I wrote this for fun. No need to read it, just some thoughts I thought i'd share.
I'm aware i change tense a few times in it but I'm shocked anyone even read it so I didn't bother fixing it. Sorry if the tenses bothers you
My history with keyboards is a long one, far too long to tell in any interesting manner. I will simply avoid going into detail about every board I've owned and why. But, it's taken a very long time before I was truly happy with a board I had.
My first keyboard was the ALPS board built into an Apple //c. I blame this for my love of insanely heavy keys. I will type for hours on a super heavy board, and even if my fingers get tired, I seem to love it regardless. I guess it was all the hours spent in my younger years refusing to be defeated by the insane actuation force on the //c. This, combined with my stubborn refusal to give up on anything I was doing on the computer, probably is the reason why I can type on the heaviest keys I can find all day long and be perfectly happy. By this point in my life my fingers are surely made of steel.
The only keyboard I kept going back to was a 1996 Sony VAIO pack-in from when my family bought a full VAIO setup - monitor and printer included in the same box, even - despite being a rubber dome it was the most flawless board I had typed on to that point. Prior to some point when I was a college student - during which my parents threw out many old computer parts including that VAIO board - and when out of financial necessity I got used to using the cheapest, worst rubber domes just so no keyboard could be truly too awful for me to type on. This worked for a while, but by the time I was out of college and working, the finger pain was by no means worth the money not spent.
Let's fast forward to the next intersting and relevant part of the story. Cheap stingy Happylacquer is looking for a board to not destroy my fingers. At some point in my last year of college, I switched from a laptop to a desktop and bought an Apple USB keyboard - the newest chiclet key style. I used it for a year and a half until I realized I was killing my fingers by bottoming it out even by pressing extremely lightly. It was a very well built scissor switch but definitely not made for people who learned to type on a //c (Damn you Apple for training me to type so heavily and pulling that on me!).
The board I replaced it with: a 1992 Model M I grabbed off eBay. The seller pissed me off by insisting I didn't actually want priority mail despite paying his extra fee for it (instead of slow ass Fedex) and buying it wasn't the smoothest experience, but it eventually made it to me and was extra clean. I was super happy... except for one thing.
The damn Windows button wasn't on it. I had made a horrible habit, thanks to Windows 7, to hit that button and start typing for any file or program I needed. I never found a way to get around that problem without at least having my thumb try and find a key that wasn't there. I was furious about it since everything about the Model M was so perfect to me. Typing on it all day long felt like my hands were on springy clouds, and I loved the ridiculously loud sound of it.
Surely part of the reason I loved it so much was I had used them in schools and libraries before my family upgraded to our first graphical computer. And compared to the hell that was trying to push ANY key on the //c, the Model M felt probably as light to my fingers as the Apple chiclets do to me now.
I put up with the lack of Windows key for about a year because the rest of the keyboard was just too good. But, this was around the time MX Blue was gaining a popular reputation as *the* definitive mechanical switch.
Oh god, what a horrible experience it was from start to finish. The high pitched clicks were like fingernails on chalkboard compared to the deep and soothing buckling spring sound. The keys felt as if there was almost no travel compared to the Model M. But, it had a Windows key, and surely I would eventually learn what I was missing if I put up with it?
But that day never came. It eventually became my work board as my boss wasn't willing to buy me a keyboard until I walked in with that board. It was better than the rubber dome Dell board they gave me, complete with someone else's grime and dust. Despite my hatred of the sound of MX Blues, it was better than hearing my boss babble on and on about nothing all day. (Including her regretting not buying me a new keyboard like I asked because the Blues sound bothered her too. Oh well, karma.
))
I bought a couple different MX boards to try and find one that felt right to me. Cue a year and a half of going to my local Microcenter to try out their MX demo board, bringing home several different MX board and eventually selling or returning them. Nothing was cutting it and I was debating putting up with the lack of Windows key and get a Model M again.
Eventually I decide to try a HHKB Lite2, so I go and find the cheapest one on eBay. The seller mistakenly describes it as a Topre board, and I take the description at face value without even consulting Google. The "L" key never worked fully on it, so I returned it.
I was not convinced with the HHKB layout. I love hitting the numpad enter probably more than I use the numpad itself, I constantly use the 6 key cluster between the arrow keys and top 3, and also use the F keys all day long. Trying to find a compromise, I buy a Corsair K65 with MX Reds hoping the linear feel will finally be what I wanted.
But that just got worse. I never got used to the ridiculously light actuation force of the Reds. A lifetime of stiff, hard to press keys had let my muscles learn it was okay to rest my fingers on the keys when not typing. This resulted in dozens of key inputs when I didn't realize I was touching any keys. After a couple months of constantly sounding like I was drunk off my ass, I put the K65 to the side and started investigating other options.
Eventually, while keeping my eyes out for other MX board that might finally work for me, I see a HHKB Pro go for sale in our very own marketplace and buy it. The guy turns out to be local and drops it off to me. Aweomse.
Cue my first experience with a proper Topre. The thing was magnificent, and the actuation force was on point. The only thing that bothered me, they had a light and hollow return after pressing the key that drove me mad eventually. I didn't realize what was my problem with it until I had sold it to someone else and switched to a different board yet again.
The combination of not knowing what I felt was missing in the Topre switch and re-discovering my hatred for the HHKB layout, I eventually decide that TKL is not for me at all. Even if I don't use the numpad much, there are times entering lots of digits on the top row was just too clunky and inefficient feeling.
The only switch I had left to give a shot was ALPS. I hit up an internet friend from halfway across the country who I've never met. The dude found an Apple collector's local auction a few years ago and got about 50 different Apple keyboards. I convince him to trade me an AEK2 and Pro Micro for one of my ThinkPad R500 I had been using as a footrest as he needs a laptop.
The AEK2 shows up and.... I don't even bother hooking it up. I had to pull off the key caps to be sure it was really ALPS switches. It felt so much worse than the Topre to me. In fact, I couldn't tell I wasn't typing on a rubber dome.
I inform my friend of this and ask if it needs cleaning or something. He says no, that's how it feels. Disappointed, I put it back in the box it came in and let it sit collecting dust.
Unsure of where to go next, I decided to make my final foray into the MX world, but an unusual one. I remembered a high school friend has an original Kinesis Advantage collecting dust since his job bought him an Advantage 2. I spend about half a week with it until I can consistently get 60wpm or higher. The MX Browns don't bother me in the Advantage design, but the whole time I have it I can only think of replacing it with heavier switches. After a couple weeks I finally decide I won't stick with it after all for a couple reasons: first, I still wasn't used to the thumbs for backspace and space things. I have a bad habit of almost always hitting space with my left hand. I don't know why or when I started doing this, I just do. So I would delete when I was trying to type space and realize many words later I was making one big word. Another problem, the F keys are mushy on the originals but Cherry switches on the Advantage 2's. My constant use of the F keys made this frustrating. And lastly, I couldn't type with one hand on it easily at all.
Finally, feeling as though no mechanical will satisfy me, I start coming to terms with the fact that maybe I should just stick with rubber domes. But then, when browsing GeekHack late at night bored one day, I stumble upon IBMPCDOS5's post on the Unicomp Ultra Classic.
"Unicomp... damn, why do I know that name?" I think to myself for a few seconds, then it clicks. Oh damn, Unicomp is still in business and I had no idea?! The only dudes with the balls to keep the buckling spring online. Why buy someone's gross old Model M when I could have a brand new one? Within the next 10 minutes I had an Ultra Classic ordered on Amazon Prime. I then go to the Unicomp site to place a custom order board (a Classic non-ultra, as I prefer the Model M shape to the smaller body of the Ultra, plus I didn't like the EnduraPro cutouts below the spacebar on Ultra Classic).
Despite seeing so many posts of people saying Unicomp is inferior to IBM/Lexmark, I can't wait for it to arrive. I watched every comparison video I could find on YouTube of IBM/Lexmark M's versus Unicomp ones and don't have a hard time deciding I prefer the Unicomp sound, so I'm happy. I watch the tracking on it like a kid who can't sleep because Christmas is the next day. I tear the box open and hook it up and start typing.
Oh my god, my fingers are in heaven, and so are my ears! The actuation force is just heavy enough my fingers can tell it's heavy but they aren't getting tired faster than they should. The sound is gorgeous and the springy feel of the keys shooting back up is pure typing bliss. I grab the longer spacebard and green ANSI keycap kit I got with my board, tear off all those keys plus the right side Windows key to make room for the bigger spacebar.
If you have used a Model M then I don't need to tell you what the allure is here. Quiet keyboard fans, haters of longer key travel, or dainty finger typists who put lighter springs in already light MX's need not apply. The feeling of typing on the Unicomp Model M just can not be replicated by any other switch technology which has come out since.
Is it the board for everybody… of course not. People who like light keys, quiet boards or hate bump/click won't possibly be able to enjoy this board. Everyone else? I think it should a staple keyboard enthusiast's item, and belongs in every keyboard enthusiast's collection. I liked mine so much I bought a second directly from Unicomp. The feeling of a fresh, never typed on buckling spring board is as unique as the experience of using one itself. The board is built extremely solidly and feels like one of the most sturdy boards I have ever heard, up there with IBM/Lexmark M's.
It is also not for the extremely picky. The keycaps are literally just a bit rough on the edges (luckily the side facing into the keyboard, not the side your fingers make any contact on) and the plastic molding could be a little nicer. Neither of these things really bother me, though. The board cost under 100 shipped even directly from Unicomp. They could charge more to make the very minor details a bit smoother but it wouldn't be worth it, in my opinion. These boards work perfectly and are a dream to type on. And of course TKL lovers will want a numpad-free board (bug them to make new SSK's guys!) but that is not the crowd I fall into. And obviously those who don't like a loud board for any reason must simply steer clear of the buckling spring design entirely.
In the end I only have the highest praise for this board. Of course I and everyone else would like to see the finer details more refined, but when you consider the price point and these guys in Kentucky are literally the only ones in the whole world keeping the buckling spring alive, they have my full respect. I couldn't imagine a happier typing experience.
Lastly I have to thank my girlfriend's mom for being a programmer who owned a Model M, for this reason typing at night on my Unicomp M actually helps her sleep better
IBMPCDOS5's thread ->
https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=86654.msg2330143
