Clavetura CLVX1 review: I love this keyboard-touchpad hybrid

I have an An almost irrational desire to avoid moving my hands from keyboard to mouse if I can avoid it. Small interruptions are an inefficiency that annoys me. I’ve spent time counting how many times I have to press tab to navigate menus and learning keyboard shortcuts so I can get my work done faster without interruption.

When using the Clavetura CLVX 1 keyboard, I can only imagine that the people who designed it are just like me. This keyboard has a built-in touchpad directly above the keys. Just above the space bar and a small section between the two Shift keys is a rectangular outline, indicating that, at any time, the keys you are touching could turn into a trackpad.

I was pretty skeptical at first. I’m not a huge fan of trackpads (I’m the kind of person who MMO gaming mouse uses for work), but I thought it would be cool to at least be able to move my cursor or quickly click on something. if it works.That last thought had a sarcastic tone to it.

Then I tried it. And I was pleasantly surprised. It works.

Seamless Touch

The CLVX 1 can connect to your computer via three Bluetooth channels (each with separate buttons for easy swapping) or via a USB-C cable. After connecting it to my laptop, I thought I’d have to download some proprietary software or something to make full use of the device, but I was pleased to find that I accidentally moved my cursor along the trackpad just seconds after pairing.

The keys are flat and quite close to each other, which does cause a bit of discomfort when typing, but in my experience, it wasn’t too different from some chiclet-style laptop keyboards. More importantly, it means swiping across the touchpad area feels so smooth that I sometimes forget I’m touching the keyboard.

Of course, my biggest concern was whether I would accidentally trigger the touchpad. This concept only works if the cursor moves immediately when I swipe across the touchpad area. If there’s a delay, or if I have to activate a button to swipe, I might as well grab my mouse. Impressively, the CLVX 1 managed to understand when I was trying to move my cursor, and even recognise when I was resting my fingers on the keyboard.

I had a few minor issues at first as I was getting used to it. I have a habit of moving my fingers over my keys as I think about what to type next, and this sometimes means I press a key too lightly, causing my cursor to click. Suddenly, I was typing three paragraphs above where I wanted to type. However, I adapted to it pretty quickly, either taking my fingers off the keyboard completely or just resting them on the device.

It took some time for my muscle memory to adjust, but the benefits far outweighed any discomfort during the adjustment period. I really can’t stand having to hold my mouse just to click a button, and the convenience was amazing. Over time, my mouse started to feel like an unnecessary afterthought.

Customizable clicks

One thing I found a little odd, however, is that I don’t like having to lightly tap to click things. I have this problem with laptop trackpads too, and your preferences may vary, but I often end up tapping to click. I much prefer trackpads that support pressing to click.

In fact, I like it so much that when I tried to click on something using the keyboard’s trackpad, I was surprised by my muscle memory. Clevatura anticipated people like me and gave the keyboard a keytap mode. In this mode (activated with the KeyTab button, located just above the PgUp key), you must press the Type key (located next to the right Ctrl key) to switch to the trackpad. In this mode, you can click on things by pressing whichever key is above your finger. When you’re done with the trackpad, press Type again to return to your regular keyboard.