Author Topic: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review  (Read 70987 times)

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Offline Surnia

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2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 11:12:03 »
Hey guys, here's my second attempt at a review. As an early caution, this is going to be a huge wall of text. The boards I have in the house that I can use for comparisons are a POM based Keycool 87, ABS Filco Majestouch 2 Ninja, and a Das model S Silent (I believe those are ABS). If you guys want any comparisons to that and I'll take pics/whatever you guys need!


Table of Contents

Updates
Introduction
Differences
Overview
Functions
Keycaps
Feel and Sound
Conclusion

Updates
May 1 - Initial review posted. No pictures yet!
May 1 - Anchors for ToC applied. Thanks CPTBadAss!
May 1 - Pics!
May 3 - Small edits, and Android OTG adapter arrived!

Introduction

If you guys have been following the market of smaller form keyboards, the current rage is all for the 60% units. However, the 75% layout is still hanging around in two main forms, the Keycool 84 and the more classic Noppoo Choc Mini. The Keycool offered some great features the Noppoo has skimmed over; namely a more standard keycap layout (standard sized space bar), and a more logical home/end cluster. From the top down we get Delete, Home, PgUp, PgDn, End and Insert hidden with Fn+F12. The constant changes to the Noppoo Mini have at least addressed the odd sized modifiers and made the home/end cluster to be a more standard layout (matching those condensed laptop setups). The board reviewed here was purchased from Qtan5370, who you can find at his vendor forum or at his respective stores (vendio or Ebay). At time of invoicing, the keyboard was $75.99 USD.

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Differences

There are not many differences between the 2013 version and the 2012 version, however they are notable to being significant to match the primary competitor in this size: the Keycool 84. The modifier row has now been converted into a standard 1.25X on all keys, so replacement keycaps here are going to be much easier to procure. They retained their 5.5X spacebar to obtain this layout however, so the spacebar is still impossible to replace (unless you 3D print your own!). A new Detachable cable has been included with the Choc Mini, which is a great change. The cable routing is very secure on the side passages, holding the cord in very well. The straight outlet however is a bit loose, but this ensures that the cable won’t be damaged. Overall, the cable routing enables 5 possible cable positions: Straight out, rear exit on the left or right, or side exit on the left or right.

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A word of caution with the USB cable: on FIRST insert mine clicked, and grabbed hold of the cable really tightly. I could not remove the cable at all, and had to use pliers to remove the cable. Subsequent inserts after that have been trouble free, however it is something to be aware of.

As noted in some other threads, the case appears to be a new design as well. A battery door for two AAA cells is built in with no leads, and a small power switch hole is just above the USB plug location. Qtan5370 has clarified that the board is NOT directly wireless capable, however the case appears to be shared with a new Noppoo product currently named and referred to as the M2.


Overview

The refresh to the 2013 line saw changes to the modifier layout, and a change to the case. The keys are now a standard 1.25X on all the modifiers, but they had to maintain their 5.5X space bar to fit them all. The keys themselves are made from PBT, approximately 1.5-1.75mm thick. Please note that I'm one of those strange people that likes their space bars backwards, so excuse me if it looks odd.

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The keyboard comes with the USB cable, a ring style Keycap puller, and the keyboard itself wrapped in bubble wrap. There are no additional accessories. The dimensions of the board are 32.0cm x 12.9cm.

Noppoo uses a Costar stabilizer layout, however the parts are predictably thinner and cheaper (they had to cheap out somewhere!). As seen here, the stabilizers are much thinner, and the plastic is much more ductile than those found on the Filco. This coupled with the fact that they require pliers to remove (they hold REALLY well) makes it a frustrating experience to remove them for swapping/greasing. One of two inserts on my space bar was broken, and it nearly resulted in the insert tearing in half and nearly ruining my space bar. My personal recommendation is to pickup a new set of stabilizer inserts if you plan on doing any modding. The Bars themselves look thinner than those I found on the Das and Filco, but they don't appear to cause any issues other than some extra rattling. A nice coat of lube will solve that problem however.

(stabilizer pics)

The Keyboard is also plate mounted on what appears to be a slightly thin uncoated plate (silver colour shows through). Unforutnately I have not taken the case apart to take a reference to this, however the keyboard has the chorus of ping people were concerned about with the Filco keyboards prior to the great GH crash. By quickly tapping a key and letting it spring back, each key WILL ping, aside from the larger stabilized keys. I'm assuming the resonance of a thinner plate is causing the volume of the ping to be amplified slightly. This does not bother me at all, but might be a consideration for others.

The keyboard will arrive utterly ungreased from factory, so a nice tear down for the stabilized keys to apply grease is a great idea. I use aerosol Super Lube sprayed into a bottle cap, and applied with a sharpened barbeque skewer.

Functions

The Noppoo as most people are aware, is NKRO capable over USB. I can confirm this to work on any Windows workstation, however I do not know its capacity to work with any other operating system. I will be picking up an OTG adapter for my Samsung tablet soon (slow Chinese mail…), and I’ll see if the keyboard’s capable of working with android. I have not tested PS/2, however I assume the functionality would be identical. A noted workaround is to use a USB to PS/2 converter, then another active PS/2 to USB converter to bring it back to 6KRO over USB and enabling full compatibility to all other OSes.

*edit* The OTG adapter arrived, and the Noppoo Plugged in perfectly. Absolutely no issues whatsoever, so it looks like the Noppoo is Android compatible, or at least for samsung devices!

A couple of other features they managed to include are quite interesting; an integrated numpad, a winlock, a limited amount of media keys, debounce control, and a switch lock.

The media keys are centered around the WASD cluster, and control volume and basic playback. There's no additional controls to access media players or other things.

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Win Lock is simple hold Fn and press the win key and it will lock it out. Switch lock is shared with the Delete key, hold Fn and a light will turn on to indicate that the Caps key and left Ctrl key have been reversed.

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The numpad is what I purchased the Noppoo for. As a lot of my work entails copious amounts of numerical data entry, the hidden numpad is great for my uses. Fn + Print Screen activates the numpad, which replaces the right hand alpha cluster with an offset numpad. It does take a small amount of time to get used to the new layout, however it is quite easy to use. I have no problems whatsoever using it, however the offset might be difficult for some people to adapt to. The double zero key has been an interesting one for me to use, as I'm not used to seeing it in standard keyboard layouts. Aquakeytest seems to report that it presses the 0 key twice VERY quickly and registers two presses only. Holding the key down does not continue outputting double 0s.

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A feature not found in many other keyboards is the ability to adjust the debounce. Debounce is how much the keyboard needs to aggregate signals into a single "press" that is sent to the computer. This is necessary due to the simple fact that we're moving from an analog to digital system. All mechanical keys in any industry face the same problem; the physical nature of a switch means that it will bounce between on and off states VERY quickly near the point of actuation either due to the key bouncing, or minute arcing from the contacts when they're close. Since we're working on keyboards either polling at crazy fast rates over USB or directly interrupting the system with a PS/2 input, all of those will register as key presses. If debounce were not included, we'd see something akin to having 10 letters register on each key press.

Debounce helps this problem by allowing the keyboard to take all inputs from within a set time frame, and register it only as a single press. Inherently a necessary solution, but in some cases the default time intervals might be too short (double presses), or too long (reduced input rate due to clustering too many inputs into one).
Fn and F10/F11 either increase or decrease the debounce on the keyboard, enabling you to adjust for keys that might be double tapping or if you're particularly insane/sensitive, the ability to adjust the debounce down to increase your WPM/APM. your mileage may vary, but for me I'm keeping it at default. I'm unsure if the settings are retained after the keyboard is unplugged.

[/url]

Keycaps

The Noppoo uses a nicely textured finish on their keycaps, with a slightly sandy/dry feeling to them. As compared to ABS, I've heard some great comparisons and the best one I could relate to is that ABS has a sort of greasy feel, even when new and compared against PBT/POM. PBT has a sort of grippy feel to the plastic along with the texture, what you can consider and feel as a higher coefficient of friction compared to POM.

POM on the Keycool unit we have in the house also has a great sandy texture to the keys, but your fingers can dance across them far more easily. Unfortunately the Keycool isn't mine so I don't get to play with it as often as I'd like to (it also uses reds, which I don't like) but my preference for materials is on the fence. I prefer POM for a household use; where I can really sit back and enjoy the typing but for work PBT feels like a much better material.

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The lettering on the keys is stated to be lasered. If you look VERY carefully at the keys, you can sometimes see indentations inside the lettering, and that is the only evidence I have that the keys might be lasered. The font colour is a nice subtle gray, and I love how it blends into the keys slightly.

[/url]

As I mentioned earlier, the caps are of a thicker material. There's debate starting right now around the forums as of May 1st, 2013 if the PBT is considered thick or thin. From all the boards I have in the house, here's what I can see. In the picture below, from left to right we have a Majestouch Ninja ABS keycap, a Das ABS(?) keycap, Techkeys doubleshot ABS, the Noppoo PBT cap, Techkeys PBT cap, a Keycool POM cap, and an ABS Keycool cap from their 22 keypad.

[/url]

In order of decreasing thickness: Noppoo > Keycool ABS/POM > Techkeys PBT > Filco=Das=Techkeys ABS

As you can see there, the Noppoo's material is much thicker than all the other caps I presently own. The measurement is an estimated thickness between 1.5-1.75mm thick. I do not know if this would classify as the current generation of "thick" PBT caps, however in reference to the caps I have access to, it is thick.

The profile appears to be Cherry profile for the keycap height. At the moment I don't have any cherry key references for the other rows other than the Function row, so I am unable to make full comparison.


Feel and Sound

As mentioned in the keycaps section, I described the feel of the PBT caps. It is definitely different to ABS that I’m used to, and it is great. My fingers no longer feel perpetually greasy when typing, and it yields a great effect after a typing session when you’re done and your fingertips feel like they’ve been gently caressed. The caps even feel like they’re pulling just enough excess moisture from your fingers so that they’re not sweaty and gross but as if they’ve just been wiped by the softest fresh cotton towels.

The smaller footprint of the keyboard is great for use in areas with limited space, but I still prefer a full 104 layout for absolute comfort. The layout of the Noppoo mimics those found in HP laptops (although those are mainly ISO and the Noppoo here is ANSI). If you’re coming from one of those, the transition is very simple and quick as the keys are in an identical layout (however spacing is different, HP changes that around and it bothers me a LOT). Overall a very comfortable size to use on a desktop or even as an overlay on a laptop while retaining full access to all function keys, arrow cluster, and home/insert cluster without them being hidden behind a Fn layer.

The sound of the Noppoo is amazing. The thicker PBT caps take out a lot of the higher pitched sounds associated with the MX switches, including bottoming out. It drops the entire sound profile into something more like a subdued clack. The POM keycaps on the Keycool 87 also do an excellent job at this, but I’d say they sound more like a hybrid thump/clack sound.

The Chorus of Springs has returned in the Noppoo, as I mentioned in the Overview. To me it is a lovely sound but it is quiet and sits more in the backround as you type normally. I don’t bottom out with the MX blacks so I can’t comment on how loud it might get if you really do hammer away on lighter switches.


Conclusion

In conclusion, The Choc Mini is a great board. Through successive generations the board has gained and lost features, many of which appear to be a response to the market’s demands. The only major downsides to the board at the moment are the fact that the NKRO over USB tends to break with non-windows OS (fixable with a work around), the board arrives completely un-lubed, and the utterly non-standard spacebar. It offers a great size with full functionality of a 104 board, and offers some interesting functions that some might consider desirable. It comes with a great set of default thick PBT caps with lasered text. If you’re looking for a great compact board with full functionality of a 104 and are mainly a windows user, the Noppoo is your keyboard.


If you guys want any additional pictures, please ask!
« Last Edit: Mon, 14 February 2022, 12:14:50 by Surnia »

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #1 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 11:12:38 »
[reserved]
in case the thing goes over with pics...

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline CPTBadAss

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #2 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 11:42:52 »
Really awesome review. I especially loved the part that me about debounce and the explanation of the modifiers. Don't even apologize for writing a "wall of text" since I think that's how reviews should be.

That being said, you can set up that Table of Contents to allow you to skip around if you wish to do so. Check out my Post Meetup review for an idea of how that might work or feel free to PM me if you have questions about bbcode formatting.

Offline iAmAhab

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #3 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 11:50:44 »
Nice write up, I could not for the love of god figure out what the Fn + F10/11 combination was good for on mine. Now I know, and knowing is half the battle.

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #4 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 11:51:28 »
Really awesome review. I especially loved the part that me about debounce and the explanation of the modifiers. Don't even apologize for writing a "wall of text" since I think that's how reviews should be.

That being said, you can set up that Table of Contents to allow you to skip around if you wish to do so. Check out my Post Meetup review for an idea of how that might work or feel free to PM me if you have questions about bbcode formatting.

Thanks CPTBadAss!

I was trying to work with the anchor tags, but it wasn't working in previews... I'll give it another shot though.

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline CPTBadAss

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #5 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 11:53:11 »
Ok, feel free to get at me if you need help, don't be shy! :D They can be tricksy. The first time I used em, I probably spent like 2 hours figuring it out.

Offline Lunartuna

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #6 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 12:41:42 »
Damn that is thick PBT! Please come today board, please.
Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline LechnerDE

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #7 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 13:05:15 »
Very nice review. Thanks!

Hopefully the version with reds will restock soon.

Offline Lunartuna

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #8 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 16:11:19 »
Board came today!

  :)

Everything is working great so far. The detachable USB is a little hard to get out but not much harder than my Ducky. I don't plan on removing it very often so it's not a big deal.

Definitely some nice thick PBT keycaps.

Loving this board!





Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline gigibecali

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #9 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 16:32:08 »
Thank you for this review.
I especially like the flipped caps comparison. Many people just don't do that even though it belongs to essentials.
IBM M - UK  |  QFR reds  |  QFR blacks  |  HPE 87 browns  |  HPE 87 blues

Offline CPTBadAss

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #10 on: Wed, 01 May 2013, 21:26:58 »
Awesome edit man. I find that people really like to be able to refer to writeups later so its nice to be able to skip around. It's definitely convenient when I refer to my old stuff as well.

Offline Lunartuna

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #11 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 00:58:46 »
Hey Surnia, take off your caps lock and tell me if you see the same thing I see. In that little hole drilled into the backplate, I think I can see what is actually 2 very thin back plates with about a 1mm space between them?
Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #12 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 01:24:25 »
Hey Surnia, take off your caps lock and tell me if you see the same thing I see. In that little hole drilled into the backplate, I think I can see what is actually 2 very thin back plates with about a 1mm space between them?

Yes I do see that, nice catch! however the gap for me has a resin/plastic/PCB sandwiched inbetween. its of a translucent tan colour...

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline gigibecali

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #13 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 02:50:11 »
@Surnia: OEM or Cherry profile caps? Or in between?
Thanks.
IBM M - UK  |  QFR reds  |  QFR blacks  |  HPE 87 browns  |  HPE 87 blues

Offline Lunartuna

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #14 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 07:58:23 »
Hey Surnia, take off your caps lock and tell me if you see the same thing I see. In that little hole drilled into the backplate, I think I can see what is actually 2 very thin back plates with about a 1mm space between them?

Yes I do see that, nice catch! however the gap for me has a resin/plastic/PCB sandwiched inbetween. its of a translucent tan colour...

Interesting.  :)
Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline Lunartuna

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #15 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 08:18:45 »
I've also noticed a couple other things. There are 2 switches mounted sideways for PgUp and PgDn, the Noppoo keycaps fit fine on it but I tried the black on black PBT keycap and the fit was very very tight. So tight it was very scary taking of the keycap again.

The second thing is the keycaps don't fit perfectly snug. There must be a little bit of play because on the 1.25 to 2.00 size keys if you press on the side the keycap "pops" down on that one side and sticks up on the other. You can see in the fifth picture in this review, the caps lock, and possibly the tab are lower on the left sides. Then when you push in the centre of the cap it pops back to flat position.

This is only with the stock Noppoo caps. Other caps I've tried on the board fit normally.

Just a couple minor cons that I noticed.
Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #16 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 18:19:20 »
@Surnia: OEM or Cherry profile caps? Or in between?
Thanks.

Cherry. Sorry I had a small blurb in there that I took out for rewriting that I forgot to plug back in!

Lunar, that would be the effects of the cheaper stabilizer parts. The replacement with higher quality inserts (as those found on Filcos et. al., and can be purchased at WASD) should alleviate the problem. Its partly due to the sheer size of the hole that give it some play for that kind of press.

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline eth0s

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #17 on: Thu, 02 May 2013, 18:23:37 »
Hey great review!  It was thorough, and had meaningful pictures that helped tell your story.  And a table of contents.  And a real conclusion.  Also great work comparing new Noppoo Choc Mini with prior version.  I'd like to see you review the new Topre HiPro keyboard. 
I ♥ Click Clack.  I ♥♥♥ Bro Caps.

Offline BlueMica

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #18 on: Sat, 04 May 2013, 01:39:13 »
Great review, is this the new backlight model such as this one?; "http://www.thenoppoo.com/china/content.asp?id=161".
Noppoo Choc Mini Black POM Cherry MX Red | Filco MJ1 Cherry MX Blue | Realforce 87U "EK-Edition" |1989 IBM SSK | Filco Ninja Cherry MX Brown | Filco Zero TKL

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #19 on: Sun, 05 May 2013, 22:37:32 »
Great News! The Noppoo works PERFECTLY with Samsung Android tablets that can take the OTG adapters. Plugged it in and it instantly worked! This means I have a fully mobile workstation in the works...

Great review, is this the new backlight model such as this one?; "http://www.thenoppoo.com/china/content.asp?id=161".

Yes I believe that is the one that Qtan is referring to for the new model.

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline BlueMica

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #20 on: Mon, 06 May 2013, 06:50:29 »
Great News! The Noppoo works PERFECTLY with Samsung Android tablets that can take the OTG adapters. Plugged it in and it instantly worked! This means I have a fully mobile workstation in the works...
Sounds like a great idea for a car computer, as the Noppoo Choc has backlight and wireless with the use of batteries. Sucks that it seems that backlight is only available in red, but it is dimmable. Time to give the new White PBT Mini a try!
« Last Edit: Mon, 06 May 2013, 20:41:30 by BlueMica »
Noppoo Choc Mini Black POM Cherry MX Red | Filco MJ1 Cherry MX Blue | Realforce 87U "EK-Edition" |1989 IBM SSK | Filco Ninja Cherry MX Brown | Filco Zero TKL

Offline baller1308

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #21 on: Tue, 07 May 2013, 09:20:45 »
Is it still not compatible with Mac's?

I know the Keycool says it has limited compatibility, but I don't even know what that means?  My current noppoo choc mini can be considered to have limited compatibility but it doesn't' really work since some keys aren't mapped or causes something else to happen.
Noppoo Choc Mini [Browns]
HPE 87 [Browns]

Offline frenchie4111

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #22 on: Tue, 07 May 2013, 10:00:20 »
I love this layout. Is there a board with this layout but without the compatibility issues? I spend too much time on Linux to buy a keyboard that only really works on Windows.

Filco MJ2 TKL

Offline baller1308

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #23 on: Tue, 07 May 2013, 16:10:18 »
I love this layout. Is there a board with this layout but without the compatibility issues? I spend too much time on Linux to buy a keyboard that only really works on Windows.
I think all of the keyboards with this layout have issues with other operating systems that aren't Windows.  I haven't found one that seems to work with Mac so Linux might also be out of the question too.

Came across some info.  The Filco Minila seems to work with Ubuntu 12.10.
« Last Edit: Tue, 07 May 2013, 16:33:45 by baller1308 »
Noppoo Choc Mini [Browns]
HPE 87 [Browns]

Offline frenchie4111

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #24 on: Tue, 07 May 2013, 17:36:30 »
Filco Manila doesn't have this layout, it has the weird extra tall Enter key

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Offline iAmAhab

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #25 on: Tue, 07 May 2013, 17:48:39 »
The noppoo works just fine on linux.

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #26 on: Tue, 07 May 2013, 19:52:24 »
Unfortunately, i don't have any linux or mac machines to test on. I might have access to a linux system, but it might be a while before I can go test it out though.

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline baller1308

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #27 on: Fri, 10 May 2013, 10:01:47 »
Filco Manila doesn't have this layout, it has the weird extra tall Enter key
That depends on which layout you get.  They also have it with the regular enter key.
Noppoo Choc Mini [Browns]
HPE 87 [Browns]

Offline iAmAhab

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #28 on: Fri, 10 May 2013, 15:02:01 »
I wanted to elaborate more about the functionality under linux. This has been tested on my laptop running Linux Mint 14.
The keyboard functions well enough under linux, not unexpected since linux has no problems with multiple input devices.
There is however a minor issue, the numlock switching function does not seem to work properly. It has to be turned of when you plug in the board or else you will be stuck with the numpad. It is easily fixed by activating the switch and then unplugging and plugging the keyboard in again. I'm guessing it can easily be fixed with some configuration in linux, but I haven't bothered as it doesn't annoy me enough.     

Offline Lunartuna

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #29 on: Fri, 10 May 2013, 22:03:54 »
I don't know if its the thick PBT, weird plate, or both but this board has such a great typing sound on it. There is a real nice "thock" to it, which is nicer than on my Ducky.

Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline Grimey

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #30 on: Fri, 10 May 2013, 22:33:52 »
The noppoo works just fine on linux.

Even the first version of this worked fine on linux.
Erlang your pants off

Offline Surnia

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #31 on: Fri, 10 May 2013, 22:36:15 »
Even the first version of this worked fine on linux.

There's been quite a few reports where that's not the case, and the hack causes issues with some linux builds. Also some Mobo BIOS don't like the hack either and there's some BIOS compatibility problems.

I don't know if its the thick PBT, weird plate, or both but this board has such a great typing sound on it. There is a real nice "thock" to it, which is nicer than on my Ducky.



its quite the thocky-ping, and its nice. Ended up typing a massive email today without realizing...
« Last Edit: Fri, 10 May 2013, 22:38:50 by Surnia »

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline baller1308

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #32 on: Sun, 12 May 2013, 20:32:59 »
I don't know if the new one needs this to get it to work on OS X, but for me it fixed my old version and now it works with OS X.

https://github.com/thefloweringash/iousbhiddriver-descriptor-override
Noppoo Choc Mini [Browns]
HPE 87 [Browns]

Offline Lunartuna

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  • Good bye money!
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #33 on: Tue, 14 May 2013, 20:22:06 »
I bought a bunch of spare costar stabilizer parts from WASDkeyboards just to have some extras and eventually convert my ducky over to costar style.

Just a few things to note for this board.

The stabilizer bar for the space bar is also a small unusual size that I'm sure would be very hard to replace.

The inserts that go into the keycap itself for the costar style stabilizer are also unique. They are black and VERY hard to get out of the space bar, easier to get out of the other keys. It's odd because the WASD replacement inserts fit into the enter, shift, and backspace keycaps fine. But there is no way in hell they will fit into the space bar. I even tried filing off the little nubs on the insert, still no way.

So basically you can only use the stabilizer parts that came with the board on the space bar. Cherish those mother****ers. The other stabilized keys take WASD parts, so no problems there if you need to replace them.

 ;)

Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline Surnia

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 146
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #34 on: Tue, 14 May 2013, 21:26:40 »
I bought a bunch of spare costar stabilizer parts from WASDkeyboards just to have some extras and eventually convert my ducky over to costar style.

Just a few things to note for this board.

The stabilizer bar for the space bar is also a small unusual size that I'm sure would be very hard to replace.

The inserts that go into the keycap itself for the costar style stabilizer are also unique. They are black and VERY hard to get out of the space bar, easier to get out of the other keys. It's odd because the WASD replacement inserts fit into the enter, shift, and backspace keycaps fine. But there is no way in hell they will fit into the space bar. I even tried filing off the little nubs on the insert, still no way.

So basically you can only use the stabilizer parts that came with the board on the space bar. Cherish those mother****ers. The other stabilized keys take WASD parts, so no problems there if you need to replace them.

 ;)



well poop. Its the spacebar one that broke for me..

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline Lunartuna

  • Posts: 201
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  • Good bye money!
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #35 on: Wed, 15 May 2013, 09:00:50 »
I bought a bunch of spare costar stabilizer parts from WASDkeyboards just to have some extras and eventually convert my ducky over to costar style.

Just a few things to note for this board.

The stabilizer bar for the space bar is also a small unusual size that I'm sure would be very hard to replace.

The inserts that go into the keycap itself for the costar style stabilizer are also unique. They are black and VERY hard to get out of the space bar, easier to get out of the other keys. It's odd because the WASD replacement inserts fit into the enter, shift, and backspace keycaps fine. But there is no way in hell they will fit into the space bar. I even tried filing off the little nubs on the insert, still no way.

So basically you can only use the stabilizer parts that came with the board on the space bar. Cherish those mother****ers. The other stabilized keys take WASD parts, so no problems there if you need to replace them.

 ;)



well poop. Its the spacebar one that broke for me..

You can still use the stock inserts from your enter, shift or backspace on the spacebar and just use WASD parts on whichever you harvested the part from :)
Shine 2 TKL - Choc Mini

Offline skuko

  • Posts: 624
  • Location: Bratislava, Slovakia
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #36 on: Fri, 07 June 2013, 18:51:47 »
hi guys, long time lurker, first time poster here :)

my choc mini just came in from qtan, seems perfect. i read some people complaining about enter not working in BIOS, due to the USB NKRO, or something. well it seems to be working in my BIOS (gigabyte Z77X-UD5H)...

maybe they fixed that in this revision :)

anyhow, i'm really satisfied with it, cheers for this review, it is what got me to pull the trigger on it :)

this is it, with my filco mj2 beige (both are reds)...

Offline ayrsen

  • Posts: 6
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #37 on: Sat, 08 June 2013, 17:09:36 »
I want to get the new version with MX brown switches but they are out of stock. Any other websites where I can get this? The layout seems extremely good for sc2 with the close f key row.

Offline LechnerDE

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #38 on: Sun, 09 June 2013, 00:23:27 »
I want to get the new version with MX brown switches but they are out of stock. Any other websites where I can get this? The layout seems extremely good for sc2 with the close f key row.

MX Brown switches are out of stock for Noppoo and Keycool boards according to Qtan, so you won't be able to get them for quite a while...

Since it's primarily for gaming you could consider getting reds ;)

Offline ayrsen

  • Posts: 6
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #39 on: Sun, 09 June 2013, 12:53:36 »
I want to get the new version with MX brown switches but they are out of stock. Any other websites where I can get this? The layout seems extremely good for sc2 with the close f key row.

MX Brown switches are out of stock for Noppoo and Keycool boards according to Qtan, so you won't be able to get them for quite a while...

Since it's primarily for gaming you could consider getting reds ;)

Already have a red switch QFR rapid, really want to try browns oh well. They'll probably sell out nearly instantly when back in stock too..

Offline SoUL

  • Posts: 14
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #40 on: Tue, 11 June 2013, 21:35:46 »
Very nice review, both this board and the Keycool 84 look amazing.
Also I've never seen someone use a backwards space bar, I might give it a try to see how it feels.  :blank:

Offline w4rtortle

  • Posts: 28
  • QFR Black Switches
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #41 on: Sun, 23 June 2013, 09:25:36 »
Where can you get these from? and ensure you get the 2013 version. Also can you confirm that the home, end, pgup, pgdown are not on modifiers. As a programmer I use these a lot :) thanks

Offline SeriouSSpotS

  • Posts: 460
  • Location: South Wales - UK
  • 60% is love, 60% is life
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #42 on: Sun, 23 June 2013, 11:46:18 »
Nice review, board looks good in white. :P
QFR - MX black   |   Poker X - Panda Clears   |   Poker 2 - MX blue

Offline Thimplum

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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #43 on: Tue, 25 June 2013, 19:26:53 »
Thanks for the review. But, wow, those caps are thick... I would imagine that it would give a nice "thock" if you bottom out!
TP4 FOR ADMIN 2013

Offline megaxpop

  • Posts: 68
  • Location: Vietnam
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #44 on: Thu, 11 July 2013, 23:43:40 »
great review! :D

Offline Surnia

  • Thread Starter
  • Posts: 146
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #45 on: Sun, 21 July 2013, 23:52:11 »
Where can you get these from? and ensure you get the 2013 version. Also can you confirm that the home, end, pgup, pgdown are not on modifiers. As a programmer I use these a lot :) thanks

been a while since I poked in here... lol.

yes, all 4 of those are on their own keys. The right most row is as follows, from top to bottom:
Delete, home, pgup, pgdn, end, right arrow.

Very nice review, both this board and the Keycool 84 look amazing.
Also I've never seen someone use a backwards space bar, I might give it a try to see how it feels.  :blank:

Agreed, weirdest thing I've ever heard of when I first saw it (cannot remember, but i swear it was a GHer from pre-crash) but after picking up my Das and feeling how relatively sharp that edge is, instantly flipped it. So much more comfortable; the key slopes towards your thumb gently and really just feels right. It does have the slightly odd effect of making the key feel lighter than it actually is (in all cases of reversed spacebars, the key becomes "finger resting" activate-able. Not sure what makes it so, possibly the angle?) though.

« Last Edit: Sun, 21 July 2013, 23:57:14 by Surnia »

Noppoo Choc Mini with MX Black | Filco 104 MJ2 Ninja with MX Black

Offline Narcix

  • Posts: 160
  • Location: Italy
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #46 on: Mon, 22 July 2013, 05:24:45 »
"As mentioned in the keycaps section, I described the feel of the PBT caps. It is definitely different to ABS that I’m used to, and it is great. My fingers no longer feel perpetually greasy when typing, and it yields a great effect after a typing session when you’re done and your fingertips feel like they’ve been gently caressed. The caps even feel like they’re pulling just enough excess moisture from your fingers so that they’re not sweaty and gross but as if they’ve just been wiped by the softest fresh cotton towels. "
This is poetry :p
Keycool 87 Grey PBT with mx blues

Offline Cev

  • Posts: 2
  • Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #47 on: Sun, 28 July 2013, 22:26:05 »
Why is the White Noppoo Choc Mini w/ Red Switches $299 on eBay? :l


Edit, as in, why did the price change.
« Last Edit: Sun, 28 July 2013, 23:14:24 by Cev »

Offline iAmAhab

  • Posts: 292
  • Established member
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #48 on: Mon, 29 July 2013, 05:18:58 »
Probably just a typo from the seller, or they are filled with drugs.

Offline uberzone

  • Posts: 3
Re: 2013 Noppoo Choc Mini review
« Reply #49 on: Mon, 29 July 2013, 14:58:01 »
I picked up one of these boards 2 weeks ago as my first mechanical keyboard. I believe I got a 2012 version. I was a little disappointed in the quality of the board. I was expecting better build quality. The keys do not seem to sit on the switches very well, as in I can push on the right side of the the R-Shift and the key stays slanted right. All of the keys exhibit this behavior. Maybe this is normal but I just don't have much experience with mechanical keyboards and I don't have a local store where I can go and check them out. I love typing on it, and I could overlook he wobbly keys and cheap rattling space bar except it does this weird thing where it stops registering a single key press and instead outputs 'ijkl' no matter what key is pressed. Unplugging the USB and plugging it back in fixes the issue, but it happens once a day at least. Seems like it may be a driver issue and not the keyboard, but google turned up nothing for me. Does anyone know for sure what might be causing this? Ultimately I decided to just return this board and go with a similar board by FILCO.