Optimus Maximus

[British]

Heh.

Can't wait to see what TrustedReviews has to say about this one (if they ever do such a review), out of pure curiosity :smile:

[Bruce]

Good spot British.

It's quite a thing.
We're still finding more things to do with it after three days.
We've got some people with specialist applications who will pay the money if it does the job.
I find out next week :ohwell:

[muchadoaboutnothing]

The word on the street is that it's not comfortable to type on but the display software does work pretty well.

Certainly the specialty applications will use it.

I saw some reviewers (on various sites; CNET was one of them) complaining that the screens were failing after a year, and they're ~$20 each.

[itlnstln]

MLs aren't horrible switches, but I wouldn't want to type on them all the time.

[muchadoaboutnothing]

MLs aren't horrible switches, but I wouldn't want to type on them all the time.

Engadget said the force required to depress keys was high and that the force increased with key size:

Okay, why does typing on the Optimus suck, you ask? Well, although the keyboard uses mechanical switches and a lot of high quality components (evident when we pulled off some keys), and there is some clicky tactility to keypresses, as a whole it just requires way too much force to depress keys. And the larger the key, the more force is required, so enter is easier than space, but harder than tab. Let's put it this way, we sit around and type all day long and this thing wore us out in about 30 seconds to a minute. Carpal sufferers, beware.

It may be the implementation rather than the ML switches themselves.

[itlnstln]

MLs don't respond well to being pressed off-center, so with the larger keys, it's probably a little harder to press dead-on, thus they feel stiffer.  My only reference for MLs is my ML4100, so I don't really have a whole lot of experience with "larger" keys.

[Findecanor]

Seriously ... that setup ought to have some friction! They don't like ribbon cables, eh ...

I saw some reviewers (on various sites; CNET was one of them) complaining that the screens were failing after a year, and they're ~$20 each.

If the connector is not what fails, it would be the screen. OLED isn't exactly known for long lifetime.

[Nonmouse]

MLs don't respond well to being pressed off-center, so with the larger keys, it's probably a little harder to press dead-on, thus they feel stiffer.  My only reference for MLs is my ML4100, so I don't really have a whole lot of experience with "larger" keys.

There's also the fact that the keys are more widely spaced than normal- at least 20.2mm (width and height of keys) vs 19mm for a standard keyboard.  More stretching for keys at the outer edge, and more likelihood of pressing the inner edge of the key, since it's further out than usual.

[microsoft windows]

Just get an IBM keyboard and you won't have to worry about all that.

[ricercar]

Because all IBM keyboards are USB and have displays on the keys.

[Phaedrus2129]

I didn't find the ML switches on my G84 that unpleasant. Main complaint is the sticking, which I'm still half-convinced is due to the keycap design, at least in part. If it weren't for the sticking, I'd rate it a bit better than the keyboard in my Thinkpad; as is, Lenovo's scissor switches trump Cherry's attempt at low-profile mechanical.

*Cue Cherry releasing a new line of excellent low profile switches, but they're only available in Cambodia and are then swiftly canceled because the project manager's wife broke up with him to go out with this guy:

*