Well, if the keyswitches alone cost more than the whole board when bought separately, there probably wasn't too much budget left for the case.
I also thought that might be the case, but why not make it a bit more expensive and add a nice steel backplate and screws? In comparison, the sub-EUR 20 Cherry evolution stream I keep as an emergency keyboard is built really well; it features lots of screws and even a large steel backplate.
Interestingly enough, I just picked up a G81-3000LRNDE - 0 / 01 (they're a standard keyboard in "my" university department) and subjectively found it to be noticeably heavier and not bending quite as much as my G80 at home.
It's just a speculation, but maybe the G81 has to have a steel backplate to provide stability to the membrane sheet, whereas the G80's MX modules can just be soldered on a PCB and stuck into the case without further support.
Strangely enough it must be newer than the G80, given that it already has the raised bumps on F and J rather than deeper key tops.
They changed the style? That's quite sad, I tend to like deeper/curved key caps more than those with raised bumps.
(BTW, it's not the key travel that's different in 1000 and 3000 series G81s, but seemingly rather the stiffness. While linear key action hardly is the most satisfying, I find that I can actually type pretty decently on the 1000 after getting used to it.)
It's lasered (thus the 'L'). The keys usually get flat after some use. The old 1000 series boards had actual filled plastic lettering, like the IBMs.
I was talking about the black (G80-3000LSCDE-2) version. The lettering looks really strange under a loupe. It almost looks like screen printing gone horribly wrong with way too much ink. The letters are raised tp a point where they can be felt easily. But maybe it's lasered and then filled (i.e. intaglio) with still too much ink. It doesn't feel especially bad (the one exception being the windows keys), but it sure feels strange.
I only had the opportunity to type on an old Alps-equpped board once, and yes, I liked the feel. Somewhere between IBM and Cherry blues I thought.
I recently rediscovered one which was sitting around here and collecting dust (I actually learned to type on the keyboard and didn't know what gem it was, so I bought crappy keyboards for years when I just could have used this and be happy
). Clicky Alps, double injection molded keycaps, solidly built but somewhat dirty and the plastic is quite yellow. I'll have to clean it and treat the plastic before it will be usable again.
Does anyone know how the new Alps switches are in comparison?
Seems like a neat and (I guess) inexpensive tweak.
I bought it at the local DIY store, so it was more expensive than it should have been, but the keyboard sucked so much I just had to. I think I paid EUR 4 for the steel rod (14x5x1000 mm). The G80s plastic ribs are located directly under the keys to provide stability when keys are pressed, so their distance is about 2/3". I cut the rod into two parts with 440 mm length and affixed them with double-sided tape. The remaining piece was stuck at the very top of the keyboard to act as a counterweight. The results are quite pleasing: The warping is much better and it's heavier. Still not as heavy as the Model M, though, but at least you can now hurt someone with it.
Btw, quoting the (unsuspecting) user of the recently cleaned G81: "Someone stole my keyboard!" I had to contain myself not to LOL... 
(And yes, it was visibly on the dirty side before.)
Which brings me to the initial question again: Apart from Cherries, are there any good (new!) keyboards in Europe? The lighted Deck models (IIRC they use Cherry ML) are available at a few stores, but is there anything without Cherry switches? (Maybe Alps? Even if the new ones are half as good as the old ones, I'd still like to have one.)
-huha
