Here's a boring blog for you.
This new wireless keyboard is glorious, and yet I can't stand it.
I never knew until today how much I cared about the weight of keys when typing. I just don't care that much because I'm a master typer. Generally, I get around 115 words per minute with about 98% accuracy.
Clearly I need some practice on this new one:
But it's more than needing to get used to it. Something was... up. It wasn't sitting right. I was adding random letters here and there, randomly going to caps lock. Very unlike me. If I stop correcting myself now as I type, you'lil see a lot of random little mistakes of letters that I never intended on wriutiung.
The amazing thing about this keyboard is that you can decide which switches to be plkaced under the actual keys. There's a handful of fdifferent types with slightly different feels to them, and it just so happens I chose what is, for me, by far the worst option. The lime green coloured ones.
These have virtually zero resistance. So little, in fact, that simply resting my finger on a key presses it fully down. This is a nightmare because my unused fingers have a tendency to rest in places, and drift over the top of various letters to get to other letters, which is apparently enough for it to treigger. Terrible.
Thankfully, the whole poiont of this ikeyboard is to be able to switch them out easily. They even proivide you with the other options to see what you like.
Only now do I realise what a profound difference it makes. the 'heaviest' one, the one with highest 'pressure point' (Moss Green colour) is actually a little too much in the other direction. I never conusidered it until now, but there's an initial resistance that keeps the key up even with a bit of pressure adfded to it. Once you apply enouigh weight, it finally slams down and the letter is pressed.
The option I chose had no such pressure point and a very very low 'operating point'
yes, the 'Fofce' is very low. I can't tell if this is a classic 'made in China' error, or if they were using the wrong key switches to type
The 'pressure point' option that worked best for me was the lavender-ish 'Wisteria' colour (named after the flower that inspired the colour):
The little pressure point makes all the difference. I can comfortably rest both my hands entire weight on the keyboard without accidentally pressing down any keys. And when I do press them - with purpose - they slam down satisfyingly, but the whole debacle isn't so tough that my fingers tire out
The final one, the red 'Cowberry' also lacks a pressure point like the lime green one, but it has more overall force required to trigger the operating point. This, to be honest, easily felt the nicest, and sounded the nicest too. However, it only required a very tiny press, taking the key like, 3% down before it triggered the key. If it could have gone down further it would have been perfect.
Nonetheless, with about 20% regret, I felt too strongly about Wisteria and bought the entire set:
Oh man, the difference it makes. Instantly, my typing results are transformed:
They were super easy to switch out. You use a simple tool to lift off the key itself, then flip the tool around to remove the switch part with a bit of a jiggle. Simply push the new ones in and the whole keyboard is done in like 10 minutes.
I feel like I just unlocked a new hobby like collecting stamps or something. Regrettably, there seems to only be the aforementioned 'flavours' of keys available, otherwise I'd be on a global hunt for the best keys, reading up on reddit forums the best configuration
You gotta have Wisteria for number keys, but Cowberry maximises productivity on the letter keys. Moss is definitely an E/S/E goat (escape / spacebar / enter 'greatest of all time' - it's keyboard lingo, you wouldn't get it)
If you can get yourself over to Botswana, they only developed the Gold Leaf model locally but trust me bro, your experience will unbeaten if you can find some.
For now, alas, I will have to remain satisfied with a blend of Lavender and Lime (I kept the lime on the outer keys I never use just to be unique).
Will I ever be able to go back to my laptop's built in keyboard?
... probably. They're also excellent, albeit slowly dying from a spilt drink some months ago.