Review of the Focus FK7200

In Short

Standard keyboard with clicky, tactile keys. Includes Windows95 keys, and has a built in trackball.

In Depth

Keys

The keys are in the standard 101 enhanced key layout. Notably, the backspace is large, as is the enter key. The backslash key is to the right of the right shift key. Three Windows 95 keys are included, one windows key on the left, and a windows key and a context key on the right. Altho the control and alt keys are a reasonable size on the left side, they are each the size of an alphanumeric key on the right, due to the space taken up by the Windows95 keys. The most notable deviation from the norm is the oversized spacebar, which is rounded on the bottom. The keys have one other unusual feature; the status LEDs (caps lock, etc.) are set in the keys that change their status. Most of these features are going to appeal and distress people based on their personal tastes, but I think everybody will decry the small alt and control keys. They are so small that I have yet to learn to find them constantly with my hands without looking..

Key feel

The keys are slightly tactile, but in the over all feel as tho they are attached to non collapsing springs. In another words, they lack the highly marked change of position between pressing of the key, and the end of the key travel that marks a highly tactile keyboard. On the other hand, while the keys may not be tactile, they are noisy. I have heard worse, but for the level of tactlessness there is no excuse for the amount of noise. Further contributing to the cheap feel of the keyboard, some of the keys (most notably the space bar) do not feel very well attached, and rattle very noticeably when slight sideways pressure is applied.

Pointing device

The high point of the FK7200, the built in trackball is well designed in may ways. It is located halfway into the oversized space bar, positioned so that your right, (or left, in some cases) thumb naturally rests on it. Nice and big, the trackball is high profile enough that you can rest your entire hand on it, and move it around, without dragging on the space bar overly much. On the other hand, you don't have as unimpeded access to the trackball as that needed to play a high energy game. You will not be playing quake with this keyboard (or at least I haven't managed it yet)!

The mouse buttons are located around the trackball, one each side, both extending in theory to the far edges of the space bar. In truth, pushing farther than a few centimeters away from the trackball does not offer enough leverage to toggle the button state. But when you do use the approved area, the buttons are quite easy to click. Clicking and dragging can be another story. Since each button is on the other side of the trackball, clicking and dragging envelopes both thumbs. If you are dual handed, fine, but for me, moving the trackball with my left thumb is quit difficult. A better design would have placed both buttons (or even better, three buttons) on both sides of the space bar, so that you could always use the same hand to manipulate the buttons, and always the other to move the ball.

Misc.

The keyboard comes with a detachable wrist rest (pictured above), which is great for me because I don't like such things and can discard it. For those of you that like wrist rests, a warning: the chunk of plastic only loosely attaches to the keyboard, and only stays put on a flat surface. With no solid support below the wrist rest will fall off.

One small, but really nice feature is the grove along the back of the keyboard, where you can tuck in the keyboard cable so that instead of coming out in the middle of the back it can exit either from the far right or left. Of course, without some tape to secure the cable in place it will fall out within a few hours.

While on the subject of cables, I must say the keyboard cable feels too short, especially since I have a tower case, which sits a few feet away from my desk. The mouse cable exits from the keyboard cable at the keyboard plug and is only about a foot long, so you may need to purchase a mouse cable extender if you already use a keyboard cable extender.

Closing

No, it is not perfect. There are many distressing problems, but in addition there are some really good design ideas that went into this keyboard. Given that it costs as little as $20 from the cheapest sources (+$10 shipping), I think anybody considering trying an integrated keyboard on cheap would be well advised to try one out. Be warned, however, that after a few months, you may be unwilling to give up the integrated style keyboard, but ready to junk the FK7200.