Keyboards for PC’s are cool. They feature some amazing options, lights, displays, bells, whistles, ports, etc. The most popular keyboard for Mac is rather plain. While Apple’s Wireless Keyboard is stylish in some regards, it lacks most features of any other keyboard. More importantly, Apple’s keyboards are not fun to type on. Logitech tried to reverse that trend and brought the stylish, yet functional Logitech diNovo Edge™ to the Mac. In doing so, they upped the ante – a couple of times over.
Out of the Box:
Nothing too complicated here. Take protection off of charger, charge the keyboard. It took about thirty minutes and then we had a significant enough charge to play around for a couple of hours, but an overnight charge will allow the keyboard to charge fully. While charging, we installed Logitech’s Control Center on the Mac. Bluetooth was already turned on, but obviously there will be some difficulties if Bluetooth is not enabled.
Design:
It’d be challenging to find a keyboard that you can purchase in a store that looks better and since no stores are carrying the Optimux Maximus for a multitude of reasons, we feel pretty confident putting TheMacFeed stamp next to it. The keyboard looks amazing feature the piano gloss plastic that is on the Logitech Alto Connect Stand, matte black keys and buttons and a aluminum hand rest. While the keyboard does not feature backlighting the trackpad and volume buttons are lighted via orange lights. Pictures do not really do this justice, although it will not match your non-LED Cinema Display. We set the keyboard up with the notches back and find the curved aluminum strip perfectly placed and for our hands to rest. The largest gripe we had with Apple’s keyboards, particularly the white one was that typing with it was never comfortable because your hands good not rest, the diNovo Edge™ completely avoids such problem.
The Keyboard gets Reinvented:
We are large fans of the old school IBM click (almost punch) keyboards as opposed to the new keyboards from Cupertino. However, we really like the diNovo, which we would not describe as being of the click school. The box advertises longer key strokes, which it offers, but you can tell the keys are between the depth of a Apple notebook and the older style keyboards. However, you must press down about the same distance as an older keyboard, this creates a rather unique typing experience. The other features are somewhat standard: a load of Mac hotkeys and the other normal keyboard buttons. On the far left side there are some basic controls for iTunes: pause/play, backwards, forwards. But, then you move to the right side of the keyboard and you have to unique features: volume slider and trackpad. The volume slider is a large source of complaints amongst a lot of other reviews; however we disagree with this idea. The slider is touch sensitive, a simple bar, however it’s plastic and lights up where you move up, so it’s maybe a little bit stickier then your notebook’s trackpad. The obvious star of this keyboard is in the bottom right-hand corner. There is a small circular trackpad with the left/right buttons on the side. These buttons are a little awkward to press given their small size and the sort of effort it takes to press them down, which is much more then the rest that is required to press down. The trackpad is pretty small, so there was some tinkering it took to get it to get it to navigate around the 17? screen, let alone the 30? display. Obviously it’s not multitouch; but the basic double-tap works and much more effective then the buttons as described above. The one light of hope is the scrolling features. There are two buttons on the trackpad one literally at 0º (12:00) and one at 90º (3:00). Place your finger on the one at 0º, and you can scroll left/right; the one at 90º and you can scroll up/down. These scrolling features are one of our favorite parts of this keyboard and are obviously adjustable at the Logitech Control Center. Two additional controls are buttons labeled Power and Front Row and carry out the respective functions.
Why the diNovo Edge™?
The diNovo Edge™ is not the Optius Maximus, but it does include features that most keyboards do not. The trackpad is something that jumps out to anyone that walks by, the volume slider is a feature that is not found on most other keyboards in a touch nature and the look of the keyboard is truly unique. The keyboard is built incredibly and is comfortable to type on a desk or lap. It’s versatile, yet stylish. It looks beautifully and types beautifully. Compared to Apple’s Wireless Aluminum Keyboard it features loads more of buttons, is much easier to type on and most importantly doesn’t eat batteries. The diNovo features a rechargeable battery that lasts about a month on a single charge; the Apple Wireless Keyboard needs three AA batteries that don’t last a month. The diNovo features easy customization, the Apple Wireless does not. The Apple Keyboard, while being stylish and minimalist is anything but exciting, the diNovo intrigues people for something other then its size and for that reinvents the idea of the best Mac keyboard.
Cons:
The Apple Keyboard runs $79, the diNovo is not usually under $100. It’s easy to start justifying it if you don’t use rechargeable batteries. If you are forced to buy the diNovo at the $140 price point, then it will take about a year of the Apple Wireless Keyboard eating three batteries a month to make it cost-competitive. The other gripe that’s heard on the internet is how the volume slider doesn’t work so well; in the eight months of owning the keyboard, no such problem has ever arisen. The problem that is rather noticeable though is the lack of a keypad. It would look awkward given the nature of the keyboard currently and it would make the thing even more massive, but given the price Logitech could probably sell a few more keyboard for those looking for an alternative to the white version of the Apple Bluetooth Keyboard.
Overall:
It does not matter how many features your keyboard has if it is not comfortable to type on. We find that in addition to being a joy to type on, the diNovo Edge™ has significantly more features then the popular Apple Wireless Keyboard. The touchpad is semi-functional, but it definitely is something that intrigued us. Optimus were the ones who really reinvented the keyboard, but Logitech has reinvented typing with the diNovo. The feel of the diNovo Edge’s keys is truly new and unique. The keys are thin like a notebook, but are able to be punched down like old school keyboards. And after pressing the keys down they quickly pop back up, ready to be slammed down again. We give this keyboard and its sibling the Logitech MX Revolution a 4.5 star review, as we think they are the best combination sub $200. They keyboard can be purchased for $99.99 from MacMall, $126.46 from Amazon, or $159.99 directly from Logitech.
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