This keyboard with a screen might succeed where Apple and its Touch Bar keyboard failed! This amazing product acts as a much more flexible external display than the concept tested on MacBook Pros.
The Ficihp keyboard ($389) has a special feature: not only are its keys mechanical, but above all it incorporates a large 12.6-inch touchscreen with an ultra-wide ratio and a resolution of 1,920 x 515. Alone, this product does not isn’t very useful: it only works when plugged into a PC, or even a smartphone.
Load up on shortcuts
Once connected to a computer (via a USB-C cable), the Ficihp acts as a second screen. You can drop the tool palettes from Photoshop for example, or use it to enter notes during a videoconference that takes place on the main screen. And why not use it to display a Twitter feed to always have the latest news in front of you!
The screen interprets 10 tactile contacts simultaneously, but only connected to a PC. On a Mac, only one touch is supported. As for the keyboard, it has 71 keys that can be removed to replace them, the RGB backlighting even has 15 different settings for all occasions. There is in fact only one limitation: the device does not include an HDMI port, which can prevent its use with a somewhat old PC (or you have to go through a hub or an adapter) .
Of course, we are far from the Apple integration. The Touch Bar of MacBook Pro, inaugurated in 2016, started from a good idea: to give more flexibility to the user by displaying shortcuts and buttons on a touch bar depending on the application used. Unfortunately, the possibilities for customization are very limited. For many, it is difficult to use the Touch Bar which requires looking up from the screen to touch the right button.
