I'm very much of the old school, I like a solid and sturdy basis for everything, I feel I can get the kind of reliability and robustness I expect from anything I choose to shell out my hard earned cash for - so when I decided to throw caution to the wind and buy one, I was left thinking that I must have at some point during the day lost my sanity on a temporary basis, resulting in my ordering the thing in the first place!

When it arrived, I was eager to give this strange piece of PC equipment a go, after all there were some pretty interesting claims made about them and I was ready to get to grips with it.

I have to tell you it was weird taking this keyboard out of it's packaging and laying it out on the table. It was almost like handling a rubber doormat, although pleasant and warm to touch, but a doormat it certainly wasn't. For all intents and purposes it looked like a regular keyboard, with the same QWERTY layout as you would expect, except for the fact that it was blue!

These things can be connected via a standard ps2 connection or USB, which I liked. I kinda made it a point of not reading the instruction booklet, (how many of us the things anyway?), I just wanted to be able to get this thing out of it's box and connected to my PC with the minimum of fuss - that's exactly what I did.

I plugged it in, switched on and watched as it illuminated itself and waited to be prodded indelicately by my fingertips! Believe me, I did for a few weeks, and I had fun! At first it took a few minutes to get used to the distinct lack of key clicks and the gentle touch needed compared to my other keyboard, but that was it. The Flexi Keyboard performed as well as I would expect a keyboard to perform, and as I often work well into the night and tend to neglect to sort out proper lighting to work in, the illuminated keys were very clear to see and was definitely a great boon.

That said, I was using it as a normal static keyboard, and it was capable of a little more than that and I was eager to put it through it's paces!

First, I tried spilling a little coffee, (a lot really!). After dabbing up with kitchen towels, I tried a lovely crusty ham cob, which I happily devoured over the keyboard almost burying it in crumbs and spilt some more coffee for good measure! No problem, a quick wipe over with some kitchen towels and I was back in business. Next I thought I'd disconnect it and give it a wash, it was looking a touch grimy behind the ears... hot, not warm soapy water was the order of the day here, just to see if it could stand up to the temperature as well as the water - it sure did.

Ok I'm impressed at this point, but I also like the way I could actually roll this thing up and put it in my jacket pocket, literally! I actually took it out rolled up like that and tried it on the train. Got out the laptop, unfurled my keyboard, with that ultra cool look on my face, plugged it in, by-passing the laptop's own keyboard, and powered up, then I proceeded to write this little article, rather fitting really.

My conclusion? Well, yeah, it is gimmicky I suppose, but it was definitely not a gimmick, it's a keyboard, and it performed as it was intended to; allowing me to do a few things I never thought I would be able to do with a keyboard - it was fun, and worth my investment, if not just for it's novelty kick!

Enjoy..