keyboard

  1. hardware

I type so much on the computer, I should probably get a keyboard that I really like. I used to have a Model M keyboard, but the days of PS/2 are (happily) gone and besides the noise of that keyboard was bothering my flatmates (and neighbors, eventually).

  1. Actual keyboards
    1. Rosewill
    2. WASD
  2. Requirements
    1. Layout
    2. No numpad
    3. Tactile feel
  3. Nice to have
    1. Low latency
    2. Open firmware
  4. Keyboard models
    1. WASD
    2. CODE
    3. Happy Hacker Keyboard
    4. Das Keyboard
    5. Filco
    6. Cherry
    7. Rosewill
    8. Truly ergonomic
    9. Ergodox
    10. Moonlander
    11. Keyboard for life
    12. Ultimate hacking keyboard
    13. Keyboard.io
    14. Keychron
    15. Cannon Keys
    16. Mode design
    17. Tex
    18. Wooting
    19. Model F labs
    20. Moergo
    21. KLOR
    22. Vortex
    23. Nuphy
    24. Divinikey
  5. Mini / travel keyboards
  6. Reviews

Actual keyboards

Rosewill

I first bought a Rosewill RK-9000 with, I believe, Cherry MX blue keys. That turned out to be too noisy, even with my roommates being in the next room, so I do not use the keyboard except as a spare now.

WASD

I have a Custom 87-key mechanical keyboard with cherry MX "brown" switches and a custom coloring and labeling layout. I first ordered it with cherry MX "red" by mistake, and WASD were nice enough to accept a return, but I had to pay shipping costs.

The keys worn out pretty fast, which is kind of sad, otherwise it's absolutely gorgeous:

A photo of the keyboard which has mostly white keys, except control keys in grey, enter and escape in red. Key labels are in the middle of keys which is unusual.
My fancy keyboard with a key extractor on top. The escape key has the IWW black cat on the escape key, and an apt-get install anarchism swirl on the meta keys

It looks pretty much like the rendering they give you in their online design tool:

A rendering of the keyboard layout

I have ordered reprints of those worn-out keys, on the upside, but it's still a bit of a luxury, especially because of the design with the key labels in the middle. (There's a reason why that design has gone away, and that's because the labels wear out faster!)

I have also ordered a less exotic WASD V3 87-Key Doubleshot PBT Black/Slate Mechanical Keyboard, because they keys wear out much less, and it's still really pretty. The V3 is kind of nice because you can reprogram the LED, although it's really complicated how you do that. I made caps lock red and scroll lock green.

Requirements

Layout

I like the ANSI layout, QWERTY of course. Ideally, I would like to have an ANSI keyboard with the «» key added, but this doesn't seem to actually exist, and I don't like the oversized ISO enter key, as I used backslash a lot.

No numpad

I would like to have an external numeric keypad. This means less traveling between the keyboard and the mouse, which I still use more often than the keypad. I would need to get an external keypad, but that's easy to solve - even if it takes an extra USB port.

That's called a "80%", "TKL" ("tenkey-less") or "88" or "87 keys" keyboard. Those articles help me figure out the different layouts:

Tactile feel

I liked the clikety feeling of the Model M, but not the sound. Ideally, it would have the same feeling, but less loud. The MX brown seems to have that characteristic, but I am worried it will loose the clikety feeling. The Cherry MX clear may be a good compromise.

Nice to have

Low latency

As discussed in monitor and my terminal emulators review, we have very little wiggle room for latency in the various I/O component of the computer. In theory, we can get sub 30ms latency in the entire chain, and keyboards take up almost half of that (14ms). So it would be nice to have keyboards with lower latency than this.

Update: apparently, this is moot if the keyboard connects with a high-speed USB protocol. See this video from Ben Eater, which shows a high-speed keyboard with 1ms latency.

Also, Stapelberg made a lot of research on keyboard design and specifically did human latency perception trials. It seems that most acute users can recognize 15ms latency and everyone can recognize 100ms latency. His conclusion:

Reducing input latency still seems worthwhile to me: even if the reduction happens under the threshold at which you can perceive differences in input latency, it buys you more leeway in the entire stack. In other words, you might now be able to turn on an expensive editor feature which previously slowed down typing too much.

His experiments showed ≈ 763 μs end-to-end latency in Emacs / Xorg with his KinX keyboard firmware, on average.

Open firmware

We now live in a world where every device has its own little computer, a controller that parses the electric output of switches and turn that into a meaningful data stream, usually over USB, to the main computer. Most keyboards, in that sense, are proprietary, but there are nice efforts like the TMK and QMK firmware projects that attempt to reverse-engineer and replace the existing firmwares.

Having support for an open firmware would be a plus, and would possibly allow us to reduce the keyboard latency by changing or removing the debouncing algorithm.

Keyboard models

So here is inventory of the (surprisingly) expensive alternatives...

WASD

The WASD family has interesting model. The WASD V2 87-Key Custom Mechanical Keyboard has the interesting feature of not having a numpad at all and customizable everything.

CODE

The CODE keyboard is also made by WASD but has special specs.

Happy Hacker Keyboard

The HHKB is interesting because it goes back to the old "Sun type 3" keyboard layout, where the control key is next to the A key, in place of caps lock. I found this through the TMK keyboard firmware project, which features open source firmware for a bunch of keyboards, including the HHKB (which, out of the box, is unfortunately not open).

Their keyboards have weird features like variable actuation points and "capacitive switches".

260$USD.

Das Keyboard

I had the privilege of using that keyboard for a week. I like the sound, layout and general design of the keyboard. I found it a bit annoying to not have any labels on the keys: even if I am a good touch typist, sometimes for typing passwords, especially with digits in them, it can be difficilt to find the keys... But they have an alternative with labels on the key, at no extra cost.

I am not sure which kind of keyboard I have tried, actually, because there are 3 different levels of 'clicketyness' to those keyboards. The model number was DASK3 CST-105-DAS-B and I have asked the company for more information... we'll see! I like the sound of it, but it may have been a little loud at times and can wake up a person sleeping in the same room. Update: the keys were blue, so I assume those are Cherry MX Blue keys.

I think I would get a Model S professsionnal, so with the key labels.

See also Das Keyboard.

Filco

This company also produces cherry switches keyboards. The majestouch is interesting:

The ninja version has key labels in front.

Cherry

The company that makes those famous switches also actually make keyboards. Ncix sell this one for 70$. It seems it's a cheaper design than the other ones.

The G80-3000, manufactured since 1988, is still in production, and probably a better alternative, yet it is more expensive - from 85 to 100$.

Rosewill

The Rosewill is Newegg's branded Filco keyboard. It's the equivalent of the Majestouch.

This one is illuminated and 120$ for cherry blue keys...

Truly ergonomic

This keyboard is different from all the other and I'll take it as the flagship of "ergonomic" keyboards (aka "split" keyboards):

https://www.trulyergonomic.com/store/index.php

Ergodox

Another split keyboard, but this one you get to build yourself: http://ergodox.org/

Good luck with the soldering. If you fail, you get to start over with a new kit too, yaaay.

Update: they have an "easy" version now: https://ergodox-ez.com/.

Moonlander

https://www.zsa.io/moonlander/

From the same people as the above ergodox.

Keyboard for life

15$. Spill-proof. Lifetime warranty. Next keyboard?

http://www.kensington.com/us/us/4489/k64370a/keyboard-for-life#.VsjA1j9Xbec

Ultimate hacking keyboard

"Built to last", "split keyboard" and all sorts of buzzwords...

https://www.crowdsupply.com/ugl/ultimate-hacking-keyboard

https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/

Downsides:

Keyboard.io

Keyboard.io is an open hardware keyboard that comes with "source code and a screwdriver". It comes fully assembled, that said. It has a peculiar split layout with columned keys and weird key arrangement. I had to spend almost a minute to find the "space" key in their drawings (hint: it's a single, normal key that you hit with your thumb, between control, alt and shift). There are also "palm" keys that act as Fn keys. All this is probably totally alien and too weird for my poor old fingers to adapt to, but it does look gorgeous.

Keychron

Keychron - nice wireless keyboards, maybe?

Review from a DD says:

Although the fix [making F-keys work] was not very hard to find and apply, this experience still leaves a foul taste. I naively assumed the problem of having a properly functioning keyboard that simply works when you plug it in, has been thoroughly solved by 2021.

Best mechanical keyboard at rtings

Cannon Keys

After reading that New Yorker magazine article, I found this:

https://cannonkeys.com/

Those folks make highly specialized, DIY keyboard kits, used by "real" keyboard enthusiasts. Maybe I'm not one of them.

Mode design

In the same vein as Cannon Keys...

https://modedesigns.com/

Tex

Tex is producing retro keyboards that look like Thinkpad keyboards with mechanical keyswitch and a trackpoint, review.

Wooting

https://next.wooting.io/wooting-60he

Model F labs

A rebuild of the model F keyboard from IBM, but with different layouts including split and TKL, and an open firmware (QMK and others):

https://www.modelfkeyboards.com/

Interesting if you can afford the noise.

Moergo

https://www.moergo.com/

split, ergonomic keyboard.

KLOR

Open-hardware split ergonomic keyboard, with OLED displays, haptic feedback, trackballs.

https://github.com/GEIGEIGEIST/KLOR

Vortex

This is a pretty TKL keyboard, the Multics. Not sure about the Fn key on the right though.

Nuphy

Nuphy has interesting mechanical keyboards, with a special focus on the sound and design of the keyboards.

They have QMK-compatible firmware and pretty designs, with slim and TKL keyboards.

I have found a second hand Air75 at some Amazon overflow thing here, and it is really nice. It's really slim, I (surprisingly) like the short travel and the sound is exquisite, even with red switches. It's nice to have the combo Bluetooth / USB-C setup, and there's even a "2.4GHz transmitter" in there for non-BT operation, but somehow the adapter for that was missing from the case.

Two major downsides:

I have also heard first-hand reports of a full USB controller failure and a failure of support to provide proper followup, so that's a bit concerning.

rtings reviewed five models and outlined:

Divinikey

A friend built a Neo80 keyboard by buying a PCB presoldered with Gazzew Boba U4 switches, and earth tone keycaps and likes it.

Mini / travel keyboards

Those are useful for the media station or traveling on the road with a phone or tablet.

Nuphy above, has good travel keyboards as well.

Reviews

Created . Edited .