Kensington is one of those brands that seems to have been around forever without ever making much of an impression outside of the office stationery cupboard. The brand makes mice, security devices, laptop bags and docking stations. They are all excellent products but not especially exciting. However, that could be about to change with the launch of Kensington’s brand-new mechanical keyboard.
The Kensington MK7500 QuietType Pro Silent is a solid mechanical keyboard and represents a landmark for the company. Not only is this a full-sized wireless keyboard with backlit keycaps, superbly soft wrist rest and even a silicone key cover to keep the dust off your keyboard. The MK7500 is also totally programable and works with Windows and macOS. This keyboard is so good that market leader Logitech could learn a thing or two from it.
This innovative keyboard has elegant, tactile switches with a positive typing feel. The MK7500 is a quiet keyboard and won’t drive your office colleagues or family crazy with the sound of clacky keys. In addition, it has a 100% layout with a separate numeric keypad, cursor cluster and a row of function and media keys for Windows and macOS. The Kensington MK7500 also has four special buttons for video conferencing.
The four conferencing buttons sit at the top left of the keyboard and offer functions for muting the computer’s microphone and turning off its webcam. There are two other buttons for initiating and ending calls or video meetings. Currently, the four buttons only work with Zoom and Microsoft Teams, although Kensington may extend that functionality to other software like Skype or Messenger with future firmware upgrades.
As well as connecting with up to three separate Bluetooth devices, the Kensington MK7500 can also link with a computer using the supplied 2.4GHz RF dongle, which provides a low-latency wireless connection. There’s also a USB-C port for charging the keyboard’s built-in battery or for hard-wiring the keyboard to a host computer.
Now we come to arguably the best bit about the MK7500. The keyboard’s designers have developed Kensington Konnect. This superb software is available for Windows or macOS and enables the user to remap or program any of the keys to do virtually anything. For example, you could change the function keys to execute a series of keystrokes or invoke helpful functions like Sleep or Log Off.
Until now, Logitech’s MX Series of keyboards has been one of the best programable keyboards on the market thanks to Logitech’s Logi Options+ software. However, Logi Options+ offers only limited programming of Logitech’s keyboards and mice, but it’s limited to a small range of keys that Logitech chooses to open to reprogramming. You can’t, for instance, remap any key you fancy.
Kensington Konnect is a slick piece of software that can be launched from the computer’s toolbar and offers Easy and Advanced modes for customizing the keyboard. The categories that can be customized are video conferencing commands, keyboard and mouse functions, editing keys (like cut and paste), macros, snippets of text or emojis and System calls.
The video conferencing functions provide handy shortcuts for muting a microphone and turning off the webcam. There are two more buttons for initiating and ending calls in Microsoft Teams or Zoom. The Keyboard and Mouse commands include custom shortcuts and applying mouse clicks to individual keys. The Editing commands cover basic text functions such as cut and paste. The Editing section is also where you find commands to launch your critical applications and control functions like screen brightness. So many possibilities are available, and you can make the keyboard your own.
The Macros function lets you record complex keystrokes and then store them in a single key. Meanwhile, the Snippets function will store useful phrases or favorite emojis in a shortcut. And finally, the System section provides core OS functions and can enable handy shortcuts for playing media, adjusting volume, navigating around the Finder and even restarting your computer.
Kensington Konnect is the most comprehensive and well-thought-out keyboard customization software I’ve ever seen and it is what makes the Kensington MK7500 such an outstanding product. With Konnect, you can create a keyboard that works just how you want.
Verdict: The Kensington MK7500 QuietType Pro Silent is an excellent mechanical keyboard with a full-size layout that can be extensively programmed. Kensington has done a superb job developing the Konnect software and it’s good to see it available for macOS and Windows. So many manufacturers make software for customizing their keyboards, but often only for Windows. Kensington has created an excellent keyboard with the MK7500, which is close to perfect. The only downside is the backlit keycaps which are a little weak in terms of brightness, but that’s a minor issue. Highly Recommended.
Pricing & Availability: The Kensington MK7500 QuietType Pro Silent mechanical keyboard is available now and costs $199.99.
More info: www.kensington.com
Features:
- Type: Mechanical.
- NKRO n-key rollover.
- Layout: 100% ANSI with numeric keypad.
- Compatibility: Windows and macOS.
- Switches: Tactile and quiet.
- Connectivity: Up to five devices via Bluetooth, 2.4GHz USB receiver or USB-A cable.
- Includes separate gel wrist rest and silicone key cover.
- Enhance productivity with built-in meeting controls for video conferencing.
- Backlight: White LEDS with variable brightness settings.
- Meets MIL-STD-810H Method 504.3 Contamination by fluids with disinfectants.
- Warranty: Three years.
- Dimensions: 451 x 170 x 41mm.
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