Verbatim Tune Board
Overall rating:
You should consider buying it; some minor issues
A Quick review by Eddy Nivens
Submitted: 5/12/2009
OSs Supported - Requires OS 10.4 “Tiger” or higher.
Additional information and technical specs
Available for purchase at various online retailers, including amazon.com
Currently selling for $55-80 at a variety of online retailers.
The Charlotte Apple Computer Club was asked by Verbatim to test a recently-introduced Macintosh-specific keyboard called the Tune Board. I must say that my initial impression was that it was an exceptionally well thought-out and well-built product. In fact, the fit and finish of the Verbatim keyboard rivals the fit and finish of Apple’s products. After several weeks of using it as my primary keyboard, I still feel that way with exception of one aspect of the keyboard. More on that later though.
Upon taking the keyboard out of its box, it instantly reminded me of Apple’s original Extended Keyboard. It’s very large, is heavy, is built like a tank and will require a lot of real estate on your desktop. Interestingly, the typing feel or tactile feedback reminded me of yet another Apple keyboard – the Apple Design Keyboard – which quite frankly, I personally found somewhat mushy but a good, all-around keyboard. In other words, the Tune Board is as large and heavy as the original Extended Keyboard, has the tactile feedback of the Apple Design Keyboard, and absolutely dwarfs the full-size, corded aluminum keyboard that ships with Macs today.
As for the specifics, the Verbatim Tune Board Keyboard for Macintosh is a full-size keyboard with a 70" (~178cm) USB cord. At the base of the cord, where it goes into the keyboard, there are two 1/8" jacks, one for headphones and one for a microphone. Like any full-size keyboards, it has all of your standard alphanumeric keys as well as F1-F15 function keys, a number pad, inverted-T arrow keys, as well as the Delete, Home, End, and Page Up and Page Down keys.
The Tune Board has several compelling features that set it apart from the competition. For example, it has built-in dual speakers with a bass boosting button. Since this is a corded keyboard, there’s no need to install any drivers. Everything works out of the box as you would expect with any Mac-related product. In order to enable the integrated dual speakers, one would simply to go into the Sound control panel in the Mac’s System Preferences and choose to have the Output be the keyboard’s speakers. How do the speakers sound? Well, without the bass boost, the speakers sound very good given their size but a tad on the tinny side. The tinniness completely disappears once the bass boosting button has been pressed and the user is rewarded with rich, full sound. The keyboard also has four more keys that are typically found on Apple’s own keyboards: the Previous Track, Play/Pause, Next Track, and Eject key to eject optical media (i.e. DVDs and CDs). Near the bass boosting button, there are four separate buttons: one to mute the sound, one to decrease the volume, one to increase the volume, and one to turn on a welcomed feature in non-laptop keyboards: backlit keys! Once the backlit button has been depressed, an easy-on-the-eyes blue light illuminates the outline of each key as well as through the letter printed on the key itself. This feature allows non-touch typists to easily find the letters they’re searching for easy in low-light or no-light conditions. Some may find the choice of blue illumination to be a curious one as red or green are better to preserve one’s night vision but I liked the blue as it seemed to complement the lighting of other electronic equipment I had nearby. Again, the blue illumination was easy on the eyes and provided a nice contrast with the black keys.
As I mentioned earlier, since it was a corded keyboard, everything worked as it should without requiring installation of any specific keyboard drivers. There was only one aspect that I did not like about this keyboard. For me, it was its Achilles’ Heel: the lack of any USB ports on the keyboard. In other words, you cannot plug an external mouse or other USB device (i.e. trackball, pen drive, digital media card reader, etc.) into the keyboard as you can with Apple’s corded keyboard. You’ll be forced to use two of your Mac’s USB ports in order to use this keyboard: one for the keyboard itself and one for a USB external mouse. Even if the lack of USB ports on your Mac isn’t an issue, you’ll probably have to use a USB extension cord in order to use Apple’s Mighty Mouse (if, for example, you have a Mac tower placed on the floor) as it only has a 20" (51cm) USB cord. I find the lack of any USB ports to be a gross oversight on Verbatim’s part. Some may say this is a trifling detail, but remember that most Mac models either come with separate keyboards and mice (e.g. iMac and MacPro) or have a built-in keyboard (e.g. MacBook and MacBook Pro). The only Mac that does not come with a keyboard or mouse is the Mac Mini.
There needs to be a compelling reason for a Mac owner to want to buy this Verbatim keyboard. I would suggest that the great sounding speakers and the backlit keyboard are reason enough to buy this keyboard. However, I would suggest that Verbatim add several USB ports (there seems to be plenty of room on the backside of the keyboard near the cord) in order to make this an easy decision. Perhaps Verbatim could even include some digital media slots (e.g. CompactFlash, SecureDigital, MMC, etc.) on either side of the keyboard too? The combination of USB ports and digital media slots would make it a very easy decision for someone contemplating buying a new or replacement keyboard for their Mac.
In conclusion, for people who need/want a backlit keyboard with high-quality sounding speakers and would like one that has the tactile-feedback of a traditional keyboard as opposed to Apple’s new aluminum keyboard with its laptop-like feel, the Verbatim Tune Board is an excellent choice!
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