The two main input devices for any computer, the mouse and the keyboard, are for many the most utilized pieces of equipment in their daily office lives. It is through these two orifices of input we control the every function and action of our computers bar turning the power on and off; though we have no doubt that if we looked hard enough we'd find a keyboard that could do just that.

That's part of the reason why we're here today; most desktop PC's come with a generic keyboard attached, but sometimes these keyboards don't suit ones particular needs or sensibilities of style. Some people require a keyboard that will give them an edge in a videogame, others a keyboard that won't hog up the entirety of their limited desk space.

So, we're going to take a look at a spread of keyboards over the course of this roundup, reviewing them on their individual merits as well as facing them off against one another where appropriate.

The nice thing about keyboard reviews is that they're the only product you can review whilst writing the review, and each of the individual reviews will be written using the very keyboard we're writing about, giving extra room for insight and observance of the product on hand. The less typos the better...

The Space-Saving USB Hub

The Quick Touch USB-Hub keyboard from Speed-Link is a space-saving offering, the layout of which is more akin to that of a laptop keyboard than a traditional PC one. The keys are crammed together and the function key makes an appearance in laptop style to produce a compact offering which frees up enough desk space for some A4 sized sheets, depending on how your desk is laid out.

A space saver the keyboard really is and the room for documents, cups of coffee, lunch or whatever else you want to fill the void with is much appreciated. Those who wouldn't have room for such delights on their desks even with the space-saving keyboard will simply be thankful for the fact that the keyboard will actually fit on their desks.

Speed-Link has gone all out in maximising the utility of this USB-powered keyboard, turning it into a USB hub itself with two ports located on both the top-right and top-left hand sides of the keyboard. What you want to plug into them is your own business, though anything from a mouse to a mini-desktop aquarium would be on our list of things to plug in.

There is also a bunch of quick-keys lining the top off the keyboard which can do all the usual access email, access web browser, go back and forward in the browser and another set of keys which control your media player and volume. There's a set of included drivers for these buttons which install from a floppy disc or can be downloaded from Speed-Link's website. This is a bit of a negative point, as most other manufacturers include their drivers on CD's, making them much handier to install.

The keyboard does suffer from two flaws however, one cosmetic and not all that major and one functional and critical.

The first problem isn't so much a flaw as a problem, in that Speed-Link is a German company and so for English users (who can buy the keyboard all the same as Germans) the keyboard may have something of an odd layout.

It's not entirely foreign, in that for the letters the Z and the Y change places, for example, and there are a few German specific symbols dotting the keyboard. But if your computer is set up for an English language keyboard, when you hit "Z" on the keyboard it will come up as Y, and the same goes for all the keys. This means however that you have to be a fairly confident typist to use the keyboard, as someone who doesn't know where the likes of the apostrophe go on a normal keyboard will find themselves not in Kansas anymore trying to find it on the German keyboard.

The second, and critical, problem is that the "Quick-Touch" keyboard has a tendency to double type a letter, despite the key only being pressed once. Certain keys, such as e and s, seem to be more affected than others, and only in lower case. This can be damn annoying when typing in something like word, which at least has a spell checker to catch you out with. Take the keyboard online, for example in Instant Messaging or Forum posting, and you're left having to re-check everything or else suffer some stupid looking typos.

This makes the keyboard frustrating to use at times, perhaps even outweighing the space-saving advantages which it affords; though this depends on your own personal situation we were quick to bundle the keyboard back into its box after finishing with it.

Excepting the fact that typing with it is like trying to climb a mountain, this is a great space-saving keyboard/USB-hub. We'll let you decide if that outweighs the bad point...