Arteck 2.4G Wireless Stainless Steel Keyboard review: A sleek alternative to your desktop slab

The Arteck 2.4G Wireless Stainless Steel Keyboard (model HW192) makes it easy to upgrade your typing experience with a roomy layout, quiet keys, and a sleek design.

This review is part of our ongoing roundup of the best wireless keyboards. Go there for information on other competing products and buying advice.

The full-size keyboard measures 16.9 x 4.9 x 0.6 inches and weighs just under a pound. Despite its name, only the bottom half of the chassis is stainless steel—the top half and keys are plastic—but this gives it a feeling of durability missing from most thin-and-light keyboards. That means you can get away with tossing in your laptop bag now and then, even though it’s designed primarily for desktops.

The HW192 runs on a single rechargeable lithium battery that takes 3-5 hours to fully charge. Arteck claims the battery will last six months per charge based on two hours non-stop use per day. The keyboard will hibernate when not in use for several minutes and spring back to life with the tap of a key.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

You get a total of 18 hotkeys—the 12 function keys that double as multimedia controls, plus a half-dozen dedicated buttons ranging from My Computer and desktop access to search, print screen, screen lock, pause, and battery check. Above these are a series of indicator lights for power; CAPS, number, and Fn lock; and battery charging.

Connectivity

The HW192 comes with a USB dongle and connects via 2.4GHz RF. My computer recognized the HW192 as soon as I inserted the dongle and turned on the keyboard.

Although the HW192 is designed for Windows computers, I was able to connect it to my Mac as well. However, I was only able to use about half the hotkeys, including those for playback, brightness settings, and switching windows. The rest were either dormant or mapped incorrectly to other MacOS functions. The dedicated Windows key worked fine as the Mac CMD key, though.

Melissa Riofrio/IDG

Typing feel

The keyboard is fairly roomy, with enough space between keys that your fingers don’t feel cramped. With the full-size layout, they keyboard felt as familiar as my computer’s native one, and touch-typing was smooth and natural.

I found the HW192 very comfortable to use. It doesn’t have flip-out legs, but it molds into a small lip at the top. That provides just enough incline that with my fingers in the home-row, my wrists naturally rested in the ergonomically sound neutral position. The low-profile keys have a good amount of travel that belies the HW192’s ultra-thin chassis, and they rely equally on thump and soft click for tactile feedback.

Verdict

The HW192 may not sport trendy ergonomic design or multi-device compatibility, but it’s a thoroughly modern keyboard. Anyone looking to swap out their current slab for something more streamlined and sexy should find it a pleasantly seamless transition.