I am of the group that wants their basic keyboards and mice to be as inexpensive as possible, warranting me to want to make this post. This allows me to be as rough on my equipment as possible without worrying about the overall expense that I put into my purchases. I don't like to get stuff that will break easily though. My equipment needs to have a certain level of longevity. I often find myself just using the lowest model of name brand equipment or keyboards that are made to ship with prebuilt systems like Dell, HP, Lenovo etc. This time I ran into an issue where a default keyboard was running its time too fast and was not comfortable to type on at all. I almost bought a Logitech K120, but then came across the recommendation on amazon for the OfficeTec KB202 (~$10). Reviews on it were relatively promising so I went for it. This is a wired variant as I am not a fan of wireless solutions, but they do have a wireless option in the KB101 (~$14). This review may not be applicable to that model as it has a different base design. Here is what I found:
Pros:- Inexpensive- Sturdy- Decent Feel- Easy Setup (plug and play/ no drivers)- Solid clicking on mouse- DPI buttonCons:- Poor non-slip pads- Awkward placement of scroll wheel (Big hands)- Backwards mapping of side thumb buttonsThe keyboard takes a short while, 30min, to break in before the keys both quite and gave a decent tactile feel. The keys are louder then a more expensive keyboard that is advertised as such, but the set is quite inexpensive and the keyboard is quieter then my previous one. The vertical "Enter" key takes some getting used to. I do enjoy it that way as the position of the |\ key is closer and easier to use for programming in my opinion. The media keys all function as expected. The "Home" key opens the default Web Browser selected in the Default apps section of Windows Settings, "E-mail" button opens the default email client, Play/ Pause/ Stop/ Previous/ Next all work to control the media playing in a media player, and the volume buttons control system volume. The only button that some may feel is missing is a button to open a Media Player. The overall construction is very light and has a significant amount of flex to it. This does not mean it is not sturdy. When checking the flex, none of the keys buckled on each other or showed signs of popping out and it did not make any creaking or cracking sounds. Again the keyboard is very light and will not stay in place without a rubber mat, new rubber pads, or (what I did) thick double sided rubber adhesive. I used some 3M tape on the bottom of the two pads and two legs. I also wore down the adhesive on the bottom of the tape a bit so that the keyboard did not fixate to the desk. I used this method because I had the tape readily available and use it for other application purposes.As for the mouse. The dpi button is nice so that the changes don't need to be made in the OS menus. The default sensitivity is rather low, so I took it up two notches. It appears to have 4 settings using the hardware dpi button. The scroll wheel feels good but is a bit high for my liking. I have used other small form mice that felt more comfortable then this one because they had a large vertical profile. I do not dislike the size of the mouse, it just makes scrolling a bit more difficult for me. The only gripe I have is the default mapping of the thumb arrows. The one pointing away from you is used as the back key while the one towards is used as the forward. I have since remapped it using a key mapper so that I had the standard use that I am used to.
Over all I do feel this is going to last me a significant amount of time. Here is a link to the amazon page: https://www.amazon.com/OfficeTec-Wired-Keyboard-Five-Button-KB202/dp/B01E0FO9N4/ref=pd_sim_147_8?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=TM10RSXDPY15Z6N9RXRW
