I’m new to mechanical keyboards and I just bought my first TKL a few days ago. I really like the full 104 boards for the number-pad and I really need it at work. As I’ve surfed the threads and seen some of the super-hot TKL and 60% boards, I’ve wanted to get one more and more. But I wasn’t ready to get rid of my number-pad. So I bought this security blanket to solve my issue. Now I can get a smaller board and have a number-pad.
So here are some of my thoughts on this lil pad.
SwitchesThe keypad has Cherry MX Brown switches. Right now, I own two boards with Cherry MX blues so that’s the baseline I’m going to be using. Blues have a wonderful tactile bump, with a CLICK when the spring presses down. When I press down on the Browns, they feel almost linear. The tactile bump is really light and so is pressing down. They’re not as light as reds but they’re slightly too light for me. But what I do like is that they’re pretty quiet and they have a delightful rebound.
AestheticsI really like Filcos. The first two mechanical keyboards I ever touched were 104 Filcos: one with blues and one with browns. And when I decided to upgrade from my BlackWidow, I picked up a Filco Ninja Majestouch2. Filco has a thin bezel, simple logo/branding, nice blue LEDs, and no extra gimmicks. And that carried over to the tenkeypad. Again, simple logo, thin bezel, and blue LED.
FeelThe pad feels about half the weight of my Leopold (Which the box says 1kg). I mean it’s probably less but it FEELS hefty, which is always a good thing. The keys feel like they have the same wobble as my Leopold and the Ninja. And when I press down, it feels solid. There’s no flex and no bounce. My BlackWidow feels almost bouncy sometimes.
Overall, I’m really happy with the pad. My only complaint is that I found out I don’t really like brown switches. But that’s ok, I’m going to be modding it to have black keys and I’ll post up pictures of that little project when I get around to it.