And so our intrepid hero sets out on his quest to find the perfect keyboard. Will he find it, or will he be defeated by the trolls of Budget Valley?
I think that I should start this second entry with an insight I made while researching all these options. Call this the "mid-story let-down":
There is no such thing as the perfect keyboard.
The reality is that there are so many different factors that go into making a keyboard great that you will never please everyone. In fact, you will probably never please one person entirely (well, not a picky, always-want-to-improve-everything type such as myself at least!)
One suggestion was to build your own keyboard, as then you can do with it what you like (this was where I stole the "There is no such thing as the perfect keyboard" line). I did start to look into this, but you have to be very serious about your keyboards to start that... and be well-funded (think ~NZD$500 or more), and be good with a soldering iron, and not be afraid of compiling and flashing custom firmware, and know where to casually source "custom laser-cut steel mounting plates". Needless to say, as attractive as it would be having a keyboard that is truly configured to exactly what I want, I did not continue pursuing that idea for long.
Alas, I am not worthy to conquer Hardcore Custom Build Mountain. (Well, not yet - maybe later when I've got a 3D printer and space and budget for mad projects...)
And so, this low-level hero is going to consider cost as one of the factors. Because, let's be honest, even though a keyboard is used a lot, there is a certain point where "good enough" gets overtaken by "I could spend this money on something else".
To paraphrase another comment I heard a long time ago: the perfect keyboard would be one that has a single button, labelled "Do what I want". Ultimately, the perfect keyboard wouldn't even be a keyboard at all, but would be something far more efficient, like a direct brain-computer interface. But, in the mean time, we have to settle for the best ideas that someone has managed to bring to market - some good, some actually pretty great, some "good idea, but missed", some distinctly... not great.
To the list. I'm going to roughly order this from what I thought was best but most expensive down to the cheapest and nastiest. When those two metrics don't conflict. Sort of. You'll work it out.
This is far from an exhaustive list - the more I looked, the more I found new keyboards, but after a while I found I was seeing less and less of the innovative types and seeing only standard ones. Even from those I have seen, I have tried to keep my list down to the more interesting or relevant ones (those that scored well when compared against my list of criteria from the first post).
Truly Ergonomic Keyboard
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| Want. |
Starting at the "awesome but expensive" end of the spectrum, there is the Truly Ergonomic Keyboard. When rating keyboards by the criteria in my previous post, this one came out with the highest score. It's fully programmable, has an excellent layout (central keys accessible by either hand for example), onboard memory, a choice of mechanical key switches, and a removable wrist rest. I like where they have put (and how they have laid out) the page up/page down and home/end keys. It's also nice and narrow, so allows bringing the mouse closer to the keyboard. Not having a dedicated numeric keypad is a bit of a negative, but because the keys are in a columnar layout it would be better than most "numpad on the main keys" layouts.
The name is a bit pretentious, although it is one of the most (but not quite the most) ergonomic layouts I have seen. Also, seeing as the name is such a mouthful and not easily shortened, it gets called the "TECK" (Truly Ergonomic Computer Keyboard).
The big negative though? Price. It retails for about USD$250, with an eye-watering USD$69 shipping to New Zealand - to put this in context, some of the cheaper keyboards come in at less than that shipping cost for the entire package! This means you'd be paying nearly NZD$500, which is pretty brutal for a keyboard. So, as much as I like this one... no.
Available: from the manufacturer. Not many other places, it seems - which is perhaps sad, as I think this is one of the few genuinely innovative keyboards.
Keyboardio Model 01
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| Pretty... So pretty. |
This scores super-high for ergonomics, second only to the Kinesis (next). It is easily the most artistic of all the keyboards I looked at too - one of the few times I would look at a piece of computer hardware and call it "beautiful". The designers have really gone all-out on this one: full-colour backlighting, custom-shaped key caps (!), real wood. But more than that, it takes the ErgoDox split layout and refines it to give a unique layout. It's fully programmable - in fact, they talk about it being "open-source hardware", and apparently it even ships with its own screwdriver! These are people who are serious about their art, and serious about letting people do with it what they want.
Again, if I had the money, I would love one of these.
For me though, it scored a little below the TECK because it does away with a few too many buttons. At my count, it only has 64 keys total (a "standard" keyboard has 104, and a tenkeyless usually has 87). While the missing keys would be easily accessed by using a modifier key (nicely placed in reach of the thumbs - and on this keyboard, even the edge of the palm), I'm still not a fan. The further a keyboard goes from a standard layout, the longer it will take to adjust, and I still hold that every time I am using a modifier key, it slows me down more than if I'm going straight to a single key - it's kind of a "double seek" in terms of finger movements. Of course, the layout being so easily within reach of your fingers may very well offset that, but I am wary of losing keys.
You can probably guess it's big disadvantage. This is not a device that holds back on design or quality in any way. It is genuinely beautiful - they describe it as "heirloom grade", and I would agree - but that does come at a price: USD$330, or nearly $100 more than even the TECK. For us Kiwis, that means half a grand.
So, pretty as it is, I'm going to have to give this one a miss as well.
Availability: only from their website. And, not until the middle of 2016 (so there is a remote chance that this still turns out to be vapourware and never delivers - I doubt that, but even if not, you are still waiting months for something that costs a lot of money).
Kinesis Advantage
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| I know, it looks really weird. |
Ergonomics are important to you? Then you are probably going to be hard-pressed to beat the Kinesis.
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| Well, except that everyone always tries to go one better - pictured is the Safetype, the only keyboard I have ever come across with wing mirrors. |
Let me rephrase that: the Kinesis Advantage is probably the most ergonomic layout you are going to find that doesn't involve wing mirrors. I have to say that when I was having a small rant in my last post about there not being enough innovation happening with keyboards, wing mirrors was not what I was thinking.
Anyway, back to the Kinesis - sorry for the detour, hope I haven't confused you. This keyboard has a lot going for it beyond the ergonomics: macros, unlimited key remapping, 2-port USB hub (even if said hub is only USB 1.1, which is kind of lame). It is very wide, perhaps unnecessarily so, and the function keys - while thankfully present, unlike say the Keyboardio - are a bit of a let-down (and not mechanical keys, while the rest of the keyboard is mechanical). Having keys in a "well", curved to match finger length, is great, although I think that the layout of the TECK would be more useful (e.g. Enter and Backspace in the centre, able to be reached by either hand). If you have wrist pain and a decent budget, this keyboard should be a serious consideration.
Oh, it also comes in black. Batman would be pleased (come on, surely he's done some damage to his wrists with all that punching...)
Ok, so my ordering "roughly by price" has failed so far, as the first three have been in increasing order of price - yes, this out-prices even the Keyboardio. I actually found a NZ stockist, but $512 plus shipping hurts (though at least in this case, the shipping was under $20). The manufacturer had it at USD$299 (or USD$325 for the version with both QWERTY and Dvorak layouts printed on the keys!), but I couldn't find their shipping costs (don't expect it to be cheap, although there is always NZ Post's Youshop, which is pretty reasonable).
Availability: for some reason, this seems to be the keyboard that no one wants to price publically, and while it's available in a few places, it seems to be a sort of "special order" type device. Kinesis sell it themselves. DTSL is a NZ-local supplier.
Ergodox (Ergodox EZ)
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| Pictured: the Ergodox EZ |
This is the real "open source hardware" keyboard. The basic ErgoDox layout was designed by one guy, who goes by the moniker "Dox", hence "Ergo" + "Dox" (an ergonomic keyboard designed by Dox) = "ErgoDox" (who'd have thought it?), but the design sits well and truly in the public domain - originally, you had to be enough of a keyboard nut to self-build if you wanted an ErgoDox: download the plans, and cut, solder, and assemble yourself. Now however, you can get all of that customisable goodness pre-assembled, as the ErgoDox EZ ("EZ" = "ee zee" = "easy", geddit?) This is an ergonomic keyboard that is extremely configurable, and the default layout even lets you control the mouse using the keyboard. It's a pretty cool toy.
Cost here is USD$270 (including shipping), or around NZD$400. Still not cheap.
Availability: from the Indegogo page. Alternatively, you can dive into the world of the ErgoDox (non-EZ) and buy parts, either assembled (when available) or not. For that, be prepared to join in the keyboard community and to wait for the next group buy - yes, beyond the EZ, this is definitely a keyboard for real hardware enthusiasts.
Roccat Ryos TKL Pro Tenkeyless / MK Pro
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| Roccat Ryos MK Pro |
And now we get to the genuine gamer keyboards - the ones where appearance matters just as much as build quality. I think the designers of this keyboard were going for a stealth bomber aesthetic, but it definitely looks cool. The Ryos comes in two types: the full-size "MK" (pictured) and the tenkeyless "TKL" (the same thing but without a numeric keypad). You get full control over the blue back lighting, and media controls via function key alternatives, but the real stand-out feature of these two keyboards is their ability to do macros. The Caps Lock key is replaced with an "Easy Shift" key - basically, you have an easily-accessible key that changes the function of pretty much any (or every) key on the keyboard, then stores it in the onboard memory (the keyboard apparently is run by not one but two ARM processors - overkill did I hear you say?) Per-app profiles, fancy dedicated software, usage statistics (in case you want to know which keys you use the most)... These are pretty serious keyboards.
You get to choose the type of mechanical key switch, so quiet or clicky, tactile or linear are all options.
Price-wise, they're not cheap, but not bank-breaking either (the two models sit either side of the NZD$200 mark).
Availability: a few places stock these - thankfully, it's a bit more mainstream, so you have options. Mightyape usually have stock.
Roccat Arvo
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| Roccat Arvo |
This is one of the few non-mechanical keyboards I looked at, but it's because of a unique and, I think, innovative idea on saving space: there's a special key that switches the numeric keypad between its normal function and that of the arrow and Home/End cluster, removing those latter keys from the keyboard. This makes it almost as small as a tenkeyless keyboard, but still gives you the option of having the full numpad. Without sitting down and giving it a good test, I cannot comment on how well this works in practice, but I imagine there would be a bit of adjustment needed. At least it lights the keys to show you what mode its in. However, I love that Roccat is trying something new. The Arvo also comes with three programmable macro keys by your thumbs, which I think is a really good place to put extra keys (you'll notice that this shows up on a number of the keyboards here).
In terms of price, the Arvo has the advantage of being a cheaper membrane keyboard, so I saw it at NZD$100, or on special for $75. It is worth noting though that this misses the responsiveness and quality of mechanical key switches.
Availability: again, a few options, but Mightyape is an easy one.
Levetron Mech 5
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| Azio Levetron Mech 5 - keyboard pretentiousness at its best. |
If you like your hardware to be visually impressive, this is the keyboard for you. It's industrial-meets-military-meets-I'm-going-to-put-extra-buttons-everywhere. While some keyboards try to save on desk space, this one looks like it begs you to build a special desk just to contain it. But, under the extreme overkill of its appearance, this really is an awesome 'board. It has macro keys everywhere - and by everywhere, I mean you can re-position that fold-down 6-key block. But, even better, if you decide this monster leaves your mouse too far away, you can attach the numeric keypad on the left side instead! (As you may have noticed, a removable numpad is a feature I think should be standard). Even I don't know what all the buttons on this thing do, but I do like that it has a good, solid wheel for the volume control - a decent volume knob is something I miss in this digital age.
It's a pity I don't think I have a desk worthy of it. It would make all my other peripherals look wussy.
It's so feature-laden that in my scoring, this was only beaten by the TECK. It pretty much does everything. It's a pity though that one of the things I was thinking of doing with a new keyboard was transporting it to and from work - this does not look like the most portable unit out there...
Price isn't bad, at around NZD$185.
Availability: here's the kicker. Most likely, you'll be looking at getting it in from offshore, but stock for this keyboard seems hard to come by even there. My suggestion would be to try Amazon and get it shipped to a NZ Post Youshop address.
Razer Blackwidow [Tournament] Stealth
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| Razer Blackwidow: pictured, the Tournament Stealth |
The Razer Blackwidow keyboards seem to be well-known, which is not something that can be said of many mechanical keyboards at all. Consequently, they have both their fans and their haters. What I find is that there are a dizzying array of different versions: you have the Stealth, the Ultimate, the Chroma, the Tournament, the 2014 version, the 2016 version, and nearly every combination thereof (so yes, the "Razer Blackwidow Tournament Edition Chroma Stealth" is actually a thing). Oh, and they do game-branded versions as well. This page (I think) lists them all. There are a lot.
Anyway, beyond all the different types, for the most part they are relatively standard mechanical keyboards. "Tournament" here means tenkeyless (no numpad), "Stealth" means quiet tactile keys not loud clicky ones, and "Chroma" obviously means it has fancy-coloured backlighting. I haven't bothered looking up what "Ultimate" means. For my purposes, the Stealth and Tournament Stealth were the only ones of interest. These offer limited macro recording (I say limited because it requires specialised Razer software for it to work, and apparently an active internet connection, which is silly) and alt-function-key media buttons.
But, the pricing isn't bad. The tenkeyless Tournament version retails in NZ for around $100, with the full-size version being roughly another $40.
Availability: these are popular 'boards, so they shouldn't be hard to find. This was about the only mechanical keyboard I saw out on display in a retail store, allowing me to have a play with how the mechanical switches feel (thank you PB Tech Hamilton). Have a look at local retailers for prices, as it will most likely come down to whoever has a special on at the time.
Tesoro Tizona Brown TKL Tournament
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| Tesoro Tizona Brown TKL Tournament TS-G2N with detachable G2N-P numeric keypad [breath]. Why do gaming keyboards have such verbose names!? |
Tesoro have this neat (if pretentious) idea of naming their keyboards after famous mythical swords - things like Excalibur. The Tizona is apparently a "burning blade" wielded by an old Spanish hero who I had never heard of. You have to see the box art though:
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| Best box ever. No, this isn't overdoing it at all. |
Purple is kind of a theme here (it even has purple LEDs, which is not something you see every day). So, usual pompous gaming keyboard hype, three macro thumb keys (not configurable sadly, though that's why we have Autohotkey), alternate functions on some keys via a function key (media playback controls, "gaming mode", etc). Interestingly, it has the ability to switch between n-key rollover (NKRO) and standard USB 6-key rollover if the custom NKRO ever doesn't work (which I think is a nice touch to have - make sure it works everywhere). But, the stand-out feature - and, let's be honest, the only reason you would buy this over other offerings - is the removable numpad. Sadly, said numpad is a separate purchase, which pushes the price up a bit. You get to either have a tenkeyless keyboard, a "leftie" keyboard, or a standard layout (literally the only thing differing from a standard layout is replacing the left Windows key with its Function key).
Price-wise, it's... ok. Once you factor in the numeric keypad and the shipping, it's up over $150, which for an otherwise fairly basic keyboard means you are going to have to really want that removable keypad.
Availability: the best option I found was Mech KB in Australia (mainly because shipping from Australia isn't nearly as nasty as shipping from America). At the time of writing, they have it on a half-price special, which suddenly makes this an attractive option, although at time of writing, they are also out of stock.
(By the way, the "Brown" is the key switch type - quiet tactile - if you're wondering why a keyboard with "Brown" in the title is actually black and purple... it also comes in three other key switch types).
Logitech G910 Orion Spark RGB
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| Ooh, pretty colours. And buttons - so many buttons! |
In what is perhaps the epitome of gaming keyboard excess, we have Logitech's Orion Spark. It has nine macro buttons, it has dedicated media keys, if has a volume roller! It has weird custom-shaped keys, apparently designed to help you identify keys better (I actually think that's a good idea - though I'm not sure about the shapes they have actually used). It goes somewhat overboard on the backlighting, and has a monstrous wrist rest. But more than this, it has a dock for your phone, for when you want even more things to look at.
Yeah, it's pretty cool, even if its overkill.
If you're a gamer and what a keyboard that does, well, everything then this is probably a good choice. For me personally, there's a lot of functionality there which I would simply never use.
Price was around $240 when I looked at it, so not cheap - although you are getting a lot of keyboard for that. The official website has it at NZD$350. It pays to shop around. Thankfully Logitech are a big enough brand that you'll be able to find it in a bunch of places.
Availabilty: direct from Logitech (if you don't care about money), although Pricespy lists a number of NZ stockists.
DSI Left-handed Mechanical Switch
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| No, that image hasn't been flipped - it's a keyboard for lefties. |
While not left-handed myself, I have heard the annoying and sometimes weird places where objects designed for right-handed people fail to accomodate lefties. But why am I listing a left-handers keyboard here? The answer is that, as I mentioned in my previous post, putting the numeric keypad on the right was an idea we had before the mouse was introduced. Now the numeric keypad gets in the way of having the mouse where you would like it, and so I started looking at keyboards that put the keypad on the left instead.
There are surprisingly few of these.
Either left-handers simply don't know you can get a keyboard like that, they (like the rest of us) have got used to a sub-optimal keyboard layout, or there is a serious untapped market. I found a total of about three models of left-handed keyboards, and this was the only mechanical one.
I think that modular keyboards give better flexibility, although I would happily use a keyboard with the lefty layout there (some leave the arrow and navigation keys on the right).
Availability: good luck with that. You either need to get it from an overseas supplier (and work out shipping to NZ) - Mechanicalkeyboards.com was one option - or find a local stockist. I found a local stockist, but their price on this keyboard almost made me gag (it started with a "4"...) I don't know what it's so hard to get this keyboard. Offshore price was about NZD$135, but shipping is probably extra.
Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic Desktop
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| Microsoft's keyboard got nicknamed the "Manta Ray". |
Another keyboard that makes my list despite not being mechanical, this one gets a mention because it's simply so unique. This is, I think, a case of Microsoft getting it right - what I have read about the ergonomics of this keyboard is all positive. It makes the numeric keypad a completely separate unit, which is a brilliant idea (you can put it wherever you like - left, right, above the mouse, completely out of the way).
And, it looks cool. (Cool is not something that Microsoft often get right - usually their attempts at "cool" fail so miserably as to be utterly tragic).
However, it's not perfect. In making the keyboard more compact, they have removed almost all the gaps between keys, which gives you almost no way of knowing where you are without looking down. Beyond the main block, almost none of the keys are in standard positions - it is going to take you a while to adjust to this. Sadly, as much as I like what they have tried to do here, I wouldn't buy this keyboard, because I would be constantly mis-hitting keys - and then going back to any normal keyboard would be a similar nightmare. And, you have to rely on batteries, which I'm not a fan of.
Unsurprisingly, this keyboard is pricey for a membrane keyboard - but with good reason. I found it at around NZD$140, which actually makes it more expensive than some of the low-end mechanical keyboards. However, it does come with a mouse (but I'm not certain that's entirely a good thing).
Availability: lots of places, so I'll point you at Pricespy.
Other Keyboards
I am realising that this is getting to be a fairly long list, and I have covered most of the models that are unique enough to warrant full descriptions, so here's a list of one-liners for "the best of the rest".
- Kogan Backlit Mechanical [Tenkeyless]: two different size variants on the same standard mechanical keyboard with monochrome backlight - nothing particularly special, but at around $115 (with free shipping to NZ!), it's not going to break the bank.
- Matias Optimizer: a neat idea on adding keyboard shortcuts, replacing the Caps Lock key with an "Optimize" button. While new shortcuts for cut, copy, and paste probably aren't going to speed you up much, things like Delete Word (left or right) sound cool. They apparently used to do a mechanical version, but now you're stuck with the membrane one, which seems sad. Roughly NZD$75.
- Logitech G310 Atlas Dawn: tenkeyless gaming keyboard that is basically a smaller and simpler version of the G910 Orion Spark mentioned above.
- Thermaltake Tt eSports Poseidon: a backlit take on the standard keyboard layout. Apparently only comes with Cherry MX Blue switches (i.e. loud and clicky).
- Rosewill Striker RK-6000: fairly standard mechanical keyboard with programmable keys. Apparently it comes with a key cap puller and grippy versions of the gaming keys. Sits around the NZD$100 mark.
- Filco Majestouch Tenkeyless: a fairly expensive version of a standard keyboard, it does come highly regarded - basically, this is the posh version of something ordinary. I'm guessing you're paying for quality, seeing as it's almost twice the cost of other alternatives?
- Lolita Spyder TKL: a not-bad-looking take on a backlit, minimalist tenkeyless, and usually available from Aliexpress.com (prices and links may vary) for around NZD$100 with free shipping. I'm guessing though that whoever named this doesn't know their Russian authors (especially coupling it with a predatory invertibrate). Then again, the company making it is called "Noppoo", so perhaps English isn't their strong point.
- Cooler Master CM Storm range: there are quite a few keyboards in the range here, but there was one thing common to all of them that really bothered me - they do away with the "menu" button. While for many that would not be a bother, for me it was one of those things that would keep annoying me. Also, I couldn't find any for under NZD$150.
- Safetype ergonomic keyboard: this keyboard is easily summed up simply by saying "Wing mirrors"! Actually, that doesn't sum it up - you should go and look at the pictures. This is taking ergonomics to its extreme. Also, it's expensive.
- Keymouse: who cares about getting a tenkeyless or whatever to reduce the travel distance between the mouse and keyboard - let's make that travel disance zero. As its name so helpfully suggests, this is quite literally a mouse with a full keyboard on it - well, two mouses actually, not that I know how that would be useful. I think I would like to try this one day, simply to find out if its awkwardness or awesomeness potential wins out.
Concluding Thoughts
One thing I noticed is that the NZD$100 mark fairly clearly separates mechanical from membrane keyboards. Very few mechanical keyboards come in much under $100, but you get a lot of choice in the (inferior) membrane ones up to that price. Some of the higher-end membrane keyboards, such as the Microsoft Scuplt, do go well above $100, but at that point you are paying for functionality and design - and, the reality is that some of the better membrane keyboards are quite good to type on (Microsoft is one of the better manufacturers here, from what I have come across). I guess this delineates how serious a typist you are: is a keyboard worth more than $100 to you? Do you type enough to justify spending more, or are you happy with a rubbishy $20 one? Personally, as someone whose job and interests revolve around using the keyboard all the time, even one of the expensive keyboards would pay itself off in the long term - the 1920 hours a year typically spent at work mean that improving productivity by just a couple of percent would pay for even the most brutally-priced devices here in a year. I think this is something that most of us miss, and why I think its worth the time to learn (or create) shortcuts: for something really frequent, its worth stopping to make it faster.
Of course, there is a point where trying to make something more efficient ends up wasting more time, but the brilliant Randall Monroe of XKCD has provided a convenient chart for working out if something is worth the time. From that chart, I would say that for most of us improving typing speed is easily worth a week - and that's for only a five-year return, when I expect (barring some dramatic technological leap forward), we are all going to be spending more than five years of our life typing most days.
This is why hunt-and-peck typists kind of annoy me if they are in a job where they type often (although the slightly-less-terrible "two-finger hunt-and-peck" seems more common): you spend most of the day at the computer, and a good proportion of that typing, so why haven't you learned to do it efficiently? You'll do your neck a favour not needing to look down all the time, and touch-typing is so much faster.
Of course, the typist type (ha!) who annoys me the most is one I came across who I would title the "two-finger hammer typist": it's like the hunt-and-peck, except for some reason they feel the need to hit every key really hard (so you can feel it through the desk when sitting next to them). One of the big selling points of a clicky or tactile mechanical keyboard is the fact that you do not need to "bottom out" the keys to use them - i.e. you can truly become a "touch" typist. One of the negative things said about clicky mechanical keyboards is the noise, and having worked alongside a hammer typist, I can understand why this would get annoying - although in that case, I don't think a clicky keyboard would actually have been any louder, because all the noise was coming from bottoming out the keys so hard.
I'm an engineer by trade, so for those who might have been suspecting it, yes I did score the keyboards quantitatively. If you would like to see my spreadsheet with all the numbers, then you can download it here (slight warning that it's an ODS file not XLS, but that's because I prefer LibreOffice to Excel).
So, finally on to the concluding third part: did I find my perfect keyboard?
I have tried to keep to using images in the public domain or my own images where possible, or to link to the manufacturer's site for the source, but this has not always been possible, so if you see an image of yours that you do not want me using, then please let me know and I will take it down.
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