Despite the slightly silly name, this spiffy
keyboard is not only genuine but also quite useful. It also serves as a
cheaper alternative to the
Happy Hacking Keyboard, so that you don't feel like you have to coddle the darn thing.
Ergo Diver is made by a
Japanese company by name of
Scythe (found at www.scythe.co.jp), who also have a few other
peripherals to their name. They are apparently trying to gain a foothold in the USA. Their US subsidiary doesn't seem to sell quite the full range of Scythe's
products, which include
heatsinks, PC cases,
memory sticks, and the odd
mousepad or a
USB port for the
PlayStation2 controller. Oddly, Scythe USA plans to have a show in Germany soon, but no Europe retailer is to be found - hopefully they'll make some inroads there as well. You can still buy this keyboard from them though, with the aid of
PayPal.
The keyboard itself is billed as a
MMORPG/
FPS keyboard (
Optimed for Game-Playing Performance!), mainly because all the so-called "
gaming" keys are located on the left side of the keyboard, thus leaving the right hand to sit on the mouse. Here is the layout:
------------------------- ---------------------------------
|PRS| FUNCTION | | KEYS |PGU|
------------------------- ---------------------------------
|SCR| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | - | = |PGD|
------------------------- ----------------------------------
|PAU| Q | W | E | R | T | | Y | U | I | O | P | [ | ] | \ |
----------------------------- ---------------------------------
|ESC|CTR| A | S | D | F | G | | H | J | K | L | ; | ' |HOM|END|
----------------------------- ----------------------------------
| ` |SHI| Z | X | C | V | B | | N | M | < | > | ? |ENT|BAC|INS|
--- | |-------------------- --------------------| | |----
|TAB| FT| UP|CAP|ALT| Space | | SPACE |ALT| SHIFT |ER |SPC|DEL|
----------------------------- ---------------------------------
|LEF|DWN|RGT|
-------------
So you have the
arrow keys, the
Ctrl,
Alt and
Tab all right there. On the right side, the Enter and the BackSpace are somewhat
unorthodox, and the assorted Home/End/Insert/Delete extras are tacked on. For
noding, the
pipe is a bit far but still manageable.
The cool parts are:
- Tiny footprint; I put this side by side with my laptop and it was the exact same size, width and height.
- Decent key feedback and sufficiently deep keypress, better than any laptop I've tried.
- It's split! Even in this tiny size, it's split for your ergonomic pleasure.
- No Windows key, which some consider a plus (including me), others a negative.
- Neat blue LCDs for Caps and Scroll lock, located in the lower right hand corner.
- The price: 15 bucks. Fifteen!
The negatives are the placement of the arrow keys which, if you do anything other than game, are not in the friendliest of positions.
Highlighting swathes of text is not fun. In addition, the alternative placement of some keys means that this keyboard comes with a learning curve of a few days - going back to regular keyboards feels a bit odd, especially the Backspace and Enter. Prepare to send
/msgs and
IMs prematurely (hitting Enter instead of Backspace to make a correction) multiple times. After you do learn however, the placement feels rather appropriate and less of a
strain to reach than regular keyboards.
The Ergo Diver comes in black or white. There are small flip-up legs in the back. The main connector is USB, but it comes with a
USB ->
PS/2 converter.
Construction is decent, although not stellar; there are bulges in the bottom plastic sheet. I suggest not carrying it around too much as the cord connector seems a tad
flimsy; at 15 bucks a pop however, you can easily obtain a second one (I use one at home and one at work).
Approximate Dimensions:
Keys: 84
Weight: under 8 ounces
Height (with keys): 1.25", 25mm
Width: 6", 145mm
Breadth: 13", 295mm