standard sized keyboard and the TypeMatrix is half the size, so there was a period of adjustment to deal with.

I found using the keyboard very easy and comfortable to use, but the springs on the keys are a bit strong, and it does require more force than other keyboards to perform a key press. While this isn’t a bad thing in itself, those using soft touch keyboards as I as will find it a bit disconcerting while typing to find that you are missing letters. So basically what I am saying is that the Logisys Acrylic keyboard is not your soft touch type keyboard, a bit of force is needed to fully depress the keys, this is nice in a way so you really know you are pressing the keys.

The one touch keys are a very nice addition and I found my self using them all the time actually once I got used to having them there, the ability to customize them is great as well, you can change what the buttons do, so you can use them anyway you want, at least most of the buttons are configurable, the others are set to the default of your system, like if you use Winamp instead of Windows media Player the buttons will control and launch Winamp.

Summary:

In closing I really can’t find anything wrong with the Logisys Acrylic Keyboard, except for the break in period, but you will have that with any new keyboard. The assorted buttons at the top of the keyboard are a welcome addition, I have many keyboards here and they all have some buttons there as well, but not like the Logisys, the buttons on the Logisys are actually very useful. The L:ogisys Acrylic Keyboard also look really cool, I’ve always liked things that are clear so you can see the inner workings of the item itself. The addition of the blue EL back lighting is nice as well, it definitely adds to the overall look and feel of the keyboard as well as making it look really cool.

DragonSteelMods gives the Logisys Clear Acrylic Blue EL Keyboard a 5 out of 5 score.

Pros:

-Clear and great looking overall

-Blue EL back lighting

-Actually useful shortcut buttons

-Easy to use and configurable

Cons:

-Break in period from other keyboards

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I would like to thank Logisys for the chance to review their products and for their continued support of DragonSteelMods.

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