DC‐2214 Keyboard

The Leading Edge DC−2214 keyboard was a mechanical keyboard that was often bundled with the MT33 computer. The keyboard featured a PS/2 connector on a coiled wire, Alps key switches (this one featured Alps white key switches) and a full−sized ANSI keyboard layout. The top of the keyboard includes the Leading Edge triple triangle logo to the left with a convenient pen and pencil holder spanning most of the top portion of the keyboard just to the right of the logo. The keyboard had a premium feel to it especially given the significant weight of the substantial backplate.

The DC−2214 keyboard measured 18.5" wide by 8" deep. The large layout of the DC−2214 keyboard accommodated the 101 keys and offered a stable keyboarding surface for the user by way of the metal backplate inside of the plastic case. Its larger size allowed it to offer a pen and pencil storage slot at the top of the keyboard. The keyboard's significant weight meant that it was unlikely to slide around on a desktop during vigorous typing or gaming sessions, thus offering the user fewer typing input errors due to its stability. The white Apls key switches offered a lot of user feedback and required a firm push to engage the switches. The key switches offered feedback in the way of a significant click noise and feel. A user accustomed to this kind of keyboard would have had no issue in identifying when a keystroke was missed when touch−typing.

The equipped keys were presented in a two−tone appearance with beige keys making up 67 of the 101 keys and a grey−color making up the remaining 34 keys. The keyboard's body featured a plastic beige appearance that was not immune to yellowing over time. At the very top of the keyboarding surface was the area containing the pen and pencil holder with the Leading Edge logo and PS/2 coiled wire to the left. This area is directly centered to the keyboard and measured 15" wide, breaking the otherwise solid rectangle keyboard into a more pleasing geometric shape.

The key−layout was a very standard modern ANSI layout. The top row consisted of the expected Esc key and row of 12 function keys, print screen, scroll lock, and pause keys. Directly to the left of the top row of keys is where the indicator LEDs for Num Lock, Caps Lock, and Scroll lock could be found. Below the indicator LEDs was a full−side 10−key keypad for quick and easy data−entry.

On the back of the DC−2214 continued the beige plastic housing with a metal foil Leading Edge label that indicated the keyboard model number and serial number. It is here that the careful observer would have noticed the cheapening of Leading Edge's hardware offerings, and unfortunately, things to come. Although the keyboard felt nice and had good weight, the closing mechanism for the keyboard's case consisted of plastic clips. These plastic clips were easily broken if the keyboard were to have been opened for maintenance such as cleaning. The height−adjustable feet on the back of the keyboard also suffered from a similar issue; the stands were fully constructed of plastic and required a significant amount of force to dismount them from either configuration. A user could have easily snapped the plastic clips holding the foldable height adjusters when extending the legs or broken them upon returning the height adjuster legs back.