AmazonBasics Wired Keyboard

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I want to preface this by saying the 5 star rating is in comparison to other similar keyboards. This isnt a mechanical keyboard and it doesnt claim to be, so Im not comparing as such. I write for a living--some weeks I might pull 25,000 words depending on whats going on. After going through a number of cheap Logitech keyboards over the course of a couple years, I picked up a mechanical. Then, my mechanical was having some issues and I needed to replace it but it wasnt in the budget. I needed something cheap that would put up with regular use and figured I could toss in a bag if I was going somewhere and didnt want to use my laptop keyboard. Im glad I picked this one. It sees far more use than I ever intended and its held up like a champ. After a few months of regular use, the keys still have their lettering, theyre all still responsive and more importantly, Ive had zero problems with hand cramps or wrist pain. Unlike many basic budget keyboards, the key layout on this one is fairly untouched, while still making room for media controls. Theres not a ton of hotkeys, but the ones there are actually useful. I enjoy the feel of the keys. Theyre not mushy like a membrane keyboard but arent nearly as tactile as my favorite Cherry Blues. For the price, the typing experience is stellar. This isnt a quiet keyboard by any stretch, but its also a far cry from the clackety-clack of a mechanical. I can still pick up keystrokes when recording with my headset mic, but its a background noise and no intrusive on the audio side. One issue I could see if if youre not happy with the angle of the keyboard. Its not adjustable in any way, but fortunately for me, its a great fit for my normal typing angle. The grippy sections have no trouble keeping the keyboard firmly planted on my glasstop desk either.. Very happy with my purchase and will likely pick up a spare to have around just in case.

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Just received it a day or two ago. The form factor and key clicky-ness are fine for me. What Im having a lot of difficult with is the fact that some of the keys require much more effort depending on where you hit them. For most keys, if you hit them dead center, they are great, but if you manage to strike the outer ridge of a key, the effort level required is double or more. What this means is I end up with a lot of keys which are touched but not fuly depressed, causing typing errors. I bought this as a docking-replacement for my laptop keyboard, but the build quality of that keyboard is head and shoulders above this one. I bought this expecting a cheap, no frills keyboard, but didnt realize what a compromise Id be making. UPDATE A DAY LATER: I am updating this from 2 stars to 1. Its the same issue. There is something fundamentally cheap/flawed about how the keys are pressed. When you press dead center, you get a satisfying eas, but quiet click. When you press a corner, you are met with stiff resistance. The key size matters. Presing the Tab or Caps lock (which are 2-3x size) on an edge, you are met with ~10x resistance. Again, its a function of the fact that the keys must be depressed without tilting, and there is static friction keeping the key from torquing. So unless you are pressing form the middle, straight down, you get variable resistance. Ive tried with two laptops, which have chicklet keys (including my Lenovo Thinkpad, whose keys look very similar) and they dont suffer this same flaw. For me, this issue is a non-starer. I am a decent typist, but by no means pro-speed. I type in the 60-70 wpm range, and this causes me to miss keys. Its a difference Im not willing to compromise on. Ill be returning this.

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Pros: * works on Ubuntu Linux * Chiclet design so food doesnt get caught in the keyboard * no-frills style * tradition full design with proper placement of ins, del, home, end, pgup, pgdn, and arrow keys (useful for lazy programmers using VIM) * lightweight * basic volume up/down etc keys * prominent home row bumps that you can really feel * standard and appropriate natural finger width chiclet spacing (e.g. exactly the same as an Applet chiclet keyboard) * has long but skinny rubber feet ensuring this keyboard will remain put on any surface even with when used by people who pound the keys on their keyboard. Cons: * USB cord is about 1 meter / 3 feet which is a bit short * its a chicklet keyboard and not a beautiful mechanical one. You have to allow time to make the chiclet transition and it will never as nice as a keyboard that uses Cherry MX Black components. * it has an "el-cheapo" feel to it but you are expecting this because of the wonderful price point * glossy design so it smudges with fingerprints within 5 minutes of use. * Letter and numbers are adhesive plastic stickers which wear down over time * Some people may complain about the permanent angle. Its exactly 10mm in the front and 20mm in the back which is happy medium. For comparison, the Apple chiclet is roughly 5mm in the front and 15mm in the back so the angle is the same but rests flatter to your desk/tray. For me personally, its just fine. I havent put enough "miles" on this keyboard yet to know how quickly the keys will fail but so far its not bad and Ive been able to get around my console text editors and GUI text editors just fine. This keyboard is rated 5v at 100ma and I use it via a hub without issue.

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Ive been burned by keyboards in the past. I spend most of my day on my computer, so Im constantly pounding away on a keyboard. Ive bought $80 dollar products, Ive bought $40 dollar products, and you know what? They wear down equally fast. So I thought, if Im going to play replace the keyboard every 12 months no matter what, why not save some money? So I got this one. First impression after taking it out of the box: "Wow, shiny." Not used to a gloss finish on a keyboard, so it was a bit of a surprise. It looks nice, until it gets smudged up, then its just plain ol hard to clean. So thats a bit of a downside for this. First impression after starting to use it: "Wow, clicky-clacky." If you need a stealth keyboard, this is not it. This is the kind of keyboard they use to record typing sounds for TV and movies. It definitely says "someones typing!!!" with all three exclamation points. Now, to the finer details. How is it for actual typing for someone that can touch type at a decent wpm? Surprisingly good. Normally theres that transition time between using one keyboard that youre familiar with and a new one. With this keyboard, there was no transition time, even though I was going from a keyboard with deep keys with deep indentations, while the AmazonBasics keyboard has shallow, nearly flat keys. That tells me some thought went into the exact angle and spacing for these keys to be ideal for a standard keyboard layout. There is also some resistance from the keys. Not that you have to be Hercules to press them, but it gives a perfect amount of tactile feedback to know youve pressed a key and a perfect amount of resistance to keep accidental key presses to a minimum. Now, about that angle... its built in. Unlike most keyboards that come flat with those little feet at the top end that you can swing out (and hope not to accidentally knock off every time you pick the thing up to clean it or around it or under it), this keyboard has that angle built right in, with some nice rubber strips to help the keyboard from sliding off into the sunset while youre left looking like a cat is walking on your keyboard. So if you dont like a slight angle while you type... Id suggest you try this anyway, as its perfectly comfortable, whether youre using a wrist rest or not. (Sometimes I do, sometimes I dont). Cord length is a little short, I had to plug it into a USB hub to get it connected. Probably just the manufacturing process trying to save some pennies on manufacturing costs. If you dont have your computing unit nearby, Id suggest buying an extension cable if you dont have one, or plan on putting it into a hub if you have one of those instead. The little lights for those special keys (num lock, scroll lock, caps lock) are actually on the button themselves, which I think is a good touch. Theyre green, and not terribly bright so youre not illuminating your whole room like its a set thats been doused with ectoplasm in a Ghostbusters movie. Its also easier to tell you have it on because its right there instead of some arbitrary location. The hotkeys are not plentiful on this, nor are they customizable. You get function key (Fn) and your last track, stop, play/pause, next track buttons are the F9 through F12 keys used with the Fn. Next to it is a single-press media player key, then a key that will pull up your File Explorer (for Windows). Then, in lieu of those arbitrarily placed LED lights, you get mute, volume down, volume up, and calculator hotkey above the number pad. I personally LOVE having that calculator hotkey there because I find myself needing to do some quick calculations and that saves me some time. In the end, I think this keyboard will do nicely. My hope is that it will last the usual 12 months of abuse that I give keyboards. Id definitely say its worth a shot if youre looking for a low-cost alternative to all those fancy ones out there. Its basic (but hey, thats the brand identity, right?), but it most certainly gets the job done. Note to the AmazonBasics designers: next version of this, for the love of all thats 8-bit, lose the glossy finish!

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Amazon Basics is starting to be a brand that I like the more I use. I needed an inexpensive keyboard to attach to my laptop to improve my overall desk set up on a budget and the keyboard did just that and surprised me. Pros: Key travel is great. All are very responsive and feel great when typing. At this price youre not looking for a mechanical keyboard, but this is much more comfortable to type at high volumes than my laptop (Acer V5). Awesome dedicated buttons - Calculator on the top right, MyComputer button in the middle, music player button, and dedicated volume buttons are all included as single-press actions. I have all of these features on my laptop, but I have to press a function key and this really makes my life easier! F + J + 9 (D Pad) keys have a pretty solid bump for getting right to work without having to look at the keyboard. Number lock + Caps Lock do have green lights to indicate when theyre on. Backspace and shift keys seem to work well and Im not worried about how well theyll hold up over time. SHIFT and ENTER seem small but they work just fine without slowing down typing speed or accuracy. D PAD size is great number pad is great and playing around with the calculator didnt slow me down at all. Cord is pretty long so you shoudlnt have an issue keeping it connected to whatever you need. Cons: Upon further examination, the space bar seems and sounds a bit shaky. Im worried about how well itll hold up over time. Then again, Ive had other keyboards/laptops with similar issues. Being such a cheap laptop Im not expecting it to last forever I just wonder if thats going to be the first thing that goes. I wish it was a bit wider of a keyboard. It feels like a normal size I just feel ever so slightly cramped for a dedicated keyboard. The high gloss finish of the body shows dust and smudges, I wish it was more of a matte finish like the keys. The rubber "feet" are not very grippy I had to put a pad under my keyboard (check photos) to make sure it didnt slide around while typing (that may just be me typing too hard). The "feet" are a solid bar on the back so if you like to prop your keyboard up further (you shouldnt its bad for you), then thatll be a con as well. Overall: Great value. Exactly what I needed. Great price.

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Just received the new keyboard and have not used it yet. I was disappointed to learn that it lays too flat. Normally I wouldn’t care and if the legs were too short I’d replace them with a disassembled binder clip (shown in photo). However there are no legs at all, just a lip. Very disappointed as this makes me uncomfortable when it lays too flat. P.S. the photo showing the height difference is a keyboard without my custom binder clip fix. That keyboard still has its factory legs. I was just showing the height difference between the Original and the Amazon Basics board.

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Its a good keyboard for the price, but all the F keys are in a single uninterrupted row, which makes it hard to find the right one to press. I press F5 all the time because Im a web programmer, I press F11 all the time because thats the best way to toggle full screen mode in Netflix and Amazon Prime, I press F6 and F7 all the time in PhpStorm, and its frustrating trying to press the right key when you have to actually read what is written on the key to know if youre pressing the right one. Lack of this spacing also interferes with easily finding the right number keys to press, since you cant use the spacing on the row above as a visual clue. Instead of giving us some useful spacing that I loved in my past keyboards, they added two buttons that should obviously have been done in combination with the function key like the other 4 controls that appear on F9 through F12. Bad design decision ruins an otherwise great keyboard; now its merely good. Update: The $13 Microsoft keyboard is better.

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So far so good. I have only had problems a couple times with the period (.), but nothing major. It all works just fine. Yes, the keys are thin and all that stuff, but they are definitely as loud as an old and big-keyed HP keyboard. Nothing that bothers me really. The keys do have some sort of "cheap" feel, but I am not gonna lie to you guys...the truth is: this keyboard is cheap!! I paid $10.49!! Besides that, it is a good, solid construction. The angle is fine, nothing too crazy, just as good as a laptop. There is no way I can see this thing bending down at the middle since there is support all the way through on the back, its not a flimsy foot on each side. All the magic buttons work without me doing anything btw: they calculator works, the volume keys work, the function keys work just fine, the My Computer shortcut works perfectly, the music player shortcut does as well... Cant beat this keyboard!

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Oky, I love this keybord. It hs mute, for when websites (which one cnnot find where the music is coming from) you cn just press the mute button. I lso love tht it is soft touch.... mostly... the eh or rther the first letter of the lphbet requires tht you POUND relly hrd, so tht defets the purpose when you re typing letter nd your pinky finger is crying out...

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For some reason, my computer (running the latest Win10 version) loses this keyboard. Without any apparent reason, the keyboard will just go dead and I have to unplug it from the computer and plug it back in again. Very annoying. I like the keys and the feel of the keyboard, it would be great if only it didnt disappear from my computers sight every now and again. Ive had the keyboard about 3 days and it has happened twice. If it keeps happening at this frequency, I will return it for a different keyboard. Ive plugged it into different USB ports. I never had this problem with the other 2 keyboards I had on this computer. Cant see at as being a problem with anything else but the keyboard.

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