Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!uw-june!uw-entropy!dataio!pilchuck!del
From: del@Data-IO.COM (Erik Lindberg)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Product review: Northgate N102 keyboard (junk)
Message-ID: <912@pilchuck.Data-IO.COM>
Date: 20 Jun 88 19:42:47 GMT
References: <11244@steinmetz.ge.com> <3585@tekgvs.TEK.COM>
Reply-To: del@pilchuck.Data-IO.COM (Erik Lindberg)
Distribution: na
Organization: Data I/O Corporation; Redmond, WA
Lines: 36

>In article <11244@steinmetz.ge.com> davidsen@crdos1.UUCP (bill davidsen) writes:
>>  The touch is good. I really want a touch just like my AT, but this is
>>nice, with a real overcenter key with a click (not a burp thru the
		...
In article <3585@tekgvs.TEK.COM> toma@tekgvs.UUCP (Tom Almy) writes:
>I second, as another happy user.  Also note that it is *solid*, not flimsy
>like most clone keyboards.  My only complaint is that they should have handled

For a dissenting opinion:

I ordered one of these turkeys and was extrememly unimpressed. I did not
find that the "touch is good". To me the 'click' was very tacky and felt
like a cheap mechanism. As far a "*solid*" is concerned, the keyboard is
*heavy*. Beyond that I don't think I would call it solid at all. My whole
impression of the keyboard was that it was very cheaply made, had poor 
key action, and while it did make a tactile/audible 'click' it was incorrect,
unpleasant and unuseable.

The first keyboard I got from Northgate sent multiple characters from several
of the keys and was completely unuseable since you had to use the backspace
key on at nearly every word. I sent it back and they sent a replacement
keyboard. The replacement keyboard did not send multiple characters so I used
it for a while to evaluate it. Besides my initial impression of a cheap feel
to the key action, several of the keys would send characters to the
computer *before* the detent (click) position had been reached. That is
absolutely unacceptable for a touch typist, and according to their ads, it
is the touch typists that are supposed to appreciate it the most!

In conclusion, my opinion is that Northgate keyboards are real garbage and
I wouldn't use one if it was given to me. Furthermore, I was so unimpressed
with the quality of the keyboard that I wouldn't risk my money on one of their
computers, either.

-- 
del (Erik Lindberg) 
uw-beaver!tikal!pilchuck!del