i-ROCKS RF-6520 Wireless Keyboard

I just got my latest shipment of goodies from newegg today; memory for a customer, memory for me, a seagate SATA drive for a USB enclosure, and my new wireless keyboard; the RF-6520 Slim Cordless 1.5 AREA Keyboard from i-ROCKS. First of all, this thing rocks!!! It's like typing on a laptop, without the laptop. The keys are almost identical to those on my Dell Latitude; same scissor function, subtle "clicky" feel, and that lazy bones easy access reach, that you don't get with a full size keyboard. The space bar is a little narrower and places the right alt key in a not so natural position - beneath the "m" and "," keys instead of the normal "," and "." location, but I can deal with that. The "PgUp", "PgDn", "Home", and "End" keys are on the arrow keys; accessed by pressing a blue "Fn" key, just like Dell...;-) The number pads are moved closer to the the qwerty keys and rearranged in a narrower, but entirely functional format. I honestly believe they took a regular Dell laptop keyboard, just put it in a case, and made it wireless - GREAT IDEA!!!!!! I have always wanted something like this and so far, I am quite satisfied.

Range:

Two different ranges are stated on the packaging; the most prominent being 15 feet in the generic retail description and 15 meters in the feature list and everywhere else on the box. The 15' range listed on newegg.com, along with the price, is what caught my attention. Once I got it up and running, which was pretty much "plug and play", I was able to use it consistently from the opposite corner of my house - about 50 feet ,give or take. Given the 2.4GHz wireless technology, I am sure it can go the specified 15 meters and then some - that's just all the further I chose to walk, because it's cold outside and I didn't see the need to benchmark a keyboard I intend to use 10 feet away on my couch. The word "feet" in the description was obviously a typo, nuff said.

Battery Life and Responsiveness:

Since I received it today (2/19/2010), I expect it will be a while before I can really comment on power consumption. My unit came with 2 AAA batteries, that at the time of this writing, have been in use for 6 hours and running fine. The keyboard has 4 LEDs in the top right corner to indicate; "NumLock", "Caps Lock", "Power", and "Low Battery" [Update - 4/6/2010 - the "low battery" light came on tonight, but still working just fine!]. It has an Auto-Power-Off feature that I will time when I get a chance, "just can't stop playing with this thing!!!!" When returning from an off-state, the unit responds the same as a wired keyboard, with no noticeable hesitation or dropping of initial key strokes. When I first started using it, I instinctually treated it as I would any normal wireless peripheral, "tap" or "click it" to life before using - I quickly found that this was not necessary, as it it springs immediately to life and the first key stroke appears instantly on the computer screen.

[Update - 5/2/2010 - the "low battery" light has been "DIM" for a few days now, and tonight the keyboard finally started acting sketchy (dropping characters, prolly just a drop in range), so... NOT BAD, for out of the box battery life, under daily use (taking 6 online courses at a local college). Summary: After 46 days of use, the "low battery" light came on, 26 days later, the battery life was obviously spent, and time to change the batteries. Very impressive for generic "batteries included" cells, as I will be using my "energizer rechargeables", which have an outstanding track record, for reliability. I noticed one disappointing quirk, "the low battery light stays on", even after auto-power off, once it is low enough to be activated. That about 625 hours, of continuous illumination, leaching power after the "low battery limit" is achieved. Not a huge drawback, but still plenty of time to remind myself to throw another set on the charger, and I'd rather change batteries, than take out the trash any day. So for a little over 2 months of initial battery life, in basically an over sized but quite useful remote control, it's not going to leave me complaining, by any means.]

[Update - 10/6/2010 - After the included batteries expired, I tried various other brands to see what usage would be like. The results were not good, as I was replacing them quite frequently. Well, today I put in a fresh pair of Duracell AAA, and we'll see how long these last. One thing I did notice about the battery life, is that one cell was severely more depleted than the other. Not just a little either - I mean 0.19 volts in one, and 1.4 volts in the other. I'm not sure if it was a good idea, but I was replacing only the cashed cell, and leaving the other in with the new cell. Hopefully Duracell fairs better than the rest, as I really hate it when something stops working, right in the middle of typing. This is the only USB keyboard I have, so I have to shutdown and restart, to use a corded one... oh yeah, my PC locks up, if I have 2 keyboards plugged in at once.]

Form Factor and Weight:

Like I mentioned my initial summary, it's like typing on a laptop, without the laptop; weighing in at a mere 11.9 ounces or 338 grams, this thing is a dream to handle. I picked up my old Dell keyboard out of habit just now, while weighing the i-ROCKS on my postal scale and oh yeah, huge difference (I like the i-ROCKS a lot better). Dimensionally speaking, the i-ROCKS is super thin, but not thin enough to be flimsy; with a footprint of approximately 13 1/2" X 5 1/2" (344mm X 138mm), it leaves plenty of room for a dinner plate or textbook. It is also quite rigid, having just over a 1/4" of thickness at its thinnest point and 3/4" at the rear. It also boasts, some pretty stout looking, fold out feet to tip it a little less prone, a feature I that doubt I will use, as it will spend a majority of its life on my lap. Since I am on the subject of feet, it has 4 engineered rubber feet along the front edge to keep it from sliding around on a desktop. I say engineered, because they are not just cheap stick-on rubber feet; the are manufactured at an angle complimentary to the base and have non-skid cross-hatching in them as well. I tried to peel one off, just to see if it would budge... nope... they're permanent.

Price:

$24.99 before shipping; well worth the price paid, when compared to the cost of replacement laptop keyboard or a full-size wireless keyboard. Some may argue that it should come with a mouse as well; I disagree, as not everyone has the same taste in mice, nor is it really fair to package two related, but seldom equivalent peripherals. Typically, when I am primarily typing, I use my mouse (or track-ball), to scroll the page or to place the cursor, and little else. In a similar fashion, when I am primarily using my mouse (or track-ball), while browsing or manipulating any graphic content on the screen, my keyboard is only used to type in a few keys-strokes here and there at best (passwords, shortcuts, hot-keys, etc...) So in short, customizing your choice in each device, is not entirely out of the question (I'm still looking for a wireless replacement for my 10 year old Logitech Track-Ball), I may end up doing a hack with an optical wireless mouse.

Rating: - Why didn't I think of that?

I did, many times, but like anything else, if you want it bad enough, more than likely someone else does too - and it will appear on the market at some point in time. I think this is a great product and plan on buying a couple more, for the desktops in the house. [After 72 days and enough continuous daily use, to make the home keys shiny, I am still quite satisfied with my purchase, and will recommend this product to anyone, without hesitation.][12/1/2010 - It is now December, and I am still quite satisfied with the keyboard, with one minor quirk... I'm still not used to the location of the decimal key, plus, the number pad delete key (the one you can use with num-lock off) just happens to on that key as well, diagonal from the normal delete key. To be honest, the whole number pad arrangement, is still kind of awkward...  it's squished together into 3 columns, instead of 4, and the relocated keys are in a less than optimal arrangement. If I had one suggestion, I would re-map the number pad, with the numbers at the top, and the operator keys at the bottom. At least to get it in a more usable layout.

Update - 8/14/2014 - Still going strong after a little over 4 years. Both leveling feet have long since broken off (pfft! it's a couch keyboard - oh well...), most of the keys are all now shiny, and about the only thing I would ever change, is the location of the PgUp, PgDn, Home, and End keys. Pushing a Fn key, on the opposite of the keyboard, for these functions, all the while the arrow keys are duplicated and accessible via "NumLk" (just two keys away), is just plain annoying and piss poor design. When I go in search of a replacement for this unit, I will definitely put that at the top of my list of must haves - proper page key access. It would be much more convenient, to just switch back and forth on the number pad, with one hand, for the arrow keys, than using two hands, for two keys (PgUp and PgDn). 

12-20-2014 - Well, the keyboard died last night :-( Not sure what happened - it was shutting off, if it fell over, or got dropped, and I would have to take the batteries out, to turn it back on. Last night it just quit - the low battery light will come on, if the batteries are low, but that's about it... Using a Bluetooth KB for now, hoping I figure out what is wrong with the iRocks, because they don't make that style anymore - just the "chicklets" kind - and those SUCK!!!!! This BT KB isn't bad, but it's missing a real number pad and  just feels weird to use... ugh!