So there other day at work I was talking mechanical keyboards in the lunchroom. While everyone was looking at me like I was crazy, one person said she knew what I was talking about. She said she had been doing some research for a product that might use mechanical switches, and had a calculator that has some.
Right away I knew that she must have been talking about the ALPSulator. I asked her as quickly as I could if she could bring it by the office, so I could have a look at at it.
Here it is:
http://imgur.com/a/gJFzBMy first thought when I touched it was wow this thing feels light (and is in bad shape). It weighs about 140g (so about the same as my iPhone 6 with a simple bumper).
Like everyone can guess, it uses ALPS switches (clicky type), unfortunately I didn't want to start pulling of caps since the person that it belong to was not too far away and would have probably freaked out.
It does not seem to have any key rollover, and if I hit the 1, 2 , and 3 keys really quickly one after the other, they would not all register.
A big problem is that it's built in glossy black plastic that seems to be very prone to scratches. The caps are very shiny and pick up fingerprints far too easily, and use what seems to be pad printed legends.
It's a nice little toy, but I would not consider it to replace a real 10key. However it does make for a nice simple desk calculator.
Bonus video!!!
