After I got the tiny G84-4100 from Dante, I was like :^) at first, but then I was like :^/. Why? Basically the switches felt stiff and "tight" on my initial try. Therefore, aliens...er, therefore, disappointment.
But is all lost? No! Follow me.
I decided to give the little Cherry a second chance, and if you will, figure it out. So today I plugged it back in and started messing with typing on it. After a few minutes of casual and not-so-casual typing, I hit on the key (pun unintended) to getting a satisfactory performance from this keyboard:
you have to "float" your fingers.
Yup, that's it. You definitely have to be light-fingered wiht this keyboard. Initially, since the switches feel stiff, the normal tendency is to hit them a bit hard. But if you float your fingers, it gets magically smooth and easy to type on. One thing, though--it is definitely sensitive to getting keys struck on the edge. Do so, and about 40% of the time you get a "hard" hit on the key (but the keystroke registers properly).
Right now I'm typing on it and it feels quite nice. Responsive and silent. The layout
is funky, though--the placement of the Delete and tilde keys is kinda driving me nuts. But you do get full-sized dedicated arrow keys, and the key spacing, although narrow at 6.875", doesn't feel horribly cramped. I don't know the results on really long-term typing, but I've been typing all afternoon on it (including this post), and so far my hands feel okay.
So in the end, I'm liking it. Lesson learned: Don't discard something right off the bat. So if you manage to get a hold of one of these tiny things, remember, float those fingers and you'll do okay.
