Can you spare a hand? Both my hands, even.

September 21, 2006 4:53 PM

Can you recommend a portable USB keyboard?

I'm getting a tiny notebook. I don't have tiny hands and don't want an RSI recurrence. So I'd like to find a portable USB keyboard that's pretty much like a good laptop keyboard: the alphanumeric keys are full-size; it has 86-ish keys so I don't have to chord for cursor keys, function keys, etc.; it should be rigid while in use, such that it can be used in my lap; it's comfortable, and as light and durable as possible consistent with all of the above.

The Happy Hacking keyboard and Stowaway XT are out due to too few keys. Roll-up keyboards are out 'cause they're not especially comfortable and not rigid. (Bluetooth keyboards are out 'cause I don't have Bluetooth, for one reason.)

Anyone know of anything?

I've seen this already as well as having done as much relevant AskMe searching as I could think of.

posted by Zed_Lopez to technology (5 comments total)

So... You want a full-sized keyboard that's portable.

You've kind of discounted the two best options, by far. Would either of those options plus a USB number pad be enough buttons?

This page has a fair selection of keyboards.

I'm getting a tiny notebook. I don't have tiny hands and don't want an RSI recurrence.

Sounds to me like you're getting the wrong thing from the start...
posted by krisjohn at 6:18 PM on September 21, 2006

Well, normally small and ergonomic are enemies. Still, I like my Adesso keyboard. It's small enough to fit on my knees, and slim enough that I can thumb-type on in.
posted by gmarceau at 8:05 PM on September 21, 2006

Unicomp Model M are really good. I'm using one with a USB-to-PS2 adapter on a Mac Mini right now, but I think they're available in USB flavors as well. Unicomp bought the Buckling Sprint technology (patent? process?) from IBM. Dans Data seems to have a thing for good keyboards, which is where I found pointers to the Unicomp.
posted by soundslikeobiwan at 8:19 PM on September 21, 2006

gmarceau, if you see this, would you mind measuring your Adesso from the left edge of the z-key to the right edge of the /-key and telling me how wide that is, please? My email's in my profile -- thanks. (I've been going nuts trying to guess key spacings of keyboards from their overall widths , which most specs list...)

You want a full-sized keyboard that's portable.

A keyboard with 19mm key spacing (at least for the alphanumeric keys) that's portable. There's no reason such a thing couldn't exist; it's just finding it (if it exists.) If it were easy to find, I wouldn't have needed to ask Metafilter...

I've got one of these but it has 16mm spacing. Something 19/16 as big as it would be pretty much perfect.

I scoured that Fentek page before posting... trouble is, they don't reveal the key spacing of most of them. Most of them look like they have small keys. The one that advertises full-size keys has full depth as well as width, and is 2" high.

Sounds to me like you're getting the wrong thing from the start...

Using a notebook with its attached keyboard is pretty much ergonomically awful even if the keyboard has full-size keys. I'm hoping that a laptop on the table with the keyboard on by lap will be acceptable. We'll see.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 11:26 AM on September 22, 2006

Someone emailed me asking what I finally did, so I thought I'd post my reply here:

I ended up trying a Precision PSK-3300U.

I'm not wild about it... Fn metakey in lower-left where my typing muscle memory expects Control. Thin in the front, but thick in the back, thicker than I'd like for portability. High-resistance keyswitches that require more force than any keyboard I've used in recent memory (not all that much more than, say, the keyboard I'm typing on now, but enough to feel like too much.)

But it was cheap, mostly fit my specs, and it's still better than typing on my ultralight's too-small keyboard.

If I were doing it over, I'd either take a shot at a different random cheap keyboard, or maybe go way in the other direction and get a Happy Hacking.
posted by Zed_Lopez at 8:19 PM on April 6, 2007