Cherry KC-6000 Slim - More reviews nobody asked for.

[micmil]

I like laptop keyboards. For someone with RSI they can be ideal. Short travel, light touch, without the downsides of smashing your fingers on a solid surface. As much as I like heavily tacticlicky collapsing springbuckles... I can't work on that stuff. With the amount of typing I have to type at work I'm basically confined to brown or lighter unless I want to be in screaming pain at the end of the day.

Way back in the Never Never I used one of the early slim aluminum Apple keyboards. It was quite nice, but fragile as frick. I lost two to general use within a couple of years. As in, they straight up died with absolutely no warning. Nope. I've been looking for a decent replacement for a while now and after seeing the $30 Cherry KC-6000 Slim I thought I may have found it.

I didn't.

The first thing you'll notice is that the layout is a tad wonky. The extra backspace in the numpad (which I've quickly grown to like), no spacing between function keys, extra web and lock keys next to the function keys... nothing massively out of the usual, just a little bit of adjustment. Okay. The construction is decent. It's absolutely not a tank but for general office type use it's completely reasonable. No issues with the build quality. The feel of the keystroke is decent. If you're familiar with the Apple keyboards it's similar but a little bit snappier. I can dig it.

This concludes the assessment of the positive aspects of this keyboard.

When your fingers contact the keys you'll immediately understand the biggest issue with this keyboard. The legends are raised, and not by a small amount. They're actually tall enough that if you're not paying attention it's oddly easy to drift away from F and J since you don't expect lettering to be raised and your brain interprets EVERYTHING as the bumps on those keys. This may not be an issue if you're a strict touch typist but for "seek and destroy" style typists like me it doesn't work. Something else that's an issue is that it's very rough on your fingertips. Understand something... I play guitar. I don't have dainty unmolested fingers and still this thing is painful to use.

This still isn't the worst thing.

No, the worst thing is that the line between a key being pressed and a key being not pressed is razor thin, especially on the SHIFT keys. I first noticed this because I kept having to correct proper nouns A WHOLE FRICKING LOT at work. Maybe it's bad technique? Fire up the keyboard tester and check a few things. Nope. There's just no margin for error. You have to have the key fully down for SHIFT to work. No problem? No, problem. "Fully down" means that if you have to reach for a key you'll likely lose enough pressure on SHIFT to fail. I had similar issues with CTRL, so the concept of quick copy/paste is laughable.

Just avoid it. I know nobody here cares about this keyboard but someone, somewhere, is going to google this thing and when they do they'll find this review telling them to not waste their money and hopefully while they're here they'll find some better boards to check out.

PROS: Backspace in numpad, good feel if you like laptop style keys (which I do), dedicated calculator button.

CONS: Everything that matters.

[Riverman]

I have a couple of other Cherry scissor (SX) switch keyboards, a Stream and a Strait 3.0.  The Stream has a completely standard layout, but the Strait has a shrunken center column with the insert, home, end, etc. keys.  I agree with what you say about how Cherry's scissor switch keyboards type.  I don't particularly like either one, but bought them thinking that a large keyboard company like Cherry could surely make a decent laptop-style keyboard, on par with Logitech's offerings.  I think that Logitech's older PerfectStroke keyboards, like the original Illuminated keyboard and the DiNovo for Notebooks were the gold standard for how a desktop scissor switch could feel.  Even the new MX Keys is pretty bad compared to those.  It's like everyone has followed Apple off the flat keys and extremely shallow stroke cliff.

[micmil]

I have a couple of other Cherry scissor (SX) switch keyboards, a Stream and a Strait 3.0.  The Stream has a completely standard layout, but the Strait has a shrunken center column with the insert, home, end, etc. keys.  I agree with what you say about how Cherry's scissor switch keyboards type.  I don't particularly like either one, but bought them thinking that a large keyboard company like Cherry could surely make a decent laptop-style keyboard, on par with Logitech's offerings.  I think that Logitech's older PerfectStroke keyboards, like the original Illuminated keyboard and the DiNovo for Notebooks were the gold standard for how a desktop scissor switch could feel.  Even the new MX Keys is pretty bad compared to those.  It's like everyone has followed Apple off the flat keys and extremely shallow stroke cliff.

I'm fine with flat keys and short stroke, as long as it works well. The Apple keyboards worked well for me, but not for very long. Kind of weird seeing as I've never had an issue with the Mac laptops I've had.

It would be really nice if a company would take this segment of keyboards seriously rather than trying to race to the bottom of cheapness.

[KaitlyynDuff]

The great thing about a laptop keyboard is that you do not have to bring a huge keyboard. It is also ideal for those who are always on the go. Another reason why a lot of people likes this kind of keyboard is that it tends to last longer compared to others. Well, this is just based on my experience. I also like the small and compact keyboard especially the small and thinnest once. I also have noticed that there are a lot of different kinds of keyboard on the market... which is really interesting. I even saw a foldable keyboard.