When news about and pictures of the Optimus Maximus keyboard first surfaced, I was excited beyond belief. A keyboard equipped with OLED keys which can display characters just the way I want them to look? I was sold.
Until I heard the price, that is—US$1,600. CNET agrees with me: they also don’t think the Optimus Maximus—no matter how novel or attractive it might look like—is just worth that enormous a price tag. The keyboard has 113 customizable tiles which, because they have protective plastic coverings over OLED displays, are quite bulky and not suitable for touch-typing. Responsiveness is also quite lousy, so don’t expect to be cranking out your usual hundred words minute. Let’s just hope that the LCD-based keys version of the product, the Optimus Popularis, would be a lot better and a lot cheaper than this.
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