Gigabyte GK-K6800 Keyboard Review

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Gigabyte GK-K6800 Multimedia Keyboard Review
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Manufactures Product Page: GIGABYTE - GK-K6800
Model Number: GK-K6800
Wiki Page: K6800
Availability: Limited
Price: Approx. $25USD



If there is one essential piece of equipment which is most overlooked by most buyers it has to be the keyboard. No matter how much you paid for your computer (or even built it yourself from bits of wire in your spare time) your computer is next to useless without this one essential peripheral. While touch screen technology has come a long way, it’s still not ready for prime time and is more a niche market item. Honestly, with the amount of use it is going to get out of it, you should spend as much time looking for your perfect keyboard as you do looking at monitors, video cards or any other “essential” PC items.

Today we will be looking at a keyboard which may not cost an arm and a leg but holds the promise of being a good fit for many consumers. The Gigabyte GK-K6800 multimedia keyboard is a very elegant looking unit with a few extras which should prove to be useful for most people. This keyboard will retail for about $25USD and should be soon available from retailers and e-tailers throughout the country.

A good keyboard can make you more productive, more comfortable and above else make the human computer interface a little less frustrating task. In many ways it is not easy to find a good keyboard, even if you are willing to spend a lot of money on it. Many people don't realize that price is not a good way to judge the worthiness of a keyboard as there are some really good inexpensive keyboards out there and there are some really high priced stinkers. We here at HWC believe there is a market for both expensive and less than expensive boards as long as they are GOOD. The frugal consumer in us loves finding the nuggets of gold in amongst the detritus.

The biggest question we have concerning today’s review item is if it is one of these hard to find yet so sought after items: a low cost, high value keyboard. Will this the GK-K6800 prove itself a worthy addition to your arsenal of peripherals?

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Specifications

Specifications

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Packaging and Accessories

Packaging and Accessories

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The keyboard box is, as one would expect, long and slim yet full of details about what's contained within. On the front you have a near full sized picture of keyboard and the back is loaded with information about the features and specifications. All in all it iseverything we have come to expect from high end manufacturer like Gigabyte. On the other hand, the white and yellow colour scheme with black text may rub some people the wrong way and it is not exactly the first colour combination some would choose.

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The internal packaging within the box is certainly on the spartan end of things. The keyboard comes wrapped in an anti-scratch material bag and is held in place with strategically placed cardboard flaps. In a nut shell, these flaps create two main zones, the larger for the keyboard itself and the smaller for the USB cable. While this arrangement would not be sufficient for many other peripherals, it is more than good enough to the get the job done with a sturdy item like this keyboard.

The list of accessories which accompanies this Gigabyte product is certainly lacking, as there are none. No USB to older PS/2 connector, no CD containing any programs, not even a sticker…zip zero, nada. Were we expecting a big bag of schwag? No; but we expecting a bit more than this…heck even Old Saint Nick gives bad boys and girls a lump of coal. On the upside, the lack of extras does mean less padding added to the MSRP.

 

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Up Close and Personal

Up Close and Personal

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The very first thing which jumps out at you when you look at this keyboard is how elegant it is. Its design never crosses over into gaudy or garish territory while keeping its color scheme simple. In a nut shell the finish is a high gloss gray and black which accentuates the subtle curves of Gigabyte's GK-K6800. We are serious when we say that there are no sharp edges anywhere…even the keys themselves have rounded corners.

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The overall size is large yet not so big that most will have to worry about finding space on their desk for it. Gigabyte even found a way to include a small wrist / palm rest that does not feel like an after thought or add-on.

While this is not a mechanical keyboard, it does have a "nostalgic" look to it which harkened us back to our ancient IBM one as there is a full size enter key and the space bar is nicely oversized for easier thumb strikes. Please don’t get us wrong this is a multimedia keyboard and not an ancient 101 keyboard and this little guy is crammed with extras.

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The only thing we don’t like about the layout concerns the function keys, the Escape key and the other keys on the upper most row. To put it bluntly these keys are just too small and while most people will not be using these as much as the rest, our fat fingers did occasionally mash two of them when we were going full out at 50+ words per minute. Nothing breaks your stride and jars you out of your groove faster than a mishit on a function key. The perfectly oversized and shaped space bar does help make up for this but really Gigabyte….WHY!? It's not like there was a lack of room since there is loads of wasted space above this tiny row of half pint keys.

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On the positive side, the added multimedia keys are nicely molded into the side curves of the keyboard and there is almost no way you can accidentally strike one while typing. On the left side you have five keys which are Internet related. At the top of this row of keys is the ubiquitous “Home” key which will open up your default browser and load the page which you have designated as such. Below this key is the “Favorites” tab which of course opens up your favorites tab in IE and the bookmarks sidebar in FireFox.

Below the favorites key is the “Refresh” key which of course reloads the page your are viewing. Below this is the forward and back keys which replicate the forward and back buttons and most mice out there. Of course if your mouse is a basic 2 button affair while these two keys may get a lot more work out than they normally would. All in all, it’s a basic, well-placed set of Internet control keys.

 

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Up Close and Personal con't

Up Close and Personal con't

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On the top right side of the keyboard above the Pause/Break key are a quartet of true multi-media keys including “Play/Pause”, “Stop”, “Rewind” and “Forward” which are fairly self explanatory. Just below these four keys are your three informational LEDs (which glow a nice blue) and include Num Lock, Caps Lock and Scroll Lock.

Moving over to the extreme upper right corner we come to a great little feature: a volume wheel. While a slider adjustment is tolerable and an up and down button is nice you just can’t beat the visceral feeling a volume knob gives you. This one gives you perfect feedback and is easily used with one finger. In testing, we found it would move the standard windows volume adjuster from 0 to 100 (and vice versa) in about two full rotations.

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On the right side of the keyboard are five more general purpose keys. The topmost one is a mute key which comes in handy for when the phone rings and you want to multi-task by watching a video and paying only some attention to the phone conversation (your teenage sons and daughters can give you lessons in this if you need some help mastering this skill). Below this is a music key which opens up your default music player program. In the middle is the “My Computer” button which as the name suggest opens up you’re My Computer explorer…as long as you are running a Microsoft OS. If you run Linux or OS X your results may vary, but by this time you already know you are in the minority and are probably used to doing work arounds in a Microsoft world.

Below this is your “Email” key which opens up your default email program. Rounding out the list of extra keys is the good old “calculator” button for those times when you can’t remember your school days third R and need some help with aRithmetic. For some of us, this key alone is a huge selling point.

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The back of this keyboard really underscores how thin the underlying tech is. After all, this is a membrane-based keyboard and thus does not require a lot of depth to secure mechanical parts. The large indent is perfect for wrapping up the cable and allows the unit to lie flat even when being stored.

As with every normal keyboard out there, you get two moderately sized legs to adjust the pitch and angle of the keys. It would have been nice if Gigabyte had included two more on the FRONT edge of the keyboard to allow for “reverse tenting” which -as a long term sufferer of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome can attest to- makes a huge difference in long term comfort when typing up a lot of data. As this is a rare feature not found and many keyboards, it's not something we can ding Gigabyte for not including. However, there are two low profile (yet reasonably wide) feet to keep the unit from slipping during heavy uses.

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The keyboard's cable is covered in a soft and snag free plastic coating which gets the job done and keeps costs to a reasonable level. The cable may not be braided but it is nice and long, measuring in at about 58 inches.

 

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Usability and Functionality (General Applications)

Usability and Functionality (General Applications)

No matter how a good looking a keyboard is and no matter how many bells and whistles it comes with, when all is said and done it will still spend most of its time acting as a normal keyboard and not multi-media enhancement tool. There are some exceptions to this rule (as in HTPC users) but there are keyboards out there designed specifically for them which add tons of functionality. To this end, we swapped out our normal MS Comfort Curve 4000 keyboard and replaced it with this keyboard for a full week.

While I may use an ergonomic, reverse tent (aka “reverse slope”) keyboard as my system's main tool, I also routinely use my beloved Compaq IBM clone (aka heavy as a log, all metal keyboard) and thus have not been “spoiled” by the split keyboard layout yet. While I usually type at a nominal 50 - 55WPM on the 4000, I still type at a nominal 35-38WPM on a straight keyboard.

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The very first thing we noticed was how nice a feel the keys had to them. With most membrane keyboards you get an ultra long throw to each key and then at the end is a mushy feel to tell you have reached the end. Sure the latest generation does give a fairly good imitation of tactile feedback but for the most part the long throw can become fatiguing over time. This keyboard on the other hand didn’t jump out and scream “hi I’m a crappy membrane keyboard”, in fact it felt like any other keyboard we have used in the past.

After using it for awhile, we can differentiate it between others we have. In a nut shell the k6800 has a very responsive, relatively short throw just not found in most other membrane keyboards. However, if you pay close attention the mushy feeling is still there, albeit it is very muted. To further investigate this issue we download a simple “learn to type” time key test which not only tells you how fast you are typing but also how accurately. Before beginning with the K6800 we first ran the test 4 times using the Compaq clunker and the Comfort Curve 4000 keyboards. With our older straight keyboard our accuracy rate hovered around 92% at 37WPM, and with the comfort curve 4000 we were hitting 95-96% at 49WPM. This is about right for me as I can get down and boogey at about 65WPM but only with mid 80 accuracy.

When we then swapped in the 6800 our best rate was still 35WPM and 90%. For all intents and purposes we did not have to learn (or relearn) proper typing skills in order to use this keyboard. It really is that user friendly and we suspect that unless your main keyboard is a laptop with an ultra short throw to the keys you too will have a very short and graceful learning curve.

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If we stopped here this would have been all wine and roses but a learn to type test only shows how you do with a fairly static parameter. I then further subjected this keyboard to the task of writing up a whole whack of reviews (including this one). I quickly realized that this keyboard has a one heck of an Achilles heel: it has a double column layout to the Insert, Del, Home, End, Pg Up & Pg Down keys whereas most of us are used to a double ROW. This may sound like a subtle difference BUT unless I was very precise I had a tendency to overreach the small ENTER key and slam the INSERT key. This was annoying, but after awhile I did get used to the difference. Personally, I prefer the double row layout with nothing past the enter key but on the positive side this is about the only negative issue we had with this multi-media keyboard when it came to general usage.

 

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Usability and Functionality (Gaming Applications)

Usability and Functionality (Gaming Applications)

While not marketed or designed for gaming, at one point or another many keyboards are going to pressed into service in order to save to world from aliens, demons or zombies. To this end and to get a real feel for how this keyboard would perform outside of its “natural environment” I bravely took one for the team and went on a good old fashioned gaming bender. For 18 hours I played Crysis on Delta setting while eating roasted coffee beans (Tanzanian pea berry coffee beans to be precise), a big bag of Cheetoes, home made beef jerky and copious amounts of Diet Sprite and Mountain Dew. In other words I did my hardest to reenact a good old fashioned LAN party with all the fixin’s.

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The results were about as pretty as a WOW addict when left alone in a room for a month….with a stocked fridge, a high speed internet connection, a good computer, and no toilet or shower nearby. Though to be fair, this keyboard is not marketed as a gaming accessory so while it was put through our normal gaming marathon (after all we needed a keyboard to go along with the Gigabyte mouse we recently reviewed.) we will not be holding its failure against it.

The reason we say it failed at our marathon gaming session is due to the plastic keys, which when “greased” will become as slick as a Chicago politician! This means everything from a bit of errant sweat to oil from chips will seriously hamper your playing style. If your keyboard is going to be expected to go through even moderate gaming marathons this is not the keyboard we would recommend you reach for

On the positive side, the keys never became stuck and did provide more than enough positive tactile response that we knew when we had hit the key properly. Honestly, if the keys had been rubberized so that the annoying slipping didn't occur we would have been singing another tune in this section.

As we have said in the past: to qualify as gaming equipment it can never impede, impair or mess with gaming habits. To fair to Gigabyte and this multimedia keyboard, being a good gaming keyboard would have been a nice bonus but it is not its main niche and we will take this into consideration when coming to our conclusion.

 

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Conclusion

Conclusion

When it comes to keyboards, run-of-the-mill units are a dime a dozen. However, the Gigabyte GK-K6800 bucks that trend. It looks like a million bucks, has a surprisingly tactile feel to the keys, is priced well and even comes with the little extra features which you don’t think you need until you trying going without them. Even better than its general day to day usability is the fact that it doesn’t take up a heck of a lot of room on your desk.

Gigabyte did not get everything right and that is unfortunate as this one really has the potential for greatness. The biggest issue is the underlying technology. The K6800 is a membrane keyboard and while the technology has been refined a heck of a lot since the bad old days, the fact remains that units with this technology are known to have a shorter life expectancy than their mechanical cousins with only 5 – 10 million key presses. This may sound like a lot and in many ways it is, but compare this to the older mechanical keyboards which are still going strong after decades of (ab)use along with tens of millions of key strokes. This keyboard will last years but we highly doubt many will still be alive and working in a decade. We truly wish Gigabyte had gone with mechanical switches or a technology which has a half life longer than your typical CFL bulb.

For many people this is a non-issue, as they will simply buy a new keyboard with every new computer. If you fall into this category, you can ignore the above issue as this keyboard is still a very nice keyboard to use. As we said earlier, this keyboard does have the potential for greatness but its inherent limitations do not stop at the tech used. For gaming usage, this keyboard can be considered only good enough for casual gamers and while this is also a non issue for many what is NOT an minor issue is the lack of customizability. The physical layout of the K6800 has plenty of room for additional macro keys at the top area above the function keys. Heck, if Gigabyte had included a small row of macro keys here it would explain the reason for the small F keys. As it is, we were left wanting even more from this keyboard.

In the end, only you can decide if this is the right keyboard for you. It does have a lot going for it and it is stylish as heck. If you are not interested in setting up your own macro keys and won’t even miss them or if you are not interested in your keyboard lasting longer than your computer then this keyboard may just be the perfect fit for you. It even does quite well with multimedia functions. For everyone else, hopefully a future model will eliminate some or all of these issues and annoyances.


Pros:

- Stylish good looks
- Price
- Volume adjustment WHEEL
- Doesn’t take up a lot of desk real estate
- Surprisingly responsive and tactile response for a membrane keyboard


Cons:

- Life expectancy is years not decades
- No additional macro keys
- Less than optimal gaming keyboard
- Small function keys
- Membrane technology

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