Alienware TACTX Keyboard mini review

Thought I would post this here as I bought the keyboard to go with my M17x.

After using it for a few hours, I have to say that - for crappy rubber dome switches - typing is... strangely... excellent.
I know the switches shouldnt be, I know they dont feel as solid, rigid as mechanical switches... but there is something about them. I cant explain it.
Its just really nice to type on.

Now, I have read a few reviews about the TactX keyboard and it seemed like they were paid the hell off, and didnt mention any of the important stuff about the keyboard.

1: The keys
While excellent to type on, the keys arent actually that well secured into the housing. They wobble around a fair bit.
When you wobble the keys around, you expect them to be horrible to type on, but its the opposite.
Somehow, I think the wobble is in some way improving the typing experience - call me mad, but it needs to be felt to be believed.
Unlike keys that are improperly secured, the wobble in these do not effect the throw when you push down the key. It seems the bottom of the keys are designed in such a way to allow a bit of wobble when fully up, but as soon as you begin to push down it straightens up.

2: Spacing
Spacing is arguable the most important thing in a keyboard when it comes to accuracy.
One of the keys to having a highly accurate keyboard is the distance between the contact area of a key (the top part).
If your keys have small tops, but large bottoms and good spacing between the keys, it is far less likely that a user will experience typographical errors when blind typing.
Humans arent machines, so when we use our muscle memory to strike a key, our fingers strike a very close approximation of where we spacially think the keys are.
If your keys are close together, its possible for the user to inadvertantly push down more than one key at once - one of the most common typographical errors.

With the TactX keyboard (as well as its logitech derivatives) the spacing is, frankly, perfect for me. It has a 50%/100% space to contact area ratio, allowing a very large tolerance for possible typographical errors.
There is only one other keyboard I know of with simarlarly good spacing and that is the tarantula, one of the best keyboards I have ever used.

3: Key height/travel.
The key height is very very high. The base of the keyboard is already quite high, and the very long depth keys dont help it. It takes a bit of extra effort to type on this keyboard due to the height of some of the keys. With the footrest on the keyboard collapsed the keys are as high as 3cm's from the desk.
It is almost unavoidable to use the (very large) palmrest to alleviate this.
Others do prefer a longer keythrow, but personally I prefer it shorter for ergonomics reasons.

4: Backlighting.
Ill come clean - I bought this keyboard for the lighting effects. I wanted to match my keyboard to my laptop, which this keyboard seems quite happy to do.
Except for a few things.
The lighting, for a start, is very very dim. Noticeably dimmer than my m17x keyboard. I think this is in part due to the very opaque nature of the long keys, and the also very opaque rubber membrane used inside the keyboard.
The LED's seem to also be running at a lower brightness than necessary. I am aware of the razer lycosa keyboards having resistors in them to reduce the brightness of the LED's, so perhaps alienware/logitech are using something similar?
My GF would kill me should I open up this new keyboard so Im not willing to do so (my logitech illuminated keyboard suffered a bad fate due to me losing a few screws).
Additionally, all of the lighting has a slightly blue tinge for the more neutral colors. I loathe blue for lighting of computer peripherals... so thats a little annoying.

5: Materials.
The feel of the matte black paint on the keyboard chassis is lovely. Its very very nice, almost rubbery (but it isnt rubber).
The edging of the keyboard is a typical grainy black dell/logitech plastic - nothing special. They would have been better off doing something more exotic, like gloss black or even actual rubber.
The keycap material is a matte black paint - it has not been applied very accurately though, and the lettering on the keys is a little wobbly here and there. It almost looks like someone has hand written the lettering with a marker.
The feel of the keyboard is solid, and of quality - perhaps even more than logitech, the builders of the keyboard.

6: Projected durability.
I foresee the first thing of this keyboard to fail as being the lettering - it is only painted on so it will wear off even though it feels very durable. I used a screwdriver on one of the profile keys to see if i could scratch some off and it was quite difficult.
The next thing to fail will unfortunately be the plastic key chutes. Not much can be done about that im afraid.



Whenever I read a review I dont think its really fair to give a product a "score" out of an abject number. I believe in providing as much detail as possible and being as nitpicky as possible to find all the ins/outs and good/bad about a product and letting a user chose themselves whether its worth it or not.

Hopefully this answers the questions you wont find asked in a standard $_$ review.

-Ash

 

Very nice review, I was thinking of snapping up this keyboard myself! But it's a bit too expensive for me . +1

 

Thanks for the rep m8!

I just went into a local electronics store on my lunch break to check out a G19 again to see if it also has the same key wobble.

It indeed does - BUT - the key wobble on the G19 actually effects the key throw, impeding the movement of the keys quite badly in comparison to the Tactx. I gotta say, knowing the two are brothers the difference is astounding.

So, if you want to know how much wobble there is, its the same as the G19, but the key throw of the Tactx is infinitely smoother and better.

-Ash

 

Good review. Where are the pictures tho. A review MUST have pictures.

 

Thats why its a "mini review"

-Ash

 

thanks for the review, still thinking about it, planning on getting one if i dont get use to the keyboard on the m11x

 

Thanks for the review! I noticed that a lot of reviews fail to mention this though: is the keyboard lighting capability the same as the M17x? Does it have the 3 zone color and the advanced template to make it something like this: YouTube - Alienware M15x i7 Christmas Lighting

 

This kb is really just a Logitech G11 in alienguise. It's made by Logitech. You can save $50 and get a G15 if money is your concern.

 

Actually, the Alienware TactX keyboard is much better (in terms of durability, feel and lighting) than the G15 or the G19 for that matter. You can read all the reviews at: Alienware TactX Keyboard Reviews | 31 reviews | Buzzillions.com

 

Lighting, def. yes. Feeling? Not quite. It's been known that the tactx is a rebadged G11 for a while. They share the same membrane switch(boring, imo). I've had both.

 

Hi,

i am an owner of the TactX-Keyboard, too.
I changed from razer lycosa to this one because of the (already mentioned) color-matching to the rest of the alienware gear.

I have to say that switching from the very good razer-keyboard wasn't easy:
1)The typing with the TactX feels kind of dumb. I simply do not like these high key travels.

2)In addition i could not get the "windows-keys" (skip, pause, play,....) to work with winamp whicht is very bad.

3)And than the lighting of this keyboard..... Well its nice that the colors look pretty similar to the colors at the m17x BUT the brightness is so low. It looks like a cheap fake-alienware-keyboard when placed next to the notebook.

So after all i WOULD NOT buy this piece of hardwar again. The razer was much better to use. And even if i can now match the colors of the keyboard to the laptop, the colors are so dimm that the effect simply isn't worth a penny.

That is my opinion on the TactX-Keyboard. However i like the TactX-Mouse very much.

MfG

 

would anyone esle consider the keyboard on the dim side, was considering buying one, but now have second thoughts.

 

Well, I got my TactX Keyboard and it seems bright enough to me. A little dimmer than the M17x or M15x keyboard and only two zones of lighting but definitely serves its purpose as a gaming keyboard. It feels much better than the M15x keyboard (which I have) but lighting wise, the M15x keyboard wins with 3 zones of lighting. Still, it feels great and the lighted metallic Alien Head and lighted metallic button to disable the Windows key are just awesome. Fantastic color that will dazzle your eyes if paired with the M15x or M17x keyboards. Highly recommended for a lighting spectacle!

p/s: If you have enough of the lighting, just pull out one of the USB cables and it still functions as a normal keyboard! ^_^ Did I tell you that the Alien characters on the keys just make it so out-of-this-world? ^_^

 

Which Logitech mouse is the TactX modeled on? It looks very similar to my MX1100 heh.

 

Does the letters wear off after some usage?

 

My tactx keyboard showed up just as I was reading this

Question though, when I push the volume buttons on it nothing happens. The laptop doesnt mute, or change volume. Do these buttons only work with programs, or do they control the systems volume?