Kensington Ci70 Wired Keyboard with USB Ports, Mini-USB Connector (K64396US)

by Kensington

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 19.5 x 9.8 x 1.8 inches ; 1 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0014J1P5K
• Item model number: K64396US
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: February 22, 2008

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

From the Manufacturer

The keyboard with connections.

The Kensington Ci70 Keyboard Black has two built-in USB ports and a mini-USB connector to help you sync your digital photos, videos and music. The sleek, low-profile design is thin and compact and fits into your life while also optimizing your space.

Feature and Benefits A built-in mini USB connector with cable allows easy downloads of content from your camera or mobile phone 35% smaller footprint and low-profile design saves desk space and reduces clutter Five keyboard hot keys for instant access to mail, media, search and more Media keys offer volume control, track control, play and pause Soft-touch keys offer a crisp, responsive touch for added comfort Sliding door offers a nice finished look

What’s Inside the Box

• Kensington Ci70 Keyboard and USB Ports
• Installation guide

Product Description

The keyboard with connections! The Kensington Ci70 Keyboard has two built-in USB 2.0 ports and a mini-USB connector to help you sync your digital photos, videos and music. The sleek, low-profile design fits into your life while also optimizing your space. Subtle upgrades make all the difference, including soft-touch keys that offer a crisp, responsive touch for added comfort, and a sliding door that offers a nice, finished look. PC and Mac Compatible. In Black.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Russ Walkowich MyMac.com Review, August 21, 2008

By 

Tim E Robertson "Publisher MyMac" (Battle Creek, Mi United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Kensington Ci70 Wired Keyboard with USB Ports, Mini-USB Connector (K64396US) (Electronics)

I'm a pretty fast typist but the one thing I kept hearing while I was typing at home was "Why are you typing so loudly?" Hey, it wasn't me, it was just the keyboard responding to my fingers flying over the keys. I've always, for the most part, used an Apple keyboard hooked up to my Macs. You know, the big, almost sounds like a typewriter, keyboards.

Now when I purchased and started to use my new MacBook in January, there were no longer any complaints of my banging the keyboard to death. Why, maybe because of the change in the keyboard style from the larger keys to the shorter, chicklet-like, keys on the MacBook. So when the chance came around to get a new Kensington Keyboard, with added USB ports, for my regular desktop Mac, I couldn't resist.

Kensington's new Ci70 keyboard (wired) provides the user with a smaller footprint than most of the other keyboards. The keyboard has been reduced in size by 35% and presents a lower and much more laptop-like keyboard for the user. The keyboard is very lightweight, comes only in black and typing is easy and enjoyable. One thing you have got to know from the start, Kensington decided that one model fits all, so the keyboard also has Window keys (or to a PC user, it has Mac keys) and it has also been tweaked to prevent any wasted space. If you take a look at the picture below, you'll get a good idea of what I'm talking about in regards to there not being an inch of wasted space.



Here's the other interesting point of Kensington's Ci70 keyboard... they've added USB ports to the keyboard. I know, even Apple has USB ports on their keyboards. But Kensington's keyboard, besides the two standard USB ports (one on top, one on the back) also has a mini-USB cable that hides on the top of the keyboard under a sliding cover that permits a digital camera user to hook up directly to the keyboard without having to go searching for their USB cable to hook up and download pictures. Kensington has put the cable right up on top for you to hook up, download, disconnect and then continue with whatever you were typing.

Under the same sliding cover, you will also find five control buttons that, from left to right, permit one to open up their CD/DVD drive, conduct a search of their Mac, open up the default email program, open up the default web browser, and finally, open up iTunes, or whatever your default music app is. Speaking of iTunes, Kensington also has five controls on the right side of the keyboard, right above the number pad, allowing you to start/pause your music app, move up and down your playlist and finally, raise or lower your volume.



As you can see above, the keyboard presents a very low profile. There are two small feet on the back of the keyboard to raise up the board, but it will no be well off the desk. However, I found it very easy to get used to and it did not present a problem at all.

Using the keyboard is great, it produces very little key noise. (scissor-key mechanism) Once you get used to the compressed keyboard, you'll really enjoy it. The one thing that threw me for a loop was the fact that there is no Caps Lock indicator. I thought maybe I had a bad keyboard so I checked. It seems the caps lock function was intentionally left out in the keyboard's design of a 35% smaller footprint. Once you get by that, unless you're typing in a password and you've inadvertently now gone into Upper case and you can't access what you need, it's okay and not a big deal. Hooking up a camera to the mini-USB cable is fast and simple, just be aware it's only five inches long so it will be close to your keyboard or on the top portion. I encountered no problems with syncing my iPod to my Mac. All in all, a great little keyboard.

So to review:
Pro: Easy to use, Mac/PC compatible, low profile, reduced size, provides 2 USB ports and one mini-USB cable. Looks good. Keyboard size: L 16.0" x W 7.0" x H 0.25"-1"
Cons: The only problem that I had with the keyboard was the lack of a Caps Lock indicator. (You'll adjust to it)

Warranty: Kensington 5-Year Warranty and free technical support.

Highly recommended!
My Mac rating: 4 out of 5

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars USB hub on the keyboard, September 17, 2008

By 

K. Anderson (Cupertino, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Kensington Ci70 Wired Keyboard with USB Ports, Mini-USB Connector (K64396US) (Electronics)

I bought this keyboard because of the USB hub built in. The keys are a little small for bigger fingers but otherwise the keyboard is nice and the USB ports are very handy for your thumbdrives or camera connections.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars exactly what i want out of a keyboard, but the USB connections are all useless., March 24, 2009

By 

zankapfel - See all my reviews

This review is from: Kensington Ci70 Wired Keyboard with USB Ports, Mini-USB Connector (K64396US) (Electronics)

My old, cheap backlit keyboard was wearing out, so I bought this keyboard for many reasons. It matches my laptop's keyboard layout perfectly so I don't have to adjust to it, it has multimedia buttons, and scissor-switch keys that are awesome to type on. I will miss the backlight and the caps lock indicator, as I'm not a touch-typist, but I can live without that. All in all, the keyboard is exactly what I wanted.

However, one of the biggest reasons I bought this keyboard was for the USB ports, but they are all completely useless. It might just be my particular keyboard, but everything I plug into it (plug-and-play hard drives, my bluetooth dongle, my phone, my camera) is either not recongnized, or has shoddy connections that just don't function properly. even my slimblade media mouse has an infuriatingly dodgy connection when it's connected to the keyboard. i've even downloaded the latest drivers from the Kensington site, and the connections are still bad. Now instead of having extra usb ports like I anticipated, I have one less because I have a mouse adapter that has to be plugged directly into the computer.

If I could fix the USB ports, this would be a 5-star review, but they just don't work.