Thought I had it figured out - until Another Board showed up - it's Model M Madness!

[Thinkpad Fan]

Just when you thought you knew it all......

Well, the last year has been full of enjoyable typing on my newly found obsession, the IBM Model M (and relatives).  Older (just like Me!) had really proven to be better!  I had pretty well decided I had the answer to keyboard happiness.  The older the Model M, the better!  My 1987 Silver Label (131) was my favorite, followed by a 1989 and a 1990 401 board.   I even bought a Brand New in the box 401 from Clickykeyboards, but it didn't feel any better than the others, so it went back in the box.  (Would 9 popped rivets matter?  Thank you USPS!)  I found an M2 for $3, and it works fine - but I like big, heavy and old.

Then I got my Uber Cool Black M13 and I thought I was really stylin', absolutely LOVED the Trackpoint (Ya! No Mouse to reach for a million times a day!!) but the MaxiSwitch board felt a little different and a little less than the "IBM" made tradititional boards.  Not bad, but not quite as much fun to type on.  (Still light years ahead of whatever was next.) Then I got a White M13 (Lexmark for IBM) and it was dirty when recieved and felt "soft", so I never used it, vowing to bolt mod it and replace all the wimpy springs.  And "it was Only a Lexmark, as we all know!!"

I'm a field guy, seldom in the office for long (though I keep the 1989 Model M there).  But I got stuck in an office for a month with some totally worn out, horrid Dell rubber domes, and a throughly worn out IBM rubber dome.  IT WAS ABSOLUTE HELL, trying to type on any of those things!!  So I brought in my Black M13 (wouldn't look so out of place).   I got away with that change, so I brought in the white M13  for the other desk.  It worked, too.

Strangely enough, I found the white Lexmark M13 much more fun to type on than the pretty Black MaxiSwitch.  Lighter, faster, crisper!  How strange!

Then up jumped The Devil!    (eBay, of course.)

I bid on, and got a like new Unicomp 42H1292U from 2001 for under $40, delivered.  And the next day, another IBM M13 White Lexmark in excellent shape shows up for under $30 in "Buy It Now". I just couldn't help myself  I had to have that one, too.  It was soooo cheap!  All strictly in the interests of  scientific research, of course!!

Now the Unicomp is here, and it is faster and lighter than any of my other boards!  Surprise, Surprise, Surprise - right Gomer?  But it doesn't have the pointer stick/Trackpoint, damn it!!!!    I'm now Waiting on the new M13 to show up, just for a cross check.  And now mice make me impatient.......

Conclusions.  These boards differ - a lot - and the lowly Unicomp and Lexmarks are steadily becoming favorites over their "Betters!".  The "Common Knowledge" about Lexmarks and Unicomps doesn't appear to hold water - they can be BETTER!  Or is it all just fleeting Perceptions?  I'm thinking about USB hubbing them all and just working around the table to figure out the differences.  Besides, I have the rest of my life to keep switching back and fortha and trying them.  Now if I could just find an M15, I'd have the Holy Grail......     Thinkpad Fan

[litster]

Welcome to geekhack!  I too have a bunch of IBM keyboards.  Model M, M2, M2 rubber dome, M4, M15.  Would love to get a black and a white M13 soon.

I mean, welcome back!

[PlayerZero]

Your poor, poor wallet.

[Thinkpad Fan]

It gets worse.   Now I'm thinking of auditioning the two white Lexmark M13s, and which ever one is better, switching it's innards into the Black M13 Case and Keys.  Then I can have the "feel" I prefer, with the nice Black Color.  (I'm an old Hot Rodder, and things seldom stay stock around me long.)  If the Unicomp Board had a (good feeling, of course) Trackpoint, I would have already done this and been in Keyboard Heaven!  

The big surprise is that from reading everyone's comments and reviews, I had the impression that Lexmark boards were "a bit less" than the earlier IBMs, and that Unicomp was yet another step down.  That "ain't necessarily So!".  Conventional wisdom about Model M quality seems at least somewhat wrong, if not backwards entirely. It makes sense that as the board remained in production, the current builders would have continued to optimize it as they went.  Lexmark and Unicomp are no longer "sub-par" - I'll be looking for pristine examples of both from now on.

My guess is that the reviewers didn't try anything but the board they had, and just went off of "appearances".   TPF

[xwhatsit]

Unicomp make a board with a trackpoint, but it's their own trackpoint clone and is supposedly crap.

It seems to be widely acknowledged that the Unicomps are pretty good -- brand new with (most importantly!) no broken rivets. So very crisp and not pingy (I love the pingy-ness of my older Ms and Fs though!). And they (possibly along with the later IBM/Lexmark boards) have lighter springs. So the end result is a crisper, slightly lighter, and faster feeling board.

Moral of the story: buckling springs, they're all good