Microsoft Multimedia Keyboard

Apart from wireless sets, Microsoft also makes some wired keyboards. The multimedia keyboard is one such product, aimed at people who want a good quality keyboard with a few new features, but without the wireless ability.

Our sample was black in color, and of good build quality. The keys are very soft, and make very little noise, which might or might not be to your liking. There are also some extra keys like shortcuts to My Documents, My Pictures, My Music, mail, web/home, messenger etc. A whole set of keys is also dedicated for multimedia playback and has functions like play, pause, forward / rewind, and volume control. There are two unique features in this keyboard, which seem to be present on all new Microsoft keyboards. First, the F1-F12 keys are dual-purpose, and apart from the usual functions, also serve as shortcut keys for help, undo, redo, new, open, close etc. There is an ‘F Lock’ that toggles between these two states. By default the keyboard uses these new shortcuts, but can be annoying for those who prefer the ‘F’ key functionality. Also, the other big change is the new setting of the Home, End, Pgup, PgDown, Insert and Delete keys. Insert has been pushed up into a dual-function PrtScn key, and the rest of the keys have been shuffled up. The bottom line: this keyboard will take a little getting used to.

S N A P S H O T Price : Rs. 2,174 Key specs : Wireless, extra keys for additional functionality like shortcuts Contact : Microsoft India Tel : 91 11 6294600, 6292650 E-mail : mohita@microsoft.com

This is an excellent keyboard and we would recommend it. At Rs 1498 it is more expensive than other keyboards, but when you are tapping away for a few hours everyday a little price difference shouldn’t affect you too much.

Anuj Jain