worst keyboard ever?

[harrison]

Ooh - I don't think anyone has mentioned the Dell Vostros that were shipped like this (look closely):

Show Image

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/dell_keyboard_blunder_vostro/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jacobgordon/2455618195

worst typing experience or finger feel are two very different things.  as far as typing experience goes, if the board as been built using a non-standard layout... that's the last straw for me.  that dell vostro would take the cake in that department.  that's just unreal.

as far as finger feel... i'd have to say that a worn dell sk8115 has to be one of those most unpleasant typing experiences i've had as of recent.



although, the WORST finger feel i've ever had was the old apple //c i had growing up.  as a kid, the force required to activate those keys was enormous.  there were many times i recall pressing a key and it not activating at all, the switch just didn't move.  and the linear arrow keys... ugh.

[davkol]

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[harrison]

Worst keyboard in my opinion is the Dell KB212-B keyboards.

Show Image

These keyboards come with almost every new Dell sold (I have dealt with them alot at work) and may very well be the most mushy, unpleasing new keyboards I have ever had to type on.  Thank God I decided to bring in my IBM Model M and my Ducky DK 1087 with MX Blues into work today; I might actually be able to get some work done now.

We have these in one lab in school… they're not that bad. Some of the better OEM boards today, actually. Awesome design and build quality for a $10 thing. Sure, they're mushy, but at least not too stiff or sticky like many other cheap keyboards.

yeah, I agree with you actually.  My parents both love this keyboard... I had been thinking about buying one of the new cherry 3800 for my mom since she spends most of her day typing and likes the low profile keys, but figured she's appreciate the cherry switches.

[boost]

Worst keyboard in my opinion is the Dell KB212-B keyboards.

Show Image

These keyboards come with almost every new Dell sold (I have dealt with them alot at work) and may very well be the most mushy, unpleasing new keyboards I have ever had to type on.  Thank God I decided to bring in my IBM Model M and my Ducky DK 1087 with MX Blues into work today; I might actually be able to get some work done now.

Really hate that keyboard and feels like sh it....Damn rubber domes with low profile.

[Matt3o]

Really, look at the arrow keys...

[486]

although, the WORST finger feel i've ever had was the old apple //c i had growing up.  as a kid, the force required to activate those keys was enormous.  there were many times i recall pressing a key and it not activating at all, the switch just didn't move.  and the linear arrow keys... ugh.

They were Yellow Alps. Many people have said they are excellent.

[harrison]

although, the WORST finger feel i've ever had was the old apple //c i had growing up.  as a kid, the force required to activate those keys was enormous.  there were many times i recall pressing a key and it not activating at all, the switch just didn't move.  and the linear arrow keys... ugh.

They were Yellow Alps. Many people have said they are excellent.

well, the computer wasn't new to me... perhaps something was spilled in them?  who knows, all i can say is that they were a huge pain in the ass to type on as a 10 year old.

[PRISONER 24601]

Fujitsu Peerless.
There are some keys you can't un-mash.

[CPTBadAss]

Any laptop keyboard. I've never found one that I liked. They're always super cramped and awkward.

[daerid]

Worst keyboard in my opinion is the Dell KB212-B keyboards.

Show Image

I actually just got one of these for my girlfriend. She loves 'em. I'm afraid there's no hope for her (she hates my Cherry boards and I don't let her touch my Topre boards).

[PRISONER 24601]

Worst keyboard in my opinion is the Dell KB212-B keyboards.

Show Image

These keyboards come with almost every new Dell sold (I have dealt with them alot at work) and may very well be the most mushy, unpleasing new keyboards I have ever had to type on.  Thank God I decided to bring in my IBM Model M and my Ducky DK 1087 with MX Blues into work today; I might actually be able to get some work done now.

I actually like the direction they're going with that particular series of dell oems. they look, type, and feel better than the sk8115 etc models from a few years back. At least the styling is low-key and modern.

compared to a buckling spring or MX blue and they're like typing on watery mashed potatoes, though. Yuck.

[bavman]

One time (way in the past when I didn't own more keyboards than I needed) I bought a microcenter $5 board to hold me over till my filco came in the mail. It was pretty bad.

I also tried a sidewinder x4 one time before i got into mechanical keyboards and i absolutely hated it. The keys are tiny and it feels terrible

[PRISONER 24601]

How is it that Key Tronic can make a honest-to-god-near-perfect, but still dirt cheap, rubber dome keyboard for 5 bucks, while the mental midgets at Dell still haven't figured out how to make an off center key press work??

[beefblast]

Worst keyboard in my opinion is the Dell KB212-B keyboards.

Show Image

These keyboards come with almost every new Dell sold (I have dealt with them alot at work) and may very well be the most mushy, unpleasing new keyboards I have ever had to type on.  Thank God I decided to bring in my IBM Model M and my Ducky DK 1087 with MX Blues into work today; I might actually be able to get some work done now.

I actually like the direction they're going with that particular series of dell oems. they look, type, and feel better than the sk8115 etc models from a few years back. At least the styling is low-key and modern.

compared to a buckling spring or MX blue and they're like typing on watery mashed potatoes, though. Yuck.

These ones aren't too bad. The "other" keyboard they sell, the one with contoured sides, are pretty awful. The real problem, though, is that they quickly get much much worse. The plungers wear badly and start to stick, making for wobbly, creaky, sticky keys. After a year or two you just have to throw them out.

[bisl]

After a year or two you just have to throw them out.

Amusingly, even at that rate it would still take about 12 years to add up to the price of a Filco. Not that I didn't choose the Filco myself.

[Magnusian]

My brother owns a Deck Legend with cherry blacks and I can't imagine typing on a worse full-size board. I don't think I can touch-type a single word on it without typos and the key profiles are absolutely horrid. It feels like the keys are supported by silly putty or something. Whenever I find that I have to use his desktop I plug something else in. I hate that keyboard so much I've thought about taking an axe to it.

I'm sure many here would disagree with me on it being the absolute worst, but when I die and go to Hell I am certain that I'll be shoved into a tiny room filled to the brim with ancient machines running GNU/Linux that I'll be forced to configure sendmail on with a Deck Legend or one of those crummy modern mac chicklet keyboards.

[rootwyrm]

How is it that Key Tronic can make a honest-to-god-near-perfect, but still dirt cheap, rubber dome keyboard for 5 bucks, while the mental midgets at Dell still haven't figured out how to make an off center key press work??

Costs more than a fraction of a fraction of a penny to add the 'off center key press' functionality so it got cut from final product.

Though frankly my vote for absolute worst keyboard ever would have to be an ODM made store brand that CompUSA, Frys and MicroCenter all sold. Thing weighed less than a pound. Unlubricated sliders over pop-dome membrane. If you could type more than 5 WPM on that thing it was a miracle between all the keys sticking.

[jabar]

My brother owns a Deck Legend with cherry blacks and I can't imagine typing on a worse full-size board. I don't think I can touch-type a single word on it without typos and the key profiles are absolutely horrid. It feels like the keys are supported by silly putty or something. Whenever I find that I have to use his desktop I plug something else in. I hate that keyboard so much I've thought about taking an axe to it.

I'm sure many here would disagree with me on it being the absolute worst, but when I die and go to Hell I am certain that I'll be shoved into a tiny room filled to the brim with ancient machines running GNU/Linux that I'll be forced to configure sendmail on with a Deck Legend or one of those crummy modern mac chicklet keyboards.

At the very least the Deck keyboard is a Cherry MX keyboard. I have a lot of active default HP rubber dome keyboards at work and they are absolutely miserable to type on (myriad of typos no matter how good the touch typist). Still, the complete lack of interest in improving and promoting the Deck brand by T3G is disgraceful and they deserve whatever demerits they receive (consider Deck has been in the specialty keyboard business for some 7-ish years now).

[Magnusian]

My brother owns a Deck Legend with cherry blacks and I can't imagine typing on a worse full-size board. I don't think I can touch-type a single word on it without typos and the key profiles are absolutely horrid. It feels like the keys are supported by silly putty or something. Whenever I find that I have to use his desktop I plug something else in. I hate that keyboard so much I've thought about taking an axe to it.

I'm sure many here would disagree with me on it being the absolute worst, but when I die and go to Hell I am certain that I'll be shoved into a tiny room filled to the brim with ancient machines running GNU/Linux that I'll be forced to configure sendmail on with a Deck Legend or one of those crummy modern mac chicklet keyboards.

At the very least the Deck keyboard is a Cherry MX keyboard. I have a lot of active default HP rubber dome keyboards at work and they are absolutely miserable to type on (myriad of typos no matter how good the touch typist). Still, the complete lack of interest in improving and promoting the Deck brand by T3G is disgraceful and they deserve whatever demerits they receive (consider Deck has been in the specialty keyboard business for some 7-ish years now).

I've typed on a large number of RD keyboards, ranging from the el-cheapo $3 ones to the "nice" $30 range ones and would consider them all to be better than (at least the one my brother owns) Deck. Right now I have a Logitech wireless one that I use with a media pc and even that offers what I feel to be a superior typing experience to the Deck. Before the Deck he had a Saitek Eclipse or something, which while pretty crummy, was at least not impossible to type on.

[BlindRAGE606]

Has to be a dell sk8115, we have these at my Uni computer lab+work office and it SUCKKKS.

[crthell]

I am currently typing on a DELL KB1421. It's pretty horrible in all fairness, but nothing in comparison to the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard that my college has in the library.

Holy old thread resurrection!

[rowdy]

Not the first time either.

Reply #188 was on 04-06-2010, reply #189 was on 03-05-2012.

Now that's reanimation of a thread's slowly decaying corpse

[lazerpointer]

My co-worker just started typing on a Microsoft Natural curve something or-another with the zoom lever directly where the G, H keys should be. I typed on it for a minute.... Worst Keyboard Ever.

[keymaster]

..pretty much any generic ~$5 keyboard.

[Dugzor]

Damn, I hate these things.

[calavera]

Any membrane keyboard with keys that stick due to age.

[fohat.digs]

A foil & foam where the foam has deteriorated.

[inteli722]

both are terrible...I'm using the latter to rest my feet on...

[aviphysics]

It is pretty clear from this thread that a lot of you really don't really appreciate how terrible a keyboard can be.

For example
this

or this


and I don't even think those are the worst.

For some reason I remember some early computer that had a built in keyboard of the style that looks like a flat piece of plastic with letters and outlines printed on it for they keys and you have to hit it really hard or they don't register.

Edit: I think I found the absolute worst keyboard ever. Short of a keyboard soaked in sewage I think this is.

[davkol]

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[daerid]

Damn, I hate these things.

Show Image

lol, one of my favorite boards ever

[morpheus]

It is pretty clear from this thread that a lot of you really don't really appreciate how terrible a keyboard can be.

For example
this

Show Image

or this

Show Image

and I don't even think those are the worst.

For some reason I remember some early computer that had a built in keyboard of the style that looks like a flat piece of plastic with letters and outlines printed on it for they keys and you have to hit it really hard or they don't register.

Edit: I think I found the absolute worst keyboard ever. Short of a keyboard soaked in sewage I think this is.

Show Image

Is that a fruit roll up?

[SpAmRaY]

This thread has been around a while

The worst keyboard is always the one you're either waiting to build and/or the one coming in the mail.

[ksm123]

In early nineties, there was a Polish computer company, called Optimus (there are long defunct because of tax problems).

They sold their computers with mechanical keyboards. This keyboards were based on some Alps or alps rip off switch. It was very stiff before actuation, and it was very hard not to bottom it out. I used to hate their keyboards.

[noisyturtle]

[wyatt8740]

This thread has been revived more times than I've repaired this keyboard...
The tactile experience is dreadful. It's not even mushy, but man, something is clearly off. It feels similar to the Tandy 1400LT keyboard, but 10x worse.
(From: the Commodore VIC-20, but the same keyboard is used in the C64.)

Info on whet the repair I did is:

More

Look carefully. I got this from a warehouse/factory, specifically from the junk pile in a corner, also where I found my Model M. While I have cleaned it very well, it came missing a '3' key. The previous owner had actually snapped it clean off, and it was not meant to be removable. The key you see there was stolen from the common Dell circa 2006 Keyboard. I have a stack of them for replacement keys. I got a spring from the 'miscellaneous parts' area of my toolchest, and i held it all together with a toothpick.

Sorry for the poor quality even on such a resolution. My camera was stolen last summer ******* smashed the window of my poor volvo.

This is a bit of a suprise: a crappy lenovo/IBM keyboard.

Horrible rubber caps. Should be killed on sight. To use the expression I saw earlier in this thread, it feels not unlike typing on a dead octopus.

The WORST space-saving keyboard in the history of time:

Gear-Head Black Mini Keyboard. I saw a class on programming on a Raspberry Pi, peeked in, saw them using these sh*tty keyboards, and left. I mean, EVERYTHING is wrong. The spacebar, the arrowkey layout, the general button layout, the shift keys, EVERYTHING. Hell, the num lock is next to the spacebar, and if you miss the spacebar (because it's miniscule) you could hit it. Then, because the letter keys act as numbers with numlock on, you would be typing numbers instead of the right-hand side of your letter keys. How anyone can suffer such abuse and not proceed to strangle a baby escapes me. Radio$hack sells them online, so if you want proof, go ahead.
... I dare you.
Seriously, it is only slightly worse than handwriting a program in C:

For discerning eyes, no, this program is not complete. I wrote this part on a bus though. While my hands were cramped afterwards, it's still better than the Gear-Head.

Thus, I now type on my Model M.
I got it for free from the place I found my VIC-20, but this is seriously in perfect shape Even came with the cable and all the spacebar needed to start working properly was a re-seating.

[Danule]

i had some of those lenovo's at my old work, i didnt mind them that much for a rubber dome i thought they were pretty decent.

[hoggy]

It is pretty clear from this thread that a lot of you really don't really appreciate how terrible a keyboard can be.

For example
this

Show Image

or this

Show Image

and I don't even think those are the worst.

For some reason I remember some early computer that had a built in keyboard of the style that looks like a flat piece of plastic with letters and outlines printed on it for they keys and you have to hit it really hard or they don't register.

I'm on my phone otherwise I'd take a picture. I think you mean the sinclair zx81. +1

[mauri]

Show Image

How can you hate that keyboard, I had one at my previous job, it was amazing. I was actually recently wondering whether it was a mech board, it was just that good :o

[Thimplum]

Anything touchscreen.

[TrueOP]

Anything touchscreen.

agreed !

[Thimplum]

Anything touchscreen.

agreed !

What!? 20WPM is the future of computing!

[dorkvader]

For some reason I remember some early computer that had a built in keyboard of the style that looks like a flat piece of plastic with letters and outlines printed on it for they keys and you have to hit it really hard or they don't register.

you mean like this: http://www.ebay.com/itm/300937914834

They are also popular on POS keybaords. Sadly I have to scroll past a lot of them in my ebay search.

[nullptr]

I was reminded yesterday of this monstrosity at the computer science museum. Hnnnng.

[rowdy]

Anything touchscreen.

I actually used a touchscreen (on an iPad) recently, and found the experience surprisingly good.

Doesn't compare to a mechanical keyboard, of course, but I was able to more or less touch type entire paragraphs without mistaks.

[Thimplum]

Anything touchscreen.

I actually used a touchscreen (on an iPad) recently, and found the experience surprisingly good.

Doesn't compare to a mechanical keyboard, of course, but I was able to more or less touch type entire paragraphs without mistaks.

Props to you.

I didn't think that it was possible touch type on an iPaid.

[CommunistWitchDr]

Props to you.

I didn't think that it was possible touch type on an iPaid.

I'm getting there. With one thumb. On a phone. MessagEase is pretty great for a phone board. A few typos when I type in a rush and try to go faster than I can handle sometimes though. Like a random ampersand in the middle of a word or an e in place of a space. Other than those, it's awesome.

[rowdy]

Anything touchscreen.

I actually used a touchscreen (on an iPad) recently, and found the experience surprisingly good.

Doesn't compare to a mechanical keyboard, of course, but I was able to more or less touch type entire paragraphs without mistaks.

Props to you.

I didn't think that it was possible touch type on an iPaid.

I was surprised too.  iPad turned to landscape and propped up slightly, and it was surprisingly easy to type on it.

I wouldn't choose to do that on a regular basis though.

[Narcix]

Cellulon Magic Cube

[Thimplum]

Anything touchscreen.

I actually used a touchscreen (on an iPad) recently, and found the experience surprisingly good.

Doesn't compare to a mechanical keyboard, of course, but I was able to more or less touch type entire paragraphs without mistaks.

Props to you.

I didn't think that it was possible touch type on an iPaid.

I was surprised too.  iPad turned to landscape and propped up slightly, and it was surprisingly easy to type on it.

I wouldn't choose to do that on a regular basis though.

Meh.

I'm used to 80g switches.

I once tried the same trick you described.

It's worse than rubberdome.

A lot worse.