Jaki Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

[iggysaps]

Anyone want to take a look at this keyboard? It certainly has piqued my interest.  Goes for about 3500 TW$ more or less.  Here is the web site http://www.thejaki.com

[lowpoly]

It was mentioned here before:

http://geekhack.org/showthread.php?t=4786&highlight=jaki

I still don't get how their website is supposed to work.

[keyb_gr]

I still don't get how their website is supposed to work.

That's not a website, it's a Flash application. FAIL.

(Then again, they're not alone. Of the three websites for the ergonomic pointing rodents mentioned in this thread, only one would work at all without Flash, and even that one would not even give me anything interesting like specs. Had to resort to the secondary browser then. Makes you wonder what the folks were thinking - nothing, I guess. I mean, if I want a "form follows function" device, how probable is it that I'd like a website that follows exactly the opposite philosophy?)

[rdjack21]

They don't even have any good pictures of the keyboard that I can find on there web site. I really want some good picks of the product. Especially for a keyboard that will most likely have to be purchased through cresent.

Of the few small images they do have I can tell these things:

• I don't like the logo placement or how bold it is.
• It has the big enter key
• arrow keys squashed up under the enter key

What I don't understand is why these companies think some one would by their product with out at least a decent picture of the product. And that flash intro does not cut it as it does not really show the product either.

[meltie]

I still don't get how their website is supposed to work.

lol, me neither. Happy I'm not the only one, thought I maybe was stupid ...

[ch_123]

I wonder if they are available to American and European buyers. Anyone seen them for sale?

[itlnstln]

Not a fan of the Enter key.  It's a shame, too.  I kinda like the way that 'board looks.

[ch_123]

The Enter key wouldn't be that big a deal from a typing point of view, because the bottom of it is the same shape and length as a US style enter (it's basically as if it is the backslash key and enter of a US keyboard combined). And from experience, the tiny backspace is very easy to adapt to.

[HKEPCLED]

This link have some pictures show up, (in chinese only)

http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=351&t=614288

They don't even have any good pictures of the keyboard that I can find on there web site. I really want some good picks of the product. Especially for a keyboard that will most likely have to be purchased through cresent.

Of the few small images they do have I can tell these things:

• I don't like the logo placement or how bold it is.
• It has the big enter key
• arrow keys squashed up under the enter key

What I don't understand is why these companies think some one would by their product with out at least a decent picture of the product. And that flash intro does not cut it as it does not really show the product either.

[rdjack21]

This link have some pictures show up, (in chinese only)

http://www.mobile01.com/topicdetail.php?f=351&t=614288

Thanks for the link. And the pictures do make it allot easer to see this board. Still don't like the bold logo but I think I could live with the rest of it. It also looks like they will be offering this in all three cherry flavours. The big question will be is the build quality up to snuff and will it be offered in the US. With the Filco boards now being offered in the US it makes it hard to pay a service to get one of these boards when we can now get quality board here. Now we just need someone to sale us RealForce and HHKB Pro boards locally.

[watduzhkstand4]

Pros:
selection of blue, brown, or black cherries

Cons:
logo is too obnoxious
huge ass enter key

[fuzzybaffy]

I really dig the layout; unfortunately, the build quality doesn't seem quite up there as a Filco board. It could be because of the see-through plastic on top, as well as the logo, though.

[pmyshkin]

No logo key on the left? Why didn't they just shorten the space bar?

I've never understood why the space bar is so long. It seems like I always only use the middle 50% of it. It would have been nice if some keyboard designer were to decide to shorten it and put two more modifier keys on either side (lowpoly?).

AND the tall enter? What are these guys trying to do?

I like the layout of the g81-1800 a lot more. Too bad the keys on those are crap.

[keyb_gr]

No logo key on the left? Why didn't they just shorten the space bar?

What's not there can't be hit accidentally. Or they didn't have so much choice among keysets.

I've never understood why the space bar is so long. It seems like I always only use the middle 50% of it.

The problem is, other folks may be hitting it more towards the left or the right. You never know about that as a manufacturer.

AND the tall enter? What are these guys trying to do?

The L shaped Return is a common trick of Asian 'board manufacturers to do away with the key above horizontal Return, which has an awkward size for a white key (in a bicolor white/grey scheme). Should be obsolete now though. The biggest drawback probably is the shortened Backspace.

I like the layout of the g81-1800 a lot more. Too bad the keys on those are crap.

The keys themselves or the actuation characteristic? There'd still be the G80-1800, but I guess you can't obtain one of these so easily...

[pmyshkin]

What's not there can't be hit accidentally. Or they didn't have so much choice among keysets.

I guess people that don't map control to capslock might hit the logo key by accident.

The problem is, other folks may be hitting it more towards the left or the right. You never know about that as a manufacturer.

I don't think the space bar has to be any wider than the distance between the D and K keys, since when you have your index fingers on F and J, your thumbs naturally rest vertically between them. It takes a lot of effort to curl your thumbs to the extremities of the space bar.

The keys themselves or the actuation characteristic? There'd still be the G80-1800, but I guess you can't obtain one of these so easily...

The actuation characteristic. Linear, tactileless, and very heavy. I guess I should stop whining about it now since I've already complained on numerous other occasions.

[Eclairz]

I own a g80-1800 and have converted the key switches to cherry blues its got a nice layout i just wished the page up and page down keys were on the edge or if they added a reprogrammable fn key to map key chords

[Hak Foo]

If they got rid of the logo, they could fit the four cursor-control keys missing from the layout back in.

I wonder if they could do half-height Windows keys, thus leaving them but making them less likely to be struck accidentally.

[Eclairz]

I prefer the Jaki layout with the logo as it helps the user divide the parts of the keyboard better, i used to use the g84-4100 which has the mentioned four keys where the jaki logo would be and i kept hitting those buttons when i meant to hit enter. Of course if you want that type of layout cherry offers a keyboard that maybe perfect for you but comes with ML keyswitches only which is the
G84-5200 which is a fairly new addition to the cherry range.

http://www.keyboardspecialist.co.uk/product/keyboard_type/cherry/G84-5200/Compact+Desktop+Keyboard.htm

Basically its just a G84-4100 with a numpad.

[itlnstln]

I prefer the Jaki layout with the logo as it helps the user divide the parts of the keyboard better, i used to use the g84-4100 which has the mentioned four keys where the jaki logo would be and i kept hitting those buttons when i meant to hit enter. Of course if you want that type of layout cherry offers a keyboard that maybe perfect for you but comes with ML keyswitches only which is the
G84-5200 which is a fairly new addition to the cherry range.
 
http://www.keyboardspecialist.co.uk/product/keyboard_type/cherry/G84-5200/Compact+Desktop+Keyboard.htm
 
Basically its just a G84-4100 with a numpad.

I like that 5200.  Now, if they only made it with MX switches.  I guess that would be very similar to the 1800.  Too bad the 1800s are so hard to get.  I love that compact layout.