Satechi Aluminum USB Numeric Keypad

Screen Shot 2014-06-27 at 3.56.28 PMI am a big fan of Apple’s Bluetooth keyboard. I like its compact size, elegant design, and, almost more than anything else, the feel of its keys while typing. They provide the exact amount of tactile feedback that I like, and I almost don’t like typing with any other keyboard. However, one of the shortcomings of this keyboard is the lack of separate numerical keypad that used to be the staple of most computer keyboards for as long as the personal computers have been around. Granted, I don’t enter significant amount of numerical data any more, but every once in a while when I need to do some quick calculations I miss the actual separate numerical keypad. For the past year or so I had coopted the trackpad to do the job of a numerical keypad with the use of Mobee Technology Magic Numpad. However, this setup is far from ideal – I don’t have the tactile feedback that I am so used to, and the surface of my trackpad has become decidedly less smooth and responsive. All of these shortcoming are the major reason why I am still interested in having an actual physical keypad, and this Satechi keypad seems to fit the bill.

The Satechi keypad is very clearly designed to look like the Apple’s keyboard and trackpad peripherals. However, unlike the Apple peripherals, it is not made out of aluminum but rather out of plastic. If you are just casually glancing at your work area desk you would not notice this difference though, but once you start typing the similarity disappears. The action of the keys is also softer than that of the Apple’s keyboard.

The setup was very straightforward. This is plug-and-play USB keypad, and plugging it into one of the available USB ports is all that’s needed for it to be recognized by an Apple computer. The keypad is compatible with both the Mac computers as well as the Windows machines. It might also be compatible with some tablets and Linux computers, but I have not tested it with either one of those.

This keypad is fairly rudimentary and I would have liked for it to include a few additional keys. They page navigation keys would have been nice, as well as a separate key for launching the calculator app on your computer. Even better would have been an inclusion of programmable keys. This would have made this keypad a very powerful tool in more sophisticated spreadsheet manipulations, advanced scientific calculations, or even as a gaming keypad.

This is a really good product, and a welcome addition to my workspace. However, I think it’s a bit on a pricey side. A price point that is $5 -$10 less than the current $20 on Amazon would make this keypad much more appealing to the general casual users. Furthermore, these days I am not too keen on wired peripherals, and much prefer to use the wireless ones whenever possible. Satechi makes another similar Bluetooth keypad as well and I would recommend that you check it out if you are more inclined towards wireless devices.

**** Product sample provided for review purposes. ****

 

Bojan Tunguz

Bojan Tunguz was born in Bosnia and Herzegovina, which he and his family fled during the civil war for the neighboring Croatia. Over the past two decades he has studied, lived and worked in the United States. He is a theoretical physicist with degrees from Stanford and University of Illinois. Tunguz has taught physics at several prominent liberal arts colleges and has been writing about physics, science and technology for more than a decade. He also has a wide spectrum of interests, and reads and writes about current events, society, culture, religion and politics. Over the years he has reviewed many of the books that he has read, and posted his reviews on various online outlets. In 2011 he had become a top 10 reviewer on Amazon.com, where he continues to be very active. Aside from reading and writing, Tunguz enjoys traveling, digital photography, hiking, and fitness. He resides with his wife in Indiana. You can follow my review updates on the following pages as well: Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/tunguzreview Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/tunguzreviews Google+: https://plus.google.com/u/0/104312842297641697463/posts

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