Best Buy exclusive Microsoft Arc keyboard yet to hit store shelves for a couple of weeks (21 February, to be specific), but we’ve been fortunate to acquire our hands, in others a little earlier, and thought I’d share some impressions with you, the keyboard using masses.
The first off thing you’ll comment while seeing the keyboard in human is that it’s smaller than even the press photos advised — basically the same size as your average 15-inch laptop keyboard, with a glossy bezel just big enough to let you pick it up without pressing a key. It’s as well undeniably attention-getting, with an “arc” that actually more closely resembles Apple’s Magic Mouse than Microsoft’s own Arc mouse.
Of course, most common people* will choose run over form when it comes to a keyboard, and in that honour the Arc Keyboard is a bit of a mixed bag. Reported by Microsoft as “style that works,” the Arc Keyboard isn’t designated to barely remain your desk. It’s wireless, of course, and its form factor lends itself utterly to equaling slipped in a drawer or below a monitor, or discreetly tucked in if twinned with, say, an all-in-one personal computer in a kitchen or living room. And in those illustrations, the Arc Keyboard is a pretty mesmerizing, if fairly costly ($60), solvent. For anybody desiring to simply cleaning the clutter up upon their desk, however, there could barely be one too many trade-offs. For starters, the key journey isn’t much better than your common laptop keyboard and, although the keys thankfully aren’t as shiny as their surroundings, they are still a bit too slick for our tastes (gaming are practically out of the question).
There’s also some minor annoyances, like the deficiency of an indicator light for the caps lock key, and a moderately cumbersome rocker key that puts back the four pointer keys (altho it’s actually not bad if you pick up the keyboard and use it with your thumb). As you can likely imagine, all that shiny plastic also picks up fingermarks and dust with the better of it, having us wish Microsoft also created a variation that extends the matte white finish of the bottom to the rest of the keyboard.
That said, there’s still quite a bit to like about the Arc Keyboard, especially if you’re pairing it with an equally efficient PC in a non-PC-minded workspace — barely keep in mind that it’s better beseemed to Tweets and Facebook postings than your future novel.