Author Topic: worst keyboard ever? (Read 121510 times)

ironcoder · « **Reply #150 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 05:31:57 »

Quote from: ricercar;140710

Spoken like a man with a solid income. Some of us are not so fortunate. During my 42 weeks of unemployment this year...

I hear you bud. I was on the beach for a long time a few years ago. NO FUN at all.

Good luck with the employment situation.

itlnstln · « **Reply #151 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 08:47:00 »

I have a solid income, and I still don't (won't) spend a lot of money on keyboards. I have other resposibilities I need to take care of. I still end up spending/wasting money in other ways, though.

ironcoder · « **Reply #152 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 10:24:19 »

Yeah like those 400 pans of lasagna you baked before you got one good enough to do a photo op on!

itlnstln · « **Reply #153 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 10:42:49 »

Quote from: ironcoder;140927

Yeah like those 400 pans of lasagna you baked before you got one good enough to do a photo op on!

Never doubt my cooking skills.

It was only 237 pans.

Iceman · « **Reply #154 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 14:03:21 »

I currently have a Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 which is, in my opinion, complete garbage. I bought it back when I had the mindset that "a keyboard is just a keyboard". Thanks to a few hours of Google searches and some geekhack lingering I've made the switch (Pun may or may not have been intended. Whichever makes me more endearing to the community

). I'm now anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first mechanical keyboard, a Filco FKBN104MC/EB (cherry mx blue switches). Should be here tomorrow or Monday! I can't wait!

itlnstln · « **Reply #155 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 14:16:14 »

Congratulations, and welcome to GeekHack! Glad you found us and made the switch. Nice choice for a first quality keyboard, too. You will enjoy it.

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #156 on:** Thu, 10 December 2009, 14:23:49 »

Welcome Iceman. You came to the right place.

trievalot · « **Reply #157 on:** Fri, 22 January 2010, 15:59:24 »

I agree re the Mac boards, i use a Model M at work and my neighbour a Mac aluminium white key micro size board, and when the fanboi makes fun of my keyboard i offer a battle (course i can just disconnect the SDL and destroy his toy, and get back to work moments later)

kriminal · « **Reply #158 on:** Sat, 23 January 2010, 22:45:17 »

Quote from: Eclairz;64906

http://www.keysonic.de/pages/keyboards/ACK_109_BL/ack_109_bl_uk.html

These pure membrane keyboards are the worst to type on but then i guess i remember an even worse one this one

seconded i er purchased it by mistake last year >.> <.< >.> *cough*

i pressed a few keys and it has been in my cupboard ever since

btx · « **Reply #159 on:** Mon, 25 January 2010, 13:48:32 »

Definitely put the mac aluminums I got with my Mac Pro (april, 2009). Not only does it have terrible keys that remind me of chiclets from the Timex Sinclair days, but it came with a $3500 computer. Considering their target audience with those things, they should at least TRY to make something that isn't garbage designed for people with abnormally small hands...

The latest keyboard they sell with the iMac now is even smaller, but seems to have a bit more key travel and is wireless.

The only way either of them could get worse would be if they were split design. My theory is that they're so badly designed to slow people down, so they don't run into the phantom/dropped key design defects most keyboards suffer from.

hyperlinked · « **Reply #160 on:** Mon, 25 January 2010, 14:17:44 »

Quote from: btx;153637

My theory is that they're so badly designed to slow people down, so they don't run into the phantom/dropped key design defects most keyboards suffer from.

Total myth! Everyone knows the real reason why they're that shape is becaue Steve Jobs has perfectly square fingers.

The bigger question to me about the awful Mac keyboards on high end machines is why they even bother packaging them with them at all. I'm primarily a Mac user and the only time I've used my packaged keyboard was when I needed a backup board that that was all I had available... or someone wanted to borrow a keyboard and I wasn't sure if I'd ever see it back again.

I'd much rather get my MacPro with no keyboard and no mouse and save $100.

rodney · « **Reply #161 on:** Wed, 27 January 2010, 14:13:55 »

There's some really tough competition in here (is it even possible to trump the Adesso AKB-230?) that I never had the (mis?)fortune of using. My vote goes to the Ione Scorpius M10 for the horrendous quality control. I loved the way the key caps were almost able to rotate 180 degrees in place.

elservo · « **Reply #162 on:** Wed, 27 January 2010, 20:08:25 »

Doesn't the Scorpius get a pass for at least trying to be good?

I'd go with anything by Gigaware, followed by Gigaware, and then bringing up the rear of the pain parade (after the horses that have pooped all over the place), is a Gigaware.

kriminal · « **Reply #163 on:** Thu, 28 January 2010, 12:02:43 »

Quote from: elservo;154302

Doesn't the Scorpius get a pass for at least trying to be good?

I'd go with anything by Gigaware, followed by Gigaware, and then bringing up the rear of the pain parade (after the horses that have pooped all over the place), is a Gigaware.

*cough* i have a gigaware, keys went from clicky to squishy in about a couple weeks but it still didnt trump the gel keyboard

Pylon · « **Reply #164 on:** Thu, 22 April 2010, 20:24:11 »

I don't know if it counts, but pretty much all keys on calculators I've used with the exception of the Ti-84 are horribly mushy and need to be hit dead center.

Dezeer · « **Reply #165 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 11:27:38 »

Quote from: Pylon;174710

I don't know if it counts, but pretty much all keys on calculators I've used with the exception of the Ti-84 are horribly mushy and need to be hit dead center.

Yeah some calculators have those "press dead center to work".

I wondered few times, what are "mushy" keyboards, and then I got to my dads computer, and the keyboard is just horrific (Vivanco EZ-9900]. You just can't get any feeling to the typing. Other rubber domed keyboards has just been "fine", but ugh.

itlnstln · « **Reply #166 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 11:33:30 »

The HP 48GX had the best keys on a calculator I have ever used. Ripster's "ALPSulator" looks pretty nice, too, but not near as functional. I have a calculator with Cherry browns, though...

ch_123 · « **Reply #167 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 11:34:07 »

Quote from: iMav;73569

As far as bad keyboards are concerned, I won't nominate any short throw scissor switches (including the new Apple keyboards). The short throw does save on trauma. The real bad 'boards are the ones with full travel that require you to jam your fingers, full force, to the bottom of the keystroke.

Sorry for digging up the ancient post, but this is very very true. I used a Mac with an Apple Aluminium keyboard a bit over the last week and I found it perfectly usable and satisfactory to type on. Using my Thinkpad's keyboard afterwards felt a bit mushy - like going from a scissor keyboard to one of those modern Dell keyboards... Decreasing the travel really covers up the mushy-ness of rubber dome keyboards. Cheating sure, but it works.

itlnstln · « **Reply #168 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 11:37:56 »

Unfortunately, I am experiencing this on the HHKB.

itlnstln · « **Reply #169 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 12:01:48 »

It doesn't look quite as cool as "digital" numbers.

itlnstln · « **Reply #170 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 12:03:47 »

It doesn't look quite as cool as "digital" numbers.

itlnstln · « **Reply #171 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 12:32:54 »

Yeah, it was a key transposition error. My Cherry doesn't have a gold USB connector. Let me try again:

itlnstln · « **Reply #172 on:** Fri, 23 April 2010, 13:44:31 »

I don't have any problems with the switches on the Realforce numpad, but the ones on the HHKB have a little more "snap." Because of this, I get that "tug-o-war" effect that I used to get with fake ALPS in the ABS I had, so I end up bottoming out fairly hard. It has been a nice break typing on my G80-3000 for the past few days.

ironcoder · « **Reply #173 on:** Sun, 02 May 2010, 14:34:58 »

Quote from: itlnstln;175089

I end up bottoming out fairly hard

Sorry to hear that, bud. "See a doctor and get it taken care of!"

volvo244t · « **Reply #174 on:** Sat, 08 May 2010, 11:55:03 »

Quote from: Hak Foo;86416

Ridiculously small?!

$100 easily gets you an 8Gb flash-based player. That will easily store 1000 tracks. At an average length of 3 minutes, that's 50 hours of music.

1. The battery will give out long before the music does.

2. You can always swap out the songs for different ones.

3. Many players (except, of course, Apple) offer MicroSD slots. For $50, that 8Gb-16Gb player turns into a 24Gb-32Gb player.

So I spotted this while reading through the thread and I had to chuckle.

For me, anything under 80GB is ridiculously small. My current iPod is a 30GB 5.5g model and I have to pick and choose what I want to put on it on a weekly basis. I need at least 120gb. I might try to shoehorn a 240gb drive in it, since the original drive might be failing. Until I can get an affordable at-least-100GB flash memory player, it's HDD or bust for me.

As for worst keyboard ever? My nomination is the IBM/Lexmark 73G4614. Plunger over rubber dome, extremely short travel and a hefty amount of force required to register a keystroke. I bought it for something like 1.99 at a thrift years ago to replace my failing Sony OEM keyboard. It was so bad that I stopped using it after a week and continued using the failing Sony.

kishy · « **Reply #175 on:** Sat, 08 May 2010, 12:40:05 »

Hey, I happen to LIKE the Model M rubber domes. Why? They sound deceptively loud.

I wish Creative would get back into the hard drive media player business. ZEN Vision:M was a beautiful device.

ch_123 · « **Reply #176 on:** Sat, 08 May 2010, 12:43:05 »

Worst keyboard threads are doomed to failure for similar reasons why best keyboard threads are - few around here have tried Beam Springs, and few have tried the DEC LK-201...

ch_123 · « **Reply #177 on:** Sat, 08 May 2010, 13:00:34 »

Well, that's assuming he gets his to work.

mr_a500 · « **Reply #178 on:** Mon, 10 May 2010, 13:08:27 »

Quote from: hyperlinked;113344

OMG! We shared some similar trauma in the past. I never had to use the Atari 400 keyboard regularly, but I remember playing with that machine. I did have the misfortune of owning an Atari 800XL briefly before moving onto the original Atari 1040ST. The keyboard on the 1040ST was better than the finger-gym that was the 800XL keyboard, but it was still simply awful for something considered to be among the GUI driven mass-market "productivity" computers.

There were actually at least 5 different 800XL keyboards. Somebody made a thread with pictures over at AtariAge, but I can't find it at the moment. The late cost-cutting versions were absolute ****e, and the most common version was a bit firm, but there's one that's actually smooth and light. I've got both the rough and firm "Type 4" and the smooth and light "Type 1". The "Type 1" is quite nice to type on (very similar to a TRS-80 Model 100), but the keys feel a bit cheaper and thinner than the "Type 4".

ksd5 · « **Reply #179 on:** Sat, 15 May 2010, 10:30:57 »

Quote from: ch_123;180207

Worst keyboard threads are doomed to failure for similar reasons why best keyboard threads are - few around here have tried Beam Springs, and few have tried the DEC LK-201...

Oh god. I have two DEC LK-201AA keyboards. They are the worst keyboards I have ever typed on. I think they use foam pads for the mechanism.

MicroVAX II + OpenVMS = A kick-ass system.

The keyboard used to operate the system = a piece of ****.

ch_123 · « **Reply #180 on:** Sat, 15 May 2010, 10:35:17 »

I have one. Because it's such a classic I'll consider trading it for one of your A01s =P

AFAIK, the DEC uses a linear membrane system, similar in concept to the Cherry MY, but I don't think they're the same.

ch_123 · « **Reply #181 on:** Sat, 15 May 2010, 10:45:08 »

You forgot the most crucial bit -

Phaedrus2129 · « **Reply #182 on:** Thu, 20 May 2010, 18:26:06 »

Quote from: Julle;184999

My vote for the worst keyboard ever goes to the Fujitsu-Siemens KbPC sX. Apparently, the worst torments to mankind seem to come from collaboration between the German and the Japanese.

That can't be true; Michael Bolton isn't Japanese.

jdonner · « **Reply #183 on:** Sat, 22 May 2010, 03:14:58 »

For me that's the one that I punched with my fist this week and that is now in the garbage pail and the reason why I became a member of this forum.

lmnop · « **Reply #184 on:** Sat, 22 May 2010, 04:09:16 »

Razer Lycosa might not be the worst but should be mentioned.

shady advertising, shoddy soldering on the touch panel on select batch numbers, stuck keys on select batch numbers, back lighting sensor to close to volume up sensor on touch panel, rubber coating peel, driver issues, unshielded multimedia ports, dim led.

Findecanor · « **Reply #185 on:** Thu, 27 May 2010, 08:24:03 »

I walked by a store today that had newer Acer laptops. They had flat chiclet / scizzor keys with very little travel, but these were worse than other chiclet keys. The first thing you noticed was that the keys were flat, slick and glossy with very little space in-between keys resulting in next to no friction against your fingertips.
The next thing was that there was no "skirt" around any key: Each key was just a square piece of plastic on top of a scissor switch, thus exposing the switch.

The benefits of chiclet keyboards that manufacturers (such as MSI) are pointing out about their new chiclet keyboards are that the construction is supposed to be more silent, gather less dust/crud in the scissor switch and have more space in-between keys than other low-profile keyboards. Acer's keyboard has succeeded in taking everything that is bad with the chiclet design and totally avoided the benefits.

I have yet to test the chiclet keyboard of a newer Lenovo laptop. From the reviews I have read, they seem to have done chiclet keys the right way. Their chiclet keys are supposedly slightly curved and are smaller with rounded edges, thus having more spacing in-between keys.

smbaker01 · « **Reply #186 on:** Thu, 03 June 2010, 09:20:42 »

I registered just so that I could give this keyboard a (dis)honorable mention. I used a similar one for years in college, although it was a slightly older model (regent 20, can't find any pictures of it though) that I don't think had that numpad. It worked about as well as you would expect.

Of course now I wish I had one.

washuai · « **Reply #187 on:** Thu, 03 June 2010, 11:59:23 »

Quote from: lmnop;185669

Razer Lycosa might not be the worst but should be mentioned.

shady advertising, shoddy soldering on the touch panel on select batch numbers, stuck keys on select batch numbers, back lighting sensor to close to volume up sensor on touch panel, rubber coating peel, driver issues, unshielded multimedia ports, dim led.

Well, I'm not gonna knock the dim LED. After that rubber coating wears off that LED won't be dim enough.

imsto · « **Reply #188 on:** Thu, 03 June 2010, 13:23:39 »

some Chinese brand keyboards are realy sucks

Number_25 · « **Reply #189 on:** Thu, 03 May 2012, 05:24:29 »

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.

VentiLator · « **Reply #190 on:** Thu, 03 May 2012, 05:35:10 »

Keyboard of the C64, especially the C64C. It's just... *shudder*

tobydeemer · « **Reply #191 on:** Thu, 14 June 2012, 14:39:36 »

Hahah, just found this thread through random searches on the site... sorry to re-zombify it...

Those G4/G5 Apple boards were so terrible... The sound of the keys is what really got to me. It was the cheap, somehow altogether "wrong" sound of the hollow, disappointing *tock tock* that they had.

Also, a coworker has some old Sun Type 6 boards. While their layout is awesome, what with extra keys, Ctrl Key in the right spot, etc, their rubber dome build is a whole new level of extra special mush. I remarked to him one day "it's like your typing in pudding!" A while later, he came by my desk, and saw the Model M there, clacking away. He said, "I like typing in pudding, and you like typing in gravel, so we're good!"

:-D

maxlugar · « **Reply #192 on:** Sun, 12 August 2012, 18:13:11 »

The worst keyboard ever? The keyboard on the one-piece Sinclair ZX80 computer from around 1981 or 1982.

Think of it like your microwave keypad - touch membrane with zero key travel.

Impossible to type fast on, heck almost impossible to type on period. You had to apply signficant pressure to each designated spot on the "keyboard" to register a character.

Not too many will remember that old beast. It was the first home computer kit I assembled in jr. high school.

Good riddance to bad rubbish!

daerid · « **Reply #193 on:** Sun, 12 August 2012, 18:52:23 »

Worst keyboard ever? Everything I've ever typed on up until my first Das Keyboard. lol

But seriously, I'm not going to lie - I actually like the new Apple chicklet keyboards. As far as scissor switches go, they're pretty well made.

Joe221 · « **Reply #194 on:** Sun, 12 August 2012, 19:47:29 »

I owned the afore mentioned Atari 400. It was my first computer. I remember entering full BASIC code from Antic magazine. Oy! That was a joy. From there I got the original 800, which had a real keyboard which my brother used to write his reports for college. We had a word processor that worked with the 40 column display. I did my reportsmon a Brother electric typewriter. A lot of back and forth shifting. The 800's keyboard was springy but a joy compared to the 400.

dorkvader · « **Reply #195 on:** Sun, 12 August 2012, 23:40:07 »

I'm partial to the keyboard found on some consumer Toshiba laptops (as the worst). It's a "Normal" scissor keyboard at first glance, bit it's really awful in use. The domes are mushy, and the scissors must be skewed somehow, as it rattles or something. I see these on an unfortunately frequent basis at work (for repair), and they are all bad.

The MacBook air keyboard might be a close second.

The X230 keyboard is surprisingly good. Too bad they had to recall the 500+ units they sold here. (for multiple issues!)

486 · « **Reply #196 on:** Sun, 12 August 2012, 23:49:28 »

Let's not forget the IBM PCjr Chiclet keyboard. Horrible abomination to mankind!

AKIMbO · « **Reply #197 on:** Sun, 12 August 2012, 23:53:50 »

^Eff that keyboard....I concur 486.

Whorse · « **Reply #198 on:** Mon, 13 August 2012, 08:26:44 »

Might not be the worst keyboard ever but I hate when I have to work on another computer at work and they all seem to be acer's that come with these:

Domed switches with a long stem on the keycaps, so anything but a perfectly centered keystrike won't register properly, and it takes very little dirt to make the keystroke gritty. Also, the keys are smaller and closer together than a standard keyboard, which sucks for anyone with fat fingers like me, and it has an unusual layou, with all keys he same distance apart. Hated mine so much I had to buy a CMSTORM Trigger out of my own pocket for at work.

Computer-Lab in Basement · « **Reply #199 on:** Mon, 13 August 2012, 08:50:09 »

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

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.

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Author Topic: worst keyboard ever? (Read 121510 times)