While all of us at Kotaku are big fans of typing, a handful of us have started taking our love of keyboards to the next level. There’s nothing like a good mechanical keyboard, especially when you take extra steps to make it your very own. I’ll show you what I’m typing on if you show me yours.
I swear the colour scheme is just a coincidence.
I’ve been covering keyboards for Kotaku for years now, but it’s only recently that I’ve been introduced to the wonderful world of customisation. I blame Chris Person, who was parading a sexy set of pastel keycaps around the office when I was visiting our New York headquarters earlier this year. Between that, with Gita Jackson’s recent acquisition of a lovely pink Filco keyboard (which is perpetually out of stock) and a visit to Reddit’s Mechanical Keyboard community, I was hooked.
Acting on a suggestion from some folks on the Reddit board, I pulled the trigger on a Unicomp Ultra Classic, the spiritual successor to IBM’s famed Model M keyboard.
Like the original Model M, the Ultra Classic utilises a unique buckling spring key switch. Basically there are springs under each of the keys attached to an activation hammer. When a key is pressed, the spring buckles, activating the hammer and registering a keystroke. They have a very unique feel and sound.
The drawback to going old-school for my first serious mechanical keyboard is that the unique key switches are not compatible with most custom key caps, most of which are aimed at the more popular Cherry MX switches and their various clones/offshoots. Thankfully the folks at Unicomp offer a selection of printed and non-printed colour caps at their website. I ordered mine on Saturday, and they had them to me by Wednesday.
I originally planned on replacing all of the grey keys with blank whites, but once I got this far I really started digging the contrast. I might order a set of grey blanks instead, now that I’m certain I can type on a keyboard without lettering (this article was my trial by fire). (Editor’s note: >.>)
Note that I did not plan the colours to coincide with the Autobot Hot Rod. He just happened to be on my desk when I started taking pictures, just sitting around waiting for an Optimus Prime to get killed.
Now it’s your turn! Mechanical or membrane, out of the box or heavily modified, let me know what you’re typing on. I probably won’t steal any of your ideas.
Comments
9 responses to “What Does Your Keyboard Look Like?”
Now? Surface Pro 4 Type Cover.
On my gaming PC? Logitech Illuminated Living-Room Keyboard K830
(Why? Because controllers, that’s why!)
When I worked in IT support at a business I saw one of the employees had a keyboard that looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. Safe to say we always brought a spare keyboard to fix his computer, which was fairly frequently.
Love mechanical keyboards, something satisfying about the sound and feel of using them.
I have a Ducky mechanical board, it has Cherry MX brown switches with black caps and white backlit lettering. I replaced the WASD keys with red caps, also with backlit white lettering.
I don’t think blank caps look good enough to justify losing the lettering, and that’s as someone who probably types more than the author does for a living. Plus I think that red/orange/yellow/white colour scheme is hideous.
Black, dusty, dirty and missing half the letters. Everyone else struggles to type anything if they try and use my computer for anything 😛
Sounds like mine. My work one is worse it has things growing on it
Using a Ducky Shine 5 at home, and a Razer 2014 Stealth at work, because my workmates hate the clicky-clicky. The Ducky is really nice, high quality, small footprint – some cool LED effects too. The Razer is a little more plain, it’s just all green LEDs, but its nice to type on all day.
The answer is many.
For serious typing sessions I use either the modified Atari 800 keyboard, or if programming, a VT-100 keyboard.
I can type faster on the Atari than on anything else and never get any strain.
My PC’s solely gaming focused so currently using a corsair k70 w/ mx-red switches, which was a replacement for a k95, which was a replacement for an earlier model of k70 (all upgrades unfortunately required as a result of coffee or beer spillages). The k95 had some alternate wasd keys with raised grips on them which I’ve transferred over to the current one. Good times.
I found this beast at the local tip and just had to take it home: http://oi66.tinypic.com/2e5ul3t.jpg
With an AT to PS/2 adapter, it works great with my Windows 10 gaming machine, just needs a clean-up. And it’s fantastic to type on. And who doesn’t love vintage?! I wonder how long it sat unused in some garbage pile?
I can totally see the appeal of a modern mechanical keyboard, but could never justify the cost, I would rather sink that cash into a really good joystick, or a new game, or anything else. For something that was virtually free, I’m thrilled.
IBM Model M colour-themed Cooler Master CMStorm Quick Fire Rapid with Cherry MX blue switches:
http://m.imgur.com/ZIEhY0H