I need a new mech (60%) Poker II or Filco Majestouch 2 ninja tkl?

[mathiasdk1]

Hello fellow geeks.

A great friend of mine wanted a new keyboard, so i helped him find a couple he liked. By doing that i got REALLY hungry for a new one myself aswell
I am using my SS 6gv2 as i type right now, which i have had for like 6 months now (is it too early to look for a new one )
and i have kinda grown tired of it. I still like the simple design and all, but i just think it takes up too much space on my desk (usually when i am gaming fps)
so i thought to myself - Why not get a TenKeyLess/60%
that ended up in me staying up waaay to late just seaching the interwebs for possible new keyboards(which have ended up in me falling asleep in class a couple of time these last days :/) But from that i found out that i really want a Mx blue switch keyboard(I have been trying the switches out on a friends KB)
so i have been sitting here googling different kinds and read a ton of forum posts and articles.
In the end i have come up with 2 keyboards i find quite awesome (which i can get my hands on here in Europe)
The KBT Poker II(amazon.co.uk - £89.99) and the Filco majestouch 2 ninja tkl(keyboardco.com - £100.00)

So please guys share some experience with either of the above and/or maybe suggest others?

Is the leaning curve really steep on the Poker II as it's a kinda wierd layout?

When I use my pc i usually game 40-50% of the time, and i either hang out on teamspeak or type the last 50-60% of the time,
so would it be fine with a keyboard like the poker II for me?

And also i want to know if i can switch some of the keys on the Poker II to make it a Danish layout?
or does that kinda screw up the programming and function keys?
as i would have buy the german version then move a couple of keys and replace some of them.

I hope to get some good input from you guys!
so have a nice day

-Mathias

[kyb]

I have both. I like the Poker's PBT keycaps definitely more than Filco's ABS.

What board is right for you mainly depends on how much you use the cursor keys. I find the Poker's mapping of arrows to FN+WASD totally horrible and that's why I didn't use the board that much. At first I thought that it would be ok because LOL ITS ONLY FN AND I USE WASD ALL THE TIME IN GAMES ... but in practice chording cursor keys with other modifiers sucked.

I had it remapped to the HHKB's cursor layout for a short time but the FN key is not placed in the right position to make this combination work. So I opted in the end for the Filco for my MX needs.

And then I saw the light and got a HHKB ...

tl;dr - Poker II good keycaps but **** arrow mapping. Filco good build quality and a great MX board overall but has **** keycaps. My personal hint: Filco + a set of Vortex PBT.

[mathiasdk1]

I have both. I like the Poker's PBT keycaps definitely more than Filco's ABS.

What board is right for you mainly depends on how much you use the cursor keys. I find the Poker's mapping of arrows to FN+WASD totally horrible and that's why I didn't use the board that much. At first I thought that it would be ok because LOL ITS ONLY FN AND I USE WASD ALL THE TIME IN GAMES ... but in practice chording cursor keys with other modifiers sucked.

I had it remapped to the HHKB's cursor layout for a short time but the FN key is not placed in the right position to make this combination work. So I opted in the end for the Filco for my MX needs.

And then I saw the light and got a HHKB ...

tl;dr - Poker II good keycaps but **** arrow mapping. Filco good build quality and a great MX board overall but has **** keycaps. My personal hint: Filco + a set of Vortex PBT.

First: Thanks for the great reply!
Second: Where do i get my danish hands on such keys? anywhere in Europe?

-Mathias

[ynrozturk]

I dunno, depends on how much you use the arrow keys. Me, not so much, so I absolutely love my Poker II. Filco's are built like tanks, but the key caps are really bad. To get the full potential out of a Filco I'd say that you should also get a set of PBT keys for them, which is not exactly cheap.

If I were you I'd just go with the Poker II. The learning curve for me was very minor, and have no problems with the arrow keys being on WASD.

[insomniak]

I also think it depends on whether you want dedicated arrow keys.  My FC660M board has dedicated arrow keys but because the layout is much closer to the other keys, I tend to miss touch on the arrow keys a lot since I'm used to normal keyboard lay outs.  I'm sure it's something I'll get used to but that's another thing to keep in mind.  I personally would go with the TKL just for that point alone but that's being knit picky.

[genkidama]

In my opinion it also depends on which games you play. For instance if you play Starcraft II I would totally go for the TKL as you need the arrow keys and F-rows as you can set F1 and so on with different locations on the map you can jump to without having units there. I hope you get what I mean.
As the Poker II is programmable you can program it to a danish layout and should be a problem or making any fuss whatsoever. But the arrow keys and F-rows are gone. Maybe, if you want a smaller keyboard than a TKL, try some 75% keyboards as they both have a small design but with dedicated keys and an F-row. I bet there are keyboards where you get somewhat of a 60% layout but with dedicated arrow keys.

So in the end it depends on what kind of games you play as for shooters I bet the Poker II is just fine and fits your purpose but when you play SC2 or SC2 like games the TKL would be the better fit.

[kyb]

Second: Where do i get my danish hands on such keys? anywhere in Europe?

-Mathias

ISO PBT Pokers should be available on the European Amazons (.co.uk, .de, .fr) from "Mister Deal".

Filcos can be had from the keyboard company in the UK.

The keycaps you must import though. I haven't found a PBT Vortex reseller in Europe yet. If you should find a EU source please let me know

[mathiasdk1]

*Bump*

Sorry..