Ironically, what led me down the mechanical board path was being unhappy with regular (what I now know are) rubber dome boards, and preferring "laptop style" boards. From there, I had come across this thread:
http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?9808-quot-Best-quot-scissor-switch-flat-keyboardthrough google searches.
Fast forward a year and some change, and here we are.
Ok, suffice it to say, I rotate boards, as I'm sure many of us do. I have a CM Storm QFR with dampened blues, a couple Model Ms, various other dome boards (don't really use these except for lab machines), and a couple of what I consider nice scissor boards.
I have an IBM UltraNav- trackpoint & touchpad, PS/2 == very nice; great feel, love the trackpad. I like this for when I want to recline more and hold the board on my lap. Works great as I don't have to move my arm to mouse at all.
I also have what Ripster has been known to call a "HHKB Killer":
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004JHKFVY/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i00I really like this board. The footprint is excellent, and the key feel is surprisingly decent. I wouldn't call it exceptional, but it's satisfying to type on, and is still much better than the average dome board. This one is also a favorite of coworkers, both for noise level and curiosity factor.
And last evening, I ordered this:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005FIHPT6/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00It has a nearly identical layout, with a few notable differences. It has physical keys for page-up & down, home, end, scroll lock, F11, and F12. It is not missing the menu, or insert keys. For me, the lack of a Fn layer to get to the nav keys is a real plus, as I use those a lot in various text editing. I actually dig the fact that is has no LEDs, no Fn layer keypad, and manages to include all the necessary "real" keys. I only hope that the key feel is as nice as my existing one. Any way you cut it, the price is worth it to check it out. I'll report back once I get it tomorrow, for those who are interested in scissor boards.
What other small scissor boards does anyone else really like? I'm a huge fan of small footprint boards, and I'd spring for a real HHKB if my wife wouldn't kill me. I'm really hesitant on the HHKB Lite2, since it gets rather ambivalent-at-best reviews around these parts. Especially since the above boards, to me, feel rather nice, I don't want to drop 100 bucks on a lite2 and have it feel no better than these. I'm also extremely particular about layout. ANSI or die, and the weird crap that OEMs pull on the bottom row or with the right shift key is just unacceptable. I almost exclusively use the right shift, so when they make split it with an arrow or something, it always throws me off.
If the miniguru ever makes a real appearance, I'll have to get one and be done with it.
That's all for now.