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Hiper Clavier Keyboard


Date
: 08/30/05 – 01:14:18 AM

Author
:

Category
: Misc

Page 1 : Index

Manufacturer
: Hiper High Performance Enterprise PLC

Price
: MSRP $35USD

Hiper is a company with Head Office located in the United Kingdom and its Product Management Centre in China. The company information on their website does not indicate how long they have been in business, but checking on the WayBackMachine I found listings back to 2002, though the links were inactive. What the About Us section of the website does tell us is that the company philosophy is V.I.P., which stands for Vigorous, Innovative, and Proactive. This is the first of two products I will be reviewing from Hiper. Today Ill be looking at (and typing this review with) their aluminum keyboard.

Page 2 : Packaging

The keyboard comes safely enclosed in a plastic display tray which is housed in a cardboard sleeve. Although the package clearly states that it is USB / PS2 compatible, it comes with only the USB connector; no PS2 adaptor is included.

The back of the box displays the key layout and proudly highlights the two "One Click" e-mail and web buttons.

Page 3 : Physical Description

Before we begin with the physical description, here's a quick look at the features and specifications from Hiper.

The keyboard is a slim, laptop-like design. At its thickest the keyboard measures 1.8cm thick, with the feet extended it measures just short of 3cm.

At least with my sample, that thinness comes with a price. Without the feet extended, there is a slight bow in the keyboard that allows the keyboard to rock back and forth from the lower left to the upper right.

The rigidly of the keyboard didnt allow me to flex the keyboard flat again. Though the bow was slight, I did find the effect of the rocking somewhat distracting. I ended up just using the retractable feet. Im sure this could be fixed very easily by adding two additional rubber bumpers to the top edge of the underside of the keyboard to compliment the two that rest towards the bottom edge.

The aluminum is simply a thin layer that covers the plastic that surrounds the actual key areas. Although it is called an aluminum keyboard, it is in fact largely plastic. The keys are silver coloured plastic, but they do appear to have a quality finish.

Popping off a key revealed a large key housing and standard, non-mechanical rubber nipple key return.

One of the more unique features is the purple (Id say violet) LEDs that indicate the Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock function.

This colour choice is no doubt due to the colour of the Hiper logo. Along the top of the keyboard are eight multimedia function keys that work directly out of the box, no special drivers are required. They include a WWW and mail button as well as collection of audio playback buttons. Due to the compact design, the arrow buttons are nestled in amongst a narrower than usual Shift button and extend directly into the number pad, as a result, Id say FPS players need not apply. There simply is not enough room to accurately maneuver.

Then again, for someone with smaller fingers, perhaps the tight cluster of keys might actually prove useful in games where multiple keys could benefit from a tight mapping arrangement. All-in-all, the keyboard is neat, compact, and attractive.

Page 4 : Operation

Although the arrangement of keys forces some of the commonly used function keys to move to uncommon or unfamiliar places, none of the placements seem so out of character to be something that you couldnt get used to. I do find that having the Insert and Delete keys above the backspace key is a stretch though. The most important keys, being the letter and number keys, have a pretty standard 12mm striking surface.

As I mentioned above, all the keyboard functions work straight away, no drivers or setup required. The music playback keys work as they should and include Stop, Play, Pause, Forward, Back, as well as Volume Up and Volume Down.

The low travel keys are quite responsive and typing reveals a minimal amount of noise, no plastic-y clicking or squeaking. Once I felt a bit more comfortable with the spacing and location of the non-alphanumeric keys, I found I could type just as quickly as I do with my standard keyboard.

Page 5 : Conclusion

How much is there really to say about a keyboard? The Hiper keyboard breaks no new design ground like a split-keyboard design, or adds any esoteric functions keys or controls. What the Hiper keyboard does do though is offer a compact layout with a comfortable, responsive feel and a pretty slick looking design that would match well with any aluminum case, but especially compliment a desktop SSF aluminum chassis with a silver LCD.

Advantages

• Slick design
• Matches aluminum cases well
• Comfortable, quiet, low-travel keys

  Disadvantages

• slight bow in the keyboard causes rocking
• keys not aluminum

  Overclockers Online would like to thank Hiper Group for making this review possible.