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Design
The
model we will be looking at is the Sapphire Blue with Black casing.
Their new sapphire blue keyboard provides a deeper blue color than their
aquamarine model. Personally, I think it looks much nicer.
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The
keyboard was not that much bigger in terms of overall size when comparing it
to the keyboard I was currently using. The keys are always
illuminated except when its sleep function kicks in when the computer is in
suspend mode. Unfortunately, there is no on/off switch, which is
something I don't see why the company chose to exclude. While the sleep
mode will usually take care of this issue, the fact that you can't turn it off
manually can be an issue for most users. Reason for this is that
there are many current motherboards, like the one I use, that still provide
power to USB ports and PS/2 ports even after shutdown. In our
case, the Eluminx would stay on as long as you have it plugged into the PS/2
port. Hopefully, Auravision will take that into consideration when
designing there next model. I feel that this is an important
feature and I am quite surprised with the fact that it was not implemented.
The back of the Eluminx is quite simple and missing are the two top latches
that a majority of keyboard have to elevate it.
Slim & Sexy
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The
Eluminx keyboard is very slim and attractive. It's about as slim
as a keyboard can get. Under normal lighting conditions, you can
only see a faint (almost white) glow from the keys. As soon as we tucked
it under the desk, you can start to see its beautiful sapphire blue glow.
The keyboard is simply stunning under complete darkness.
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Unfortunately, the Num, Caps and Scroll LED's are green. I don't
see why they opted for green LED's instead of blue to match its sapphire blue
lighting. This would have definitely made it more appealing.
They are just begging to be changed and unfortunately, it will void the
warranty for those users who wish to change them. Again, hopefully
this is something they will consider with a future model.
Layout & Keys
Now
let's look at what is most important...the layout and keys!
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If
you like the look and feel of laptop keyboards, then you will like the Eluminx.
Their super slim design and short key travel is quite similar to those of a
laptop PC. While the overall size of the Eluminx is impressive,
they still had to fit all the keys into such a small package. The
space bar is quite small and the top row of keys are not full sized like the
rest. This includes the delete key, which is one that I tend to use
quite a bit. The arrow keys are also very tiny which can be an issue for
some gamers. What's nice is they managed to fit a full sized num
pad, giving it the slight feel of a full sized keyboard.
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