I Like Small Keyboards • Hacker News Board

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#11

Post by nico_h » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:05 PM UTC

seanhunter wrote: post #3

For people who like small keyboards I recommend you checking out the planck and preonic keyboards from olkb. https://olkb.com/ I built my first planck by soldering each keyswitch. That's no longer required. My latest preonic I bought fully-assembled and it works great.

They are nice but please also look into the atreus, it uses a column stagger and has least some angling for your wrists. It’s both a finished product and also a set of instruction for DIY. Otherwise r/ergoMechKeyboards has a plethora of unibody and split small keyboards

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#12

Post by Quot » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:06 PM UTC

If anyone is looking into ergonomic keyboards, look into a layout other than Qwerty as well. I swapped to the Corne and Colemak-DH at the same time a few years ago. The Corne is beautiful, but I would say swapping to Colemak-DH provided much more ergonomic benefit for me.

I love my Corne but I never use it any more because I have to switch to my laptop keyboard too often. I am still able to use an ergo keyboard layout on both, so even when I can't use an ergo keyboard, it is still very comfortable to type.

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#13

Post by floren » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:09 PM UTC

guax wrote: post #10

They look fantastic but I am on the opposite end. The kinesys 360 pro I use now made me enjoy keyboards a bit more. I love all the extra buttons and tbh, would like even some more. Feels like a spaceship.

Same, I designed & built my own 108-key keyboard (no numpad, just a shitload of keys) and it's lovely. I'm very slowly binding functions to all the extras. https://jfloren.net/b/2024/10/23/0

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#14

Post by the__alchemist » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:10 PM UTC

For anyone out of the loop: Size/key count is the new(ish?) metric which perhaps most accurately categorizes the keyboard hobby. E.g. if you look at reddit's r/MechanicalKeyboards, they're mostly <80% layout.

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#15

Post by kasperset » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:12 PM UTC

Although not very small, HHKB is my workhorse.

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#16

Post by Unkn0wn-d » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:15 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#17

Post by squeedles » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:27 PM UTC

the__alchemist wrote: post #14

For anyone out of the loop: Size/key count is the new(ish?) metric which perhaps most accurately categorizes the keyboard hobby. E.g. if you look at reddit's r/MechanicalKeyboards, they're mostly <80% layout.

Yea, generally you have full size/108 key boards, tenkeyless (no numpad but other layout unchanged), then 75%/65%/60% which all condense the function row and arrow key block to varying degrees. TFA depicted an extremely condensed (and split) keyboard without even a number row. No idea what to call that.

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#18

Post by shen » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

I like to be able to sit down at any computer and keyboard and be fully productive right away.

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#19

Post by criddell » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:31 PM UTC

kasperset wrote: post #15

Although not very small, HHKB is my workhorse.

I'm not a fan of mechanical keyboards so I was going to post a link to my favorite keyboard (Lenovo ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II) and just found out it's discontinued. I'm so bummed out because it's such a great keyboard and the two I use are getting old.

It's hard to believe it wasn't a good seller for them because it was frequently out of stock and when it came back in stock you had to be quick to get one.

Re: I Like Small Keyboards

#20

Post by minimaxir » Mon, Jul 06, 2026, 6:32 PM UTC

I switched from a typical keyboard to a 75% Keychron K2 HE (https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-k2-he-wireless-ma...) and I like it a lot. I wasn't using the side keys enough for the desk real estate required so this is more efficient. However as a result it's hard to go smaller; I like the function keys!

There's also a few notes on how reducing the actuation distance using the magnetic switches is a decent productitiy/RSI-reducer but that's a subject for another thread.