Sharkoon Skiller

Sharkoon Skiller
Branding	Sharkoon
Features	Media keys; Rubber WASD and cursor keycaps
Layouts	Asian 101, ISO
Keyswitches	Rubber dome over membrane
Interface	USB
Dimensions	490 × 215 × 28 m
Weight	711 g
Price	ca. €15 (2014)

Sharkoon Skiller is a low-cost rubber dome over membrane multimedia keyboard from Sharkoon.

Description

As with Sharkoon's lower-priced Tactix keyboard, the Skiller ships with a CD-ROM containing a manual and driver software, a ring keycap puller and cyan Tai-Hao rubber double-shot series keycaps for the WASD and cursor keys.

The German version depicted below is derived from ISO layout, while the US version is derived from Asian 101 layout instead of ANSI layout.

The media keys are divided into four groups, placed around the keyboard:

Left side: Home page, favourites, refresh, back, forwards
Right side: Play/pause, stop, volume up, volume down, mute
Top left: My Computer, e-mail client, search, calculator, media player
Top right: Previous, next, wake, sleep, power

The side media keys are marked with symbols, and top media keys are marked with text legends. In the case of the German example below, the text legends were not translated into German.

Driver software supplied with the keyboard allows all keys to be fully programmed, seemingly so long as the driver is running (i.e. the programming appears to be in software only). There are ten profiles, and each key supports up to three layers. Complex macro recording is provided by the software, as is per-application configuration.

The keyboard is advertised as 18-key rollover (N-key rollover on the box shown below), despite being a membrane keyboard. However, when tested in 2014 by ComputerBase, this was found to be false. 18-key rollover means simultaneous detection of any 18 keys minimum (higher rollover combinations are a bonus), while Sharkoon appear to be suggesting 18-key maximum. Testing showed it to be 2KRO; 4KRO is normally accepted, and 6KRO in provided in the WASD area in some manner incompatible with Linux.

The flip-out feet have no rubber coating. ComputerBase also reported that the larger keys on the numeric keypad are not stabilised.

There is no known information externally or internally that indicates the OEM. However, the presence of Tai-Hao keycaps suggests Tai-Hao as a possible OEM.