Customer Reviews

Verbatim 96668 Speaker Keyboard (Tune Board) for Windows, Black

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

PROS:
Speakers: Good.
Keyboard feel: Good
Keyboard Noise: Acceptable.
Jack: Headphone/External Speakers.

CONS:
USB ports: None
Backlighting: Poor.
Controls (Volume & On/Off Backlighting): Not illuminated.
Support: HORRIBLE.

Keyboard was defective upon receipt: Operation of volume controls worked intermittently. A representative in India could BARELY speak English. After 10 minutes of being unable to offer any technical support, was transferred to a supervisor who's English was somewhat better but also lacked technical skills. Being the only two representatives there, they offered to have someone return my call but declined their offer. (Returned to Amazon)

Lettering on keys is poor quality and would have a tendency to wear off over a short period of time. Backlit keys are dim. The screen on my 24" iMac provided more illumination upon the keys than did the backlighting. Also, the visibility of the backlit keys is very poor due their not being slanted. Prefer the feel and accuracy of slanting keyboards like those from Matias, which have laser etched keys. Matias will offer a backlit keyboard next year for the both the Mac and PC.

I bought this for several office workers who needed to listen to lectures and watch videos. It is not hifi and would not be good for music listening, but I had no desk room for separate speakers. As I look at the keyboards six months later, I can see the white keycap lettering starting to wear off- that's ok on a $10 keyboard but a $75 keyboard should not have planned obsolescence.

I bought this so I could eliminate speakers and their wiring across my desktop...
In so far as that goes, they work great. The sound is only OK, but I don't mind for my uses.
The keys are solid and the lighting effect is cool.
Note that there is NO hub on this keyboard.

Declutter your desktop with the verbatim Speaker keyboard. Soft blue backlighting add a really cool glow to entire keyboard and built in speakers sound pretty good considering their small size. (If you enjoy loud booming speakers and have a really nice external system, you can plug into the back of the keyboard audio jack and run em from there or keep em plugged into your computer jack.) It's a cool idea to have the speakers right in front of you though so that's why we bought this keyboard. Plus, we have more room on our desk without extra speakers taking up space.

I jsut got my tune board, and boy is it awsome the illumination is just right not to bright not to dull and the speakers blew me away, the speakers on the keybaord sound better then my computer speakers. I got this keyboard to replace and old illuminated keyboard that i previously owned for years,the illumination fizzled out, and the keys wouldnt respond anymore. the length is a bit compact about 19" inches long but im not complaining most keyboards today are becoming more and more compact. All in All this is a awsome keyoard, i read other reviews the good and the bad, but the good out weighed the bad, and some reviewers said the speakers on the keyboard are ok or not very good for listening to music, dont pay any attention, cause the speakers on this keybaord sound a heck alot better then my computer speakers, so if i was to recomend this keyboard i would say heck yeah, you will not be disapointed.

Update: there is one problem, but its not really an issue,with the keyboard i forgot to mention in my orignal review, the illumination, if the illumination is turned off after a few minutes the keyboard becomes unresponsive, so i just leave the illumination on all the time and there have been no problems, besides the blue illumination make the keyboard look really cool.

So to anyone who buys this keyboard, dont fret and if you dont mind leaving the illumination on all the time then do this, if you turn off the illunmination and it becomes unrespondsive shut down the computer, unplug the usb connector from the back of your computer tower after the computer is off re-insert the usb plug into any available usb port on the back of your computer tower and turn back on the computer let it do it's thing, then you will see in the upper right corner a 1 with a circle around it and an A with a circle around it and an arrow pointing down on a horizontal line they will blink 1 or 2 times, then you can turn the illumination back and your good to go

The verbatim keyboard is sleek and fun. It has a piano-black finish that is pretty. The color background behind the keys is really striking. It's like the dash of my Volkswagen Beetle. The keyboard ias also easy to install by plugging it into a USB port. The only downside is the quality of the speakers. The tone is tin-like. It's better than some stand-alone seakers but for long term listening to music, I find the speakers underwhelming.

Beyond what the other reviews said, i have to be entirley honest. For the speakers being as small as they are, they sound a heck of alot better then a laptop. they sound more like a pretty good pair of powred speakers. if your looking for something extreme, this in NOT you, however is you like music, and listen to it resonable, this is a good keyboard. Also, the large blue button in the middle, isint really a bass boost button, its more like "ridiculously loud" button. i have only had this product for a few days, and i can honestly say this is by far the best keyboard i have ever had. the keys are nice a soft, and very quiet, and the added bonus that there is a speaker and mic out on the back of the keyboard. i would recommend this product to anyone. as far as longevity for the product and the back light, we will have to see but i would not hesitate to buy another one of these keyboards. Great Product, and much better then logitech!