For my input devices, my priorities are minimalism, build-quality, price, and looks.
Like many, I used to use whatever cheap crap keyboard I had available. However, I found, though experience, that I much preferred the feel of the laptop-style scissor-switch keyboards and purchased my current keyboard as an impulse buy at Best Buy:
Logitech Illuminated Keyboard
The low/thin profile, the feel of the keys, the quality feel, love all of it. Love the back-lit keys too, just for those times when I'm up late and typing in the dark. Handy and looks cool. It's not quite as minimalist as I'd like, but it's a good compromise. And I actually require the numpad... had a couple retail jobs as a cashier, and now I despise entering numbers with anything but the numpad, which I can enter numbers on at ridiculous speed by touch. Not bragging, just saying, can't live without the numpad.
As for the mouse, minimalism is key here. I only want three buttons: left, right, and middle/scroll wheel. I despise extraneous side-buttons. When I'm forced to use them at friends'/customers' houses, I always end up pressing them by accident multiple times. I also prefer something with better resolution than the average mouse, and over-sized buttons. Found pretty much the perfect mouse in:
Razer Krait
Only thing about Razer... they have lousy drivers and support, in my experience. Had a bunch of issues trying to get it to work at first and they were zero help. But otherwise, awesome mouse.
On a related note: trackball mice should be outlawed. I still come across customers who own the damn things, and good lord they're horrible. I don't know how we ever got along with them. I was actually an early adopter of optical mice, back when they required a special mousepad made of a reflective surface with a grid to work (anyone else remember those?). Even then, I much preferred it to a trackball mouse.
Like many, I used to use whatever cheap crap keyboard I had available. However, I found, though experience, that I much preferred the feel of the laptop-style scissor-switch keyboards and purchased my current keyboard as an impulse buy at Best Buy:
The low/thin profile, the feel of the keys, the quality feel, love all of it. Love the back-lit keys too, just for those times when I'm up late and typing in the dark. Handy and looks cool. It's not quite as minimalist as I'd like, but it's a good compromise. And I actually require the numpad... had a couple retail jobs as a cashier, and now I despise entering numbers with anything but the numpad, which I can enter numbers on at ridiculous speed by touch. Not bragging, just saying, can't live without the numpad.
As for the mouse, minimalism is key here. I only want three buttons: left, right, and middle/scroll wheel. I despise extraneous side-buttons. When I'm forced to use them at friends'/customers' houses, I always end up pressing them by accident multiple times. I also prefer something with better resolution than the average mouse, and over-sized buttons. Found pretty much the perfect mouse in:
Only thing about Razer... they have lousy drivers and support, in my experience. Had a bunch of issues trying to get it to work at first and they were zero help. But otherwise, awesome mouse.
On a related note: trackball mice should be outlawed. I still come across customers who own the damn things, and good lord they're horrible. I don't know how we ever got along with them. I was actually an early adopter of optical mice, back when they required a special mousepad made of a reflective surface with a grid to work (anyone else remember those?). Even then, I much preferred it to a trackball mouse.
