I was looking for a <75% keyboard with "real" keys (I'm a programmer). I completely missed the fact that this layout combines the ESC and `~ keys into one (with Fn and Fn + Shift being used to select the non-Esc characters). That is a gotcha for programmers and people using sticky keys on an International US keyboard to type accents like è and ñ (I work in English and French and prefer that input method).
The manual for the product tells you all the keyboard shortcuts to change the RGB LED animation patterns (which are not useful, but I guess a reason people buy this product?). Anyway, I had to spend an hour Googling and playing with Microsoft PowerToys to re-configure the Esc key so that I now type Fn + Esc for Esc. The reconfig is not obvious.
I guess it's marketed mostly as a gaming keyboard, which is not of any interest to me (it was the price point and the keyboard size that were most important to me).
Typing this review is a huge pleasure on the Periboard-428 compared to the cheap keyboard I have used for so many years and whose Ctrl key was sluggish. It will take me some time to get used to the Alt, Win and arrow keys (del, ins, pgup, and pgdn are also unusually placed), but that's acceptable especially for the compactness.
| Brand | Perixx |
|---|---|
| Series | PERIBOARD-428 US |
| Item model number | 11543 |
| Hardware Platform | PC |
| Operating System | Windows |
| Product Dimensions | 31 x 11.1 x 2.3 cm; 420 Grams |
| Item dimensions L x W x H | 31 x 11.1 x 2.3 Centimetres |
| Colour | Black |
| Batteries | 1 Lithium Ion batteries required. |
