How old is this "New Model M"? I bought a Unicomp a couple of years ago, which looked exactly like the keyboard pictured. It was quite unreliable.
It came out in May 2020. The previous model that looked similar is the Classic.
New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
201–210 of 282 posts
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#202Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you aren't old enough to have used a good laptop before laptops could be thinner than two inches, you can think of modern laptop keyboards as the 21st century equivalent of a girdle I miss old laptop input devices, wish someone still made a laptop with a built in trackball too!
I never got to try a trackball. I remember that touchpads back in the day were garbage compared to touchpads now, though. I remember the Thinkpad nub was better than any touchpad I ever had until I got my first Macbook Pro. The Apple touchpads were so amazing I assumed they would eventually figure out keyboards, too. Still waiting ten years later.
There are plenty of trackballs available to plugin, just not anything mainstream in a laptop.
I personally would love a return to keyboards at the front edge of the laptop, with a side mounted trackball; but I doubt I'll see that.
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
I bought the K3 from them (low profile, 75% layout) and I gave it an honest shot for a few weeks, but before long just went back to an Apple Magic Keyboard. I liked the feedback, but the travel was still longer, the keys were much louder, I wasn't a fan of the layout, and frankly, I just prefer chiclet keys. I really wanted to like it, but after that experience and working with another, more traditional mechanical fo…
I'd had my eye on the K1 and now the K3, and have hesitated for the reasons you cite: at the end of the day, flattening a mechanical keyboard just feels like incompletely reverting back toward what is admittedly the superior typing experience of the Apple Magic Keyboard. I'm actually typing this on a Keychron K2 version 1 with Gateron brown switches, and it took a few weeks of trial and error as well as a wrist pad t…
I just bought the K2 v2 about a month ago and it's pretty great. From what I've seen, they updated the design so that it wouldn't be as flat. You can change the height of the back so it slopes better. I don't find myself needing a wrist pad.
Still getting used to it over the Magic Keyboard though.
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#204The IBM Model M hype is absurdly overblown. Anyone who has used decent mechanical keyboards should be able to pretty much immediately notice just how cost-reduced that keyboard is. It is quite literally the cheapest buckling spring keyboard IBM managed to make in '89, and it shows. Cherry boards are often bashed for their flexing and wobbly cases, but the IBM Model M is hardly better with the top and lower parts of t…
I feel that the modern Model Ms made by UNICOMP have noticeably worse "fit and finish" than some of the '80s/'90s (IBM or Lexmark) Model Ms that I own. I think it's quite simply their tool and die wearing; UNICOMP is a small company and I think they have a very limited budget to do things like produce new mold masters. This probably also hits R&D and leads to things like not having NKRO which would otherwise be expected on a keyboard of that price.
I guess what I'm saying is that there are ways in which Model Ms manufactured today are more "reproduction antique" than new keyboards.
All of that said, even the 2010s Model Ms are the sturdiest keyboards I own. Significantly better built than some Cherry switch keyboards at a similar price point (but not manufactured by Cherry). While it's frustrating that you can't more readily disassemble to the board for cleaning, this is basically the norm on "commercial" or "industrial" keyboards, which is more the space the Model M occupies than what we think of as "mechanical keyboards" today. For example, Cherry and PrehKeyTec keyboards at a $400+ price point have the exact same limitations. They're mostly sold to integrators as part of a 5-figure cost system and they're viewed as single units for replacement part purposes.
On the upside, the barrel plate design makes the Model M intrinsically easier to clean of grit and cat hair than many modern mechanical designs, which take much more careful cleaning around the exposed switches.
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#205Hey, watch this! I'm going to burn a few million dollars of productivity with a post! I wanted to buy a new mechanical keyboard with a home office budget that my employer gave us, and a friend recommended I check out WASD Keyboards. (Up front: I have zero relationship with them except as a customer.) Wanna talk about analysis paralysis? The following killed a week of evenings for me: - Go to https://www.wasdkeyboards…
> You might hate my design. That's OK, really! See if you can make one you like more.
Oh wow, I do hate it. Thank you for sharing.
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#206Earlier quoted context omitted.
I never got to try a trackball. I remember that touchpads back in the day were garbage compared to touchpads now, though. I remember the Thinkpad nub was better than any touchpad I ever had until I got my first Macbook Pro. The Apple touchpads were so amazing I assumed they would eventually figure out keyboards, too. Still waiting ten years later.
There are plenty of trackballs available to plugin, just not anything mainstream in a laptop. I personally would love a return to keyboards at the front edge of the laptop, with a side mounted trackball; but I doubt I'll see that.
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#207The IBM Model M hype is absurdly overblown. Anyone who has used decent mechanical keyboards should be able to pretty much immediately notice just how cost-reduced that keyboard is. It is quite literally the cheapest buckling spring keyboard IBM managed to make in '89, and it shows. Cherry boards are often bashed for their flexing and wobbly cases, but the IBM Model M is hardly better with the top and lower parts of t…
I feel that the modern Model Ms made by UNICOMP have noticeably worse "fit and finish" than some of the '80s/'90s (IBM or Lexmark) Model Ms that I own. I think it's quite simply their tool and die wearing; UNICOMP is a small company and I think they have a very limited budget to do things like produce new mold masters. This probably also hits R&D and leads to things like not having NKRO which would otherwise be expec…
Which I believe was the reason for the new model M. The equipment they got from Lexmark was old, and the new model M fixes a lot of the issues.
I played with one recently, and I found the quality nice. Very much on par with my own original almost new-un-box model M.
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#208Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think a lot of the hype around mechanical keyboards in general is overblown. I had a period of transitioning to mechanical keyboards. I couldn't get used to the high-rise keys and long travel times which made my wrists hurt and made typing a chore. I kept convincing myself that I just had the wrong type of switch, so I changed keyboards every few months seeking that perfect feeling. The closest I got was low-profil…
So I'm not alone. I really can't understand the appeal of a mechanical keyboard. - They are loud - They are expensive - The keys are massive and ugly - Massive travel time (So slow to type on) Sure they are a bit more customizable, but is that really worth all the drawbacks? Especially the worse typing, which is the main point of a keyboard. If you are a mechanical keyboard fanatic, and my comment angered you, please…
> If you are a mechanical keyboard fanatic, my comment angered you,
My level of enthusiast is "I built my own." And not at all, everyone has their preferences.
I went with one of the loudest switches you can get (Kailh Box Jade) because the loudness of a switch is strongly correlated with the tactility of a switch. Tactility is the physical "bump" that typically aligned with the actuation point (and sound) of the switch. The theory is that bottoming out a switch can contribute to repetitive strain injury, and the tactile bump allows you acquire the muscle memory to stop before the bottom. Also, typing on the keyboard feels like cracking glass :).
There are really neat force diagrams that show the tactile bump[1].
Gamers and office workers tend to prefer linear switches, which don't have a tactile bump and are actuated by bottoming them out. The sound also arises due to bottoming them out.
> They are loud
You can alleviate 70% of this problem by choosing linear switches (typically red colored) and installing o-rings (about 30min of work). Enthusiasts go the extra mile and lubricate the switches and install a film in the switch that tightens up tolerances (this takes hours). Once you go the full mile, you end up with something like this[2].
You can't buy a keyboard with any of that done, unless you get someone to build it for you.
> The keys are massive and ugly
You can switch them out, keycaps come in all shapes and sizes, but that is definitely down to preference.
> They are expensive
Oh yes.
> Massive travel time (So slow to type on)
You do get low-profile switches, but that that gets expensive. The Logitech G915 starts at $229. Travel distance is only correlated to typing speed if you aren't used to larger travel distances. From what I've seen, the typing speed ceiling on mechanical keyboards is typically higher. In addition most people type incorrectly (myself included) and this contributes far more to typing speed than the mechanism of the keyboard.
--
Ultimately, keep doing what you are doing. If you like the extreme low travel of the Magic Keyboard, then that's the perfect keyboard for you. That being said, if you haven't given an appropriate mechanical keyboard a chance then you aren't making a decision with all the possible data.
[1]: https://chart-studio.plotly.com/~haata/417.embed [2]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2nLxvWvrJM
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#209I told myself this would be my next keyboard years ago. So know this about mechanical keyboards in general - choose wisely, because you'll be stuck with it. First, you won't ever go back to rubber dome like everyone always says, but second, the damn things don't seem to wear out. I'm still using the original Razer Blackwidow that I bought in first year uni - 2010. I thought I'd managed to kill it with beer in the fir…
I used a mechanical keyboard for 2 years. In my opinion they're like record players. The appeal is the retro factor. Chiclet keyboards are better in every measurable way and I'm using one of those now, some $25 keyboard from Dell. I can type faster on this one, more accurately, it gets dirty much slower, and it's significantly smaller. Of course there's nothing wrong with using something because it's cool.
I've used a number of mechs with various Cherry and Matias/Alps switches.
They all are handily beat by an old MSI gaming laptop with a SteelSeries chiclet keyboard. The keys on that had the perfect balance of resistance, feedback, bounciness, travel distance, and tactile feeling. That laptop is now a server in a closet and I always look forward to the rare occasion where I have to physically use it.
Most normal cheap chiclets are pretty bad though IMO. Older Apple ones are also pretty good.
Unfortunately I haven't been able to find any normal keyboards like that one - the SteelSeries keyboards you can buy all have taller keys with weird switches. And you can't reprogram them or get them in the layout you want. So I end up still using a mech with a weird form factor (designing a PCB for my next/final kb right now).
Re: New Model M Is an American-Made Keyboard That Puts a Spring Back in Your Typing
#210Hey, watch this! I'm going to burn a few million dollars of productivity with a post! I wanted to buy a new mechanical keyboard with a home office budget that my employer gave us, and a friend recommended I check out WASD Keyboards. (Up front: I have zero relationship with them except as a customer.) Wanna talk about analysis paralysis? The following killed a week of evenings for me: - Go to https://www.wasdkeyboards…
> You might hate my design. That's OK, really! See if you can make one you like more. Oh wow, I do hate it. Thank you for sharing.
You bet! What did you come up with?