If you don’t know the now legendary story of the mother of all vaporware companies Infinium Labs and their fabled Phantom Gaming Console, I won’t bore you with those details. Suffice to say the company famous for not delivering on a gaming dream has delivered a pretty decent gaming/multimedia keyboard and mouse. The Phantom Lapboard was originally designed to accompany a console gaming system that never arrived. But in the aftermath of that car crash, a shining little hubcap rolled out of the wreckage in the form of a keyboard/ mouse combo that is both ergonomically sound and aesthetically pleasing enough in comparison to all other keyboards outside the latest Apple creations.
As the name implies, this “lapboard” is deigned to sit on your lap. The keyboard/mouse combo has two unique features that set it apart from all the others. It has the ability to rotate 360 degrees in any direction. This is helpful for left handers (Including me) that tend to do our point and clicking on the other side of the playing field. Another key design feature is the keyboards ability to not only rotate a full 360 degrees but also tilt forward to what seems to be a 22 degree angle. This is perfect for sitting on your sofa while surfing the internet. When the lapboard is in its tilted position, a flat surface is revealed underneath giving you a perfect place to place the included wireless mouse. I am typing this review on the Lapboard and am trying to find something of note that I am not pleased with. If i wanted to get picky I might complain that the mouse seems a little cheap with fit and finish and a little flimsy. I may also whine that for a keyboard designed for casual living room use, the inclusion of backlit keys might have been a consideration.
All in all, this lapboard design does provide you with everything promised by the manufacturer. It is the perfect keyboard/mouse combo for gaming casually, not to be confused with “casual gaming”. Gaming casually is being able to play your favorite game while sitting comfortably at your sofa or bed. “Casual gaming” is a whole other post and has nothing to do with this review. The Phantom Lapboard is the first and only product from Infinium Labs to date and a healthy start. It is not the latest in technology (but they never promised that). It is however a clever and useful design for anyone looking to have a solution for computing casually. Both PC and MAC compatible, the Phantom Lapboard comes with a wireless mouse and USB dongle.
[ Buy It Here ]
(Retailed at $129.00 USD)
