Velocifire VM01 Keyboard

Velocifire VM01 Mechanical Keyboard

On a whim I finally decided to buy an illuminated keyboard. It cost about $40. There are other ones out there for about half that amount. The question I had, and which only this one answered satisfactorily is whether the symbols on the keys were illuminated or not. I mean that is what I would expect, but you could just put lights under regular opaque keys and you could have a cool visual effect, but you wouldn't be able to actually identify the keys. On the one the symbols on the keys are illuminated so you can walk up to it in a dark room and see the H key.

A good touch typist shouldn't need any illumination, but I am not. I mostly touch type, but there's sometimes, like with punctuation, where my fingers don't know where the key is. This keyboard is a little weak in that area, especially with the number keys. The symbols on those keys are about half the size of the letter keys, and yes there are two symbols on every key, but those two symbols take up about one-third of the space on the key top. They could have made them much larger. I can make out the symbols if I squint.

As for the feel, it's different than the $10 keyboards I am used to ($3 used).

I picked this one because it was recommended in the one review I read and it didn't cost a zillion dollars. I didn't spend a lot of time looking around. I wish I knew whether the cheaper ones illuminated the symbols or not. They would probably feel more like the Dell keyboards I am used to.