United Keys OLED Display Keyboard and Keypad hands-on

Well, any doubts of legitimacy have certainly been quelled: United Keys rushed us over an OLED keyboard and keypad today, and they're certainly the real deal. We're naturally utterly un-blown-away by the product -- you get what you pay for -- but it's still a relatively unique and interesting product, and wears the mantle of "the poor man's Optimus" quite well. Read on for our full impressions.

Gallery: United Keys OLED Display Keyboard and Keypad hands-on

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Set-up and software

Unwrapping them couldn't be simpler, since there's no pesky installation disks or anything to get in the way. The keyboard (and keypad, they're identical in operation) installs its own software over USB, and if that doesn't work -- like it didn't on our slightly-dated prototype -- it's no problem to grab the software from the United Keys website. That brings us to our first and largest complaint about these things: no Mac support. United Keys promises Mac and Linux software by the second half of 2009, but it would've obviously been nice to have it out of the gate.

On the PC side of things there are some rough edges, and a showstopper bug that we were promised will be ironed out before launch, but the software has pretty deep functionality, with "nested" command trees and application / activity-specific key sets -- this is certainly more than nine pretty shortcut keys.

Hardware

Or not so pretty. The 64 x 64 monochrome keys harbor default icons that look like they were ripped from an early 90s HyperCard stack -- which is actually pretty great, if you ask us -- but once we configured the grid with a few of our own bitmaps, the limitations of the displays really became evident. Still, it's OLED, so they're bright, viewable from all angles and always ready to party. The key action is pretty horrible, feeling mushy and difficult all at once, but it's not going to ruin our day or anything. More inexcusable is the cheap QWERTY keyboard next to the keypad -- if you're even moderately content with your current keyboard, we say keep it and spring for the United Keys Keypad alone, there's no need to put yourself through the pain of a full keyboard of mush.

Wrap-up

Overall, we're pretty much completely and utterly unsurprised by what United Keys has for itself here. The design is unimpressive, the software is slightly undercooked, and monochrome keys could never begin to look as impressive as color ones. On the other hand, everything works as promised, and it's hard to complain about the price. Still, we're more looking forward to the future of the product than its current incarnation: United Keys CEO Ronald Brown says that the software will be improved on an ongoing basis, and that they'll even consider open sourcing that effort if they feel like the demand is there (hint, hint). As for folks who simply cannot handle the monochrome, United Keys is naturally looking into color, with the main limitation being price, since they hope to launch a color product at a similar or slightly higher pricepoint to this one.

[Wes Steele @ Dec 12th 2008 7:00PM]

"full keyboard mush"

I don't know why, but that made me laugh.

[Brent @ Dec 12th 2008 8:45PM]

What made me laugh is that the finance arrow is going the wrong way!

[birthday is 1990 @ Dec 13th 2008 12:14AM]

@Brent
Congrats on your first comment!
Did you sign up solely to make that awesome joke? (No sarcasm spazm)

[Jason @ Dec 12th 2008 7:02PM]

Oh HELL YEAH! This is WAY better than touch screen!!! Oh wait..

[Flashpoint @ Dec 12th 2008 7:57PM]

...only if I can put in a special button... PORN O{B-

[Boards of Canada @ Dec 12th 2008 7:06PM]

im sure it usefull but 200$ is way too much. 49.99 more like it. I mean you got half a playstation 3 for that price... I wish Logitech make one with cheap technology for that magic price of 49.99... I will totally buy it if you can change shortkeys for different application.

Saturday Lo-fi

[Shaun @ Dec 12th 2008 8:07PM]

you say this thing is expensive, look at the optimus keyboard.

[Mile @ Dec 12th 2008 8:54PM]

What would I do with half a playstation? I say this now and stand by it later: Sell half a PS2 on ebay for this price and I for one will not be bidding.

[lanejasper69 @ Dec 13th 2008 4:03PM]

WAY cheaper than Optimus shit....ok, it's not shit per-say, but the price makes it very unattractive.....this isn't TOO bad, but cheaper would be nice, I could see 99.99 possibly.

[Keirmeister @ Dec 12th 2008 7:09PM]

I visited RCS Computer Experience in NYC a week or so ago and saw the Art Lebedev Optimus Kiosk.

Okay, the Optimus is an interesting keyboard, but in person, it looks like it was made by a rich guy in his basement. It doesn't really have a stylistic design.

But that's me, I guess.

The real killer of the Optimus? IT FEELS LIKE UTTER SH*T! Imagine those old, clunky IBM keyboards with the tight, clackity keys. The Optimus has an EVEN HARDER button press. I swear you'll have to lift weights in order to be able to press a bloody key! I was completely flabbergasted with how bad the typing experience was. I dunno, but for a $1000+ keyboard, I expected the tactile experience to be like silk.

[ac14 @ Dec 12th 2008 7:22PM]

I dont know, i thoguht the killer of Optimus was Megatron, or was that the other way around.

[J @ Dec 12th 2008 7:44PM]

I prefer a little spring in my keys. For instance, I returned the Razer gaming keyboard to Best Buy because in my brief testing, the keys were incredibly soft, leading to difficulty getting accurate key presses. This is probably what the above review refers to as full keyboard mush. I ended up getting a (much cheaper) keyboard from Microsoft. I think it's in internet keyboard or something, it has some various multifunction buttons on top. But the keys are stiff and responsive. Most people prefer that, I think.

[J. Shirley @ Dec 12th 2008 11:08PM]

You realize that people -love- those old IBM keyboards. The Model-Ms have a cult following that would make Rick Astley and Bruce Campbell green with envy.

Having said that, I don't understand the fascination one bit. Give me a Kinesis Contour and call me a happy hacker.

(yes, pun intended; happy hacker is a keyboard from Japan that has relatively similar key springiness to the IBM Model M keyboard)

[Enduro @ Dec 13th 2008 1:41PM]

When I worked at a data entry farm we would all fight for the clicky IBM keyboards. If you were late for your shift you got stuck with mush.

I saw one in a resale shop when I was traveling and still kick myself for not picking it up.

[Jerk Face [GT:xJERKFACEx] @ Dec 15th 2008 10:13AM]

I think half the reason I love the Engadget comments section is that even though I am a huge nerd, I get to discover levels of dork-dom that I never knew existed. I truly don't mean this as an insult. To learn there is a cult following of an old ass, incredibly specific freaking keyboard is a delight.

[Stereotype @ Dec 12th 2008 7:24PM]

Sometimes I wished I was you guys just so I get a ton of free tech junk...

[BlurMagic @ Dec 12th 2008 7:38PM]

God Im so glad this got invented. I was getting so sick and tired of actually having to type in the address to websites... Now i can just press one button instead of typing ten. Who needs to be able to type 70wpm when you just have to press one button to get engadget.com? Lazy fucks.

[page87 and counting @ Dec 12th 2008 8:44PM]

What's next, a big list of "favorites"?

[Jason @ Dec 12th 2008 9:52PM]

A second keyboard to tuck in a drawer for those *special favorites*.

[BlurMagic @ Dec 12th 2008 10:09PM]

I really hope you two understand that I was being sarcastic and I really think this keyboard is a waste of money.

[Jason @ Dec 12th 2008 10:21PM]

Umm, duh but you just broke the illusion. Way to kill the magic, blrr!

[daveofferson @ Dec 12th 2008 7:42PM]

Nice HyperCard reference!

[Chase @ Dec 12th 2008 7:51PM]

someone wants to be an optimus

[absurdio @ Dec 13th 2008 3:21PM]

iKurt is responsible for all the world's junk email.

[Cy Starkman @ Dec 12th 2008 7:59PM]

I find it refreshing that the reviewer is so brutally honest. It's cheap crap regardless of it's mega tech. This stuff has been a long time coming. My tech team was visioning this stuff 15 years ago.

I have found all the "changing" keyboard's to date underwhelming. I reckon wait till Logi, MS and Apple have a stab at it. MS will be too complicated and crash. Apple will be amazing and miss some basic function cause Steveo never used it. What will Logi do....

[Leo @ Dec 12th 2008 8:34PM]

Btw, MS makes really nice and reliable *hardware*.

[Abuzar Baloach @ Dec 12th 2008 9:24PM]

Unless it's the Xbox 360.

The original Xbox was amazingly solid though.

[Jason @ Dec 12th 2008 9:53PM]

MS reliable? Depends on what their focus is this quarter.

[TDubbed @ Dec 12th 2008 8:44PM]

Looks stupid.. wait a sec! I can bind my WOW macros to it! :D

[adam.plante @ Dec 13th 2008 1:08AM]

Just what I was thinking. I could even put the icon I set to my macro on it. It would be cooler if it was hi-res but I wouldn't complain if I got that for Christmas.

[Ross @ Dec 12th 2008 10:39PM]

Wow, that would actually be pretty cool if it was wireless (with an AC adapter or batteries, don't matter), it could be plugged into a computer connected to a TV/Large monitor and you could be checking your decreasing finances at the touch of an OLED button. But you would probably need a mouse... ah well, your friends would be impressed.

[Pretol @ Dec 12th 2008 10:58PM]

You can already put links on the desktop, in the quick-start, in the start-up. You can assign function to shortcuts. Programs have "last used", "favourites", etc. categories.

Why have another piece of hardware with the same personality?

I personally don't get it... Looks like another gadget for which you won't be able to find drivers when the next version of your OS comes out...

[phytonix @ Dec 13th 2008 12:09AM]

fugly. look at those horrible wires

[Daniel Massicotte @ Dec 13th 2008 12:46AM]

Why did they bother? Couldn't a bit of testing have revealed that something like this isn't worth the $1200?

[TheMan888 @ Dec 13th 2008 4:06PM]

It's not $1,200.

[Code.Red @ Dec 13th 2008 1:58AM]

So, why are the OLEDs an ugly green-yellow color? Something blue, white, or pretty much anything other than that color would look a lot better. Hell, they have some blue lighting on the sides of the thing, why didn't they use that?

[TheMan888 @ Dec 13th 2008 4:00PM]

Yellow OLEDs have the longed rated life, 40,000 hours. Blue only has about 20,000 hours.

[Code.Red @ Dec 13th 2008 4:18PM]

Oh, thanks for clearing that up. I support their decision to use yellow, then.

[urandom @ Dec 13th 2008 4:34AM]

"they were ripped from an early 90s HyperCard stack"

yeah, if anyone had any doubt before, now it's definitely certain that engadget is pretty much an apple fan site

[loop @ Dec 13th 2008 4:53AM]

can i haz crysis splitscreen on this keezboard desplay?

[Thats What He Said @ Dec 13th 2008 8:21AM]

dont be stupid

[Adam @ Dec 13th 2008 8:37AM]

I think OLED keyboards are just the start. Just wait, I'm sure the next gen gaming consoles (probably sony whenever ps4 starts being talked about) will have OLED controllers. Quote me on this, whenever it happens you can come back to engadget and say, hey that crazy guy was right. On keyboards it has no market to sell them to except gamers and businesses who have multilingual employees. Since the average gamer won't spend 200+ on a keyboard I believe that a console controller with buttons that actually show a RELOAD button, a JUMP emblem etc will be the next concept this idea will be ported to.

[morcheeba @ Dec 13th 2008 2:59PM]

I was kindof sad that the VMU with the sega dreamcast didn't catch on more. That was an LCD in the controller, but not for labelling buttons - it told you secret stuff you didn't want the other player to see (like which pitch you were going to throw)

[The_Steven @ Dec 13th 2008 8:54AM]

If you don't want it, send it to me.

[absinthe party @ Dec 13th 2008 12:44PM]

Can the keys properly display boobs? That'll be the deal breaker.

[Patriks7 @ Dec 13th 2008 4:38PM]

"the software is slightly undercooked"
Cause it doesn't support OS X?

[aris @ Dec 13th 2008 8:29PM]

I guess because it is ... undercooked.

[TheMan888 @ Dec 15th 2008 5:08AM]

Only works on MS XP & Vista, 32 bit with .NET 2.0. Also, not written by MS, Logitech or other major OEM player. It's hard to write MS supported code as an outsider.

[Heineken77 @ Dec 13th 2008 9:26PM]

oled makes my penis hard

[Salsa Shark @ Dec 14th 2008 12:31AM]

I like the idea of the nested command trees. Do any other programmable-key keyboards have that capability?