Do you remember that first time you touched your first mechanical keyboard? How it felt? And how it just drew you in? I feel like I just discovered Alps all over again with this Northgate. Is it wrong that I want to swoon and squee over this keyboard and these switches? I’m actually very sad that it’s now leaving my possession. I haven’t been this smitten with a keyboard since 2011 when I first touched my friend’s Filcos.
If you’ve read my other reviews before, I would first like to thank you for doing so. Second, I wanted to change up the format so this one won’t read like my other reviews.
My thoughts on the switchAs you all might know, I
really like my Alps. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the chance to try out complicated Blue Alps until
Akimbo’s tour came along. For me,
Blue Alps definitely lived up to the hype. Since I don’t like comparing Alps switches to MX or other switch types, I’ll compare them to common boards with Alps. Two common boards that many GeekHackers could get a hold of are the Focus FK-2001 with complicated White Alps or Dell AT101W/SGI Granite with Complicated Black Alps. If you haven’t tried Alps, definitely get your hands on those. I wrote a review on the AT101W
here.
Anyways, to me, complicated blue Alps feel like
complicated White Alps if they weren’t as heavy. For some actual numbers, you can refer to the DT wiki which pulls the numbers from
Alps.tw or from
silencium’s chart (you’ll need to use Google Translate since it’s in Japanese). I prefer silencium’s chart since he has an average value. It verifies my thoughts that the Blue Alps are slightly lighter than the White Alps.
This switch is probably the only switch that I’ve used that feels equally clicky and tactile. It has a lovely bump but also a click to it. It’s a lighter switch compared to both the Black and White Alps but not nearly as light as say an MX Red. The return bounce is also very pleasant and springy. It also feels a bit smoother than the Whites on my Chicony KB7001 or Ducky1087XM. And like most of the Alps I tried, it’s a bit wobbly. But I think that’s part of the charm of the switch.
I don’t have recording equipment but I do like these two videos which showcase the sound of Blue Alps:
- Video from YouTube user Seongyeol Kim, typing on a Northgate Omnikey
- Video from YouTube user ter Vin, typing on an unknown board with Blue Alps
My thoughts on the keyboardThis was the first keyboard I’ve seen that is both metal and plastic. The bottom half is cast metal, possibly steel. And the top half is probably PBT or some sort of plastic. This is verified on
Northgate Keyboard Repair’s website. He advertises using a retr0brite-like process to whiten or repaired yellowed tops. As with other metal cases, this leads to the board being completely still and solid feeling when you type. If you’ve ever typed on a Poker, Pure, or Poker 2 with the stock case versus a metal case, you’ll understand exactly what I mean. I also think this metal bottom helps to muffle the volume of the clicky-ness of the switches. According to
this Northgate 1992 userguide (from the
Bitsavers archive, which looks like a slightly different guide from the other ones that I’ve found, the weight is 4 lbs, 12 oz or 1.99 kg.
The Omnikey’s bezel contained a bunch of dipswitches. If you end up buying one of these keyboards and want to know what the dipswitches do, check out the manuals
which is hosted on Lueck Data Systems or the manual I listed above from Bitsavers. The Lueck Data System manuals look like they’re from 1991 and older. I found this link on
/r/mech. There is also
this quick userguide from
Nicolas Sebastien Dade. I just thought it was really cool that the creators took the time to make the keyboard compatible with multiple computers.
What I thought was odd that the connector in the back of the board is, I think, a PS/2 female port. Then the cable is PS/2 to
DIN5 or AT. I suppose I’m saying this from my own modern point-of-view though. But for my own usage, it was odd to go from PS/2 to DIN5, then from to PS/2 to USB. I did really like the 90 degree angled connector though. And the cable was really long and coiled, which is good for my own setup.
The board had a lovely beige color scheme like IBM keyboards. And the blue logo looked very nice on the trap door in the top left of the front bezel. This trap door hid the dipswitch. On the back of the keyboard, the foldout legs which propped the board up were extra wide, which I think would give it more stability.
The keycaps were doubleshot. I would say it was medium thickness and made from PBT. The control, shift, and alt keys were RGB on Grey. And there were other little touches like the lock keys having front printed caps and the escape key was red on grey. I don’t like solid RGB keycaps such as the ones that Tsangan shows in
this thread. But I do like the RGB fonts a lot. To me the RGB caps clash but the RGB fonts blend nicer.
A random fun fact about the board is that when I toggled the lock keys (Caps, scroll, and number), my system would beep. I thought that was a cute touch.
Final ThoughtsI liked this keyboard so much that the first night, I tried to go on eBay to buy one. My experience with the keyboard was love at first touch. Normally I might complain about the layout, since it was full size, but I didn’t mind it at all. I would love to have this exact keyboard for use at work. I wish that this keyboard and these switches got more attention. Both deserve more love. I know I am in love. And shoutouts to Akimbo for running
his tour. Also before I forget, since I do not own this keyboard, I did not take any disassembly pictures. If someone wants those pictures, I will happily hunt some down and post them here.
Edit: I should also add that AEK and AEKII's are pretty common as well.
Edit 2:
Even this particular board didn't come with blues. Akimbo's tour thread says it was modified to solder in the blues. Blue Alps are really tough to find, unfortunately.
It did not come with blues, like Techno said. I soldered in all the blue ALPs switches.
Some good boards to find blue alps switches in (note: many of these came with different switch types too):
-Chicony KB-5161 AT
-Leading Edge DC2014 (XT)
-Leading Edge DC3014
-Various Northgate keyboards (look for the gold label, not white/blue)
