Optimus Popularis Keyboard Review (+ video)

A couple of weeks ago I saw the Optimus Popularis keyboard release news. He took and wrote to Lebedev, they say, let me see. And in response, suddenly - “come.” Well, we zaykovsky and came, listened, took a photo and recorded a small but illustrative video. All the details under the cut.



A few years ago, Lebedev & Co. made Optimus Maximus, which had a small small screen built into each key. It's wildly expensive, not very ergonomic and, as it turned out, short-lived - the pixels of OLED-screens burned out despite the screensavers built into the “Maximus” (7,000 hours gives a decrease in brightness of one color by 50%). In general, it would be better for him to remain a concept.


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Popularis made differently. The first layer is the screen. A typical TFT screen with a diagonal of about 11 inches and a resolution of 1366x768 pixels. On top of it is covered with a sheet of metal with holes for the keys. And transparent buttons are inserted into these holes, through which the screen is visible.





In the system "Popularis" is determined in two ways. At first, it is visible as a regular keyboard, and the standard layout is displayed on its screen - so that you can enter the BIOS, for example. When the OS boots up, the keyboard appears as USB Mass Storage, and the driver starts throwing images onto this “flash drive”. The maximum speed is 21 frames per second. For power, you need 0.8 A. Recently, the computer began to give enough current to the ports, but if that - the keyboard can be powered from an outlet.

There is a program for setting. Studio employees simply call it “Configurator”. Well, so be it. Earlier, by the way, the layouts were stored on the SD card that was inserted into the keyboard, and now they have refused and offer to simply export them from the Configurator and send them by any means.



The “Popularizer” has a non-advertised feature: in fact, it suits the role of a gaming keyboard, because a sequence of 32 codes can be hung on each key. True, the keyboard can handle only five physical clicks at a time - there is a regular keyboard matrix in it, and for some improvements there would simply not be enough space between the buttons.

Like the keyboard itself, "Popularis", well, not bad. As the keyboard of the old MacBook. Elasticly pressed and accelerated at the end. Rattles not much, not like "Maximus". Transparent keys protrude from the body and slightly distort the picture, if you look at them at an angle. But it can be used: when creating layouts, not only 72x72 points of the key itself are available, but also 8 more pixels in each direction, which become visible when you look at the “askance”.



It is worth "Popularis" cheaper progenitor, but also not at all divinely - 42 thousand rubles. I would not take it, sorry. But the Americans, they say, take. They are generally the main market for Lebedev. And we - so take a look.