After much dithering over various 60% keyboards, I narrowed the field to the Tex Beetle and the Poker II, but I could not decide between the two. Therefore, I dipped into my life's savings, risked raising further ire from my wife concerning my new expensive habit, and bought both of them so that I could compare them directly for myself. The boards arrived a few minutes ago (speedy delivery via FedEx from MK.com!), and I thought I would share my first impressions, starting with the Tex Beetle. I will summarize my impressions of the Poker II in a separate post.
Unboxing
The Tex Beetle comes in a beautiful big box adorned on the front with a close-up photo of the board. The back of the box has diagrams of some of the major features of the board. Inside, the top of the board is protected by a piece of foam glued to the top lid of the box. The keyboard rests in a form-fitting polystyrene cradle. Upon lifting the board out of the protective polystyrene, one is greeted with some Tex humor: covering the detachable USB cable (with a right-angled connector to the keyboard) is a cardboard insert that says, "Screw Up", but the slogan is a mirror image rather than straight script. This appealed to my interest in chirality.
There was no manual, but there is a sticker fixed to the back of the keyboard showing a diagram of the electronic DIP switches, which are accessed via L1-L5 = Fn+QWERT keys. Tex has also made the manual available online as a PDF file.
Keyboard Revealed
The Beetle is beautiful. With its tasteful white-on-black keycaps and brushed aluminum faceplate, the overall design is extremely appealing. Unlike many stock boards that immediately invite swaddling them in a new case and replacing the keycaps, the Beetle looks just fine as it is. That said, given that the keycaps are laser-etched ABS, I might eventually wish to replace them with double-shot ABS or dye sub thick PBT, but first I need to learn the Fn layer. Moreover, replacing the keycaps will be more problematic on the Beetle than the Poker II, because the Beetle has dedicated arrow keys, necessitating reducing the size of several keys in the lower right-hand corner of the board.
Lifting the Beetle out of the box, one appreciates the heft and solidity of the board, owing to its steel backplate and brushed aluminum faceplate (weight stated on the back of the box = 760 grams; weight measured by my balance = 722 grams; I do not have an explanation for the discrepancy -- I calibrated my balance, and it is accurate to +/- 1 gram). The bottom of the case is plastic, which was a bit of a disappointment, but I suppose an all-aluminum case would have put the price point a bit too high to get the Beetle into the hands of as many enthusiasts as possible. The bottom of the case has four small rubber buttons for traction on the desk as well as two extensible plastic feet. The case sits squarely and firmly on the desk with or without the feet extended. The feet feel a bit cheap and they are not rubberized, so that the board can slide when pushed on a smooth surface, but I did not notice any slippage while typing.
Typing Experience
My Beetle came with Cherry blue switches. The feel of the switches was agreeably heavier and tighter yet smoother than with other Cherry switch boards I have tried, including the Filco MJ2 TKL and Leopold FC660M. In addition, the key presses felt and sounded uniform across the board. The sound is great. I am accustomed to bottoming out, and the Beetle rewards this aggression with a solid "thonk" on every keystroke. The short spacebar presents no problems at all when typing, and it has a better sound and feel than any spacebar I have ever encountered.
The Beetle has a dedicated inverted-T arrow cluster in the lower right-hand corner of the board. I welcome this, as I am accustomed to having arrow keys. However the convenience of dedicated arrow keys comes at a price. In particular, the right shift key on this board has been reduced to a paltry 1.0x -- the same size as a regular letter key. I did not realize this before, but it seems that I use the right-shift almost exclusively, and I am apparently accustomed to a generously sized shift key. Consequently, I find myself hitting the "/" or "up arrow" when I am trying to strike the right shift key. No doubt I could eventually adapt to this, but for now, I must consciously think every time I need the right shift key. However, any shortcomings attributed to the tiny right shift key are more than offset by the full-size backspace key, which I use liberally.
The Beetle has a slightly displaced staggering in the Z row and a smaller than usual spacebar; however, I had no problems at all with either of these non-standard aspects of the layout.
Other Considerations
I use Mac, Linux, and Windows computers, with Mac OS X as my primary OS. The Beetle required a few trys before it was recognized by the Mac, but once it was, there were no problems using it across all my computers using either a hardware KM or a software KM (Synergy). As with my other keyboards, I have remapped the Caps Lock key as the Command key on the Mac, which translates to the Windows key in Windows or the Meta key in Linux. The Beetle also has a relatively intuitive Fn layer accessible by the Fn keys on each side of the spacebar.
Overall
The Tex Beetle is a beautiful, highly functional, and elegantly designed keyboard. It works well in my multi-OS environment, and its appearance complements the other components of my desktop. Moreover, this keyboard feels solid. In fact, it has a tighter and sturdier feel than my IBM Model M, perhaps because of the complete lack of rattles that tend to plague the much larger keyboard.
Because of its compact design, people will be tempted to categorize the Beetle as a "travel" keyboard, but despite its portability I believe it could easily substitute as a main keyboard. The Beetle is certainly the best-looking keyboard I have ever owned, and if I can grow accustomed to the layout and Fn layer, it could easily become my daily driver.
