Gadgetoid

gadg-et-oid [gaj-it-oid]

-adjective

1. having the characteristics or form of a gadget;
resembling a mechanical contrivance or device.

OLED Keyboard and Keypad

With OLED displays becoming more and more prevalent and being exceptionally good at integrating seamlessly into devices and, well, looking good. It’s no surprise that more manufacturers are jumping on the OLED keyboard band wagon.

The United Keys OLED Keyboard and OLED Keypad both boast 9 keys arranged in a 3×3 grid with OLED displays upon each one.


In theory this allows you to add specific icons to your hot keys, or create software-specific profiles which will bind commonly used combinations to these 9 OLED keys along with icons to remind you what they do.

Like the Evoke Flow, United Keys have chosen a bold and distinctive yellow colour for their OLED displays, and this ensures an exceptionally good contrast between key and icon.

At the moment, despite undercutting similar products by a significant margin, the barrier to OLED keypad/keyboard entry is still high with the Keypad costing $199 and the Keyboard a whopping $259.99!

Hopefully this is a sign of good things to come. Not only are OLED-screen-endowed keys, by design, back-lit but their dynamic nature creates a beautiful combination of tactile response and flexibility that should, with any luck, turn manufacturers away from the scarily popular concept of touch screen displays.

OLED Info have just published their review of the UnitedKeys OLED Keyboard and found it to be generally good, but a little weak on the software side. Software updates are promised, so this board could prove to be both an exceptional and affordable entrant into the OLED input fray.

Friday, December 12th, 2008, Computer Gaming, News, PC, Personal Computing.