JD40 or Poker 2 with clears?

[nh5494]

I'm not sure wether I should purchase a JD40 with linear grays or a Poker 2 with clears (from the mass drop group buy.)
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[SlotH42]

welcome to geekhack! I am currently typing this on my poker 2 clears and I love it. The real question is what are you using this for? will you be traveling? gaming? do you already own any other boards?

[nh5494]

I mostly would just like to know which one I would get more of a "rarity" out of.
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[byker]

I would say a JD40 is more rare, however the poker 2 has more utility.

[wes1099]

Poker with clears. The poker is way more practical than the JD40 by miles.

[GL1TCH3D]

I love the idea of 40% boards =O

They're really fun but I think in reality they're more of a novelty (though that isn't stopping me from purchasing the gon 40%)

[Pemdas]

I've got a JD40 and a Poker and I will also be participating in the Mobik group buy hopefully. 

That said I use my Poker/FC660C waaaaaaay more than my JD40.  The JD40 is pretty much my bragging board haha.  For actual everyday use I much prefer my Poker.

[Hardwired Havok]

What would you say the advantages are of the JD40 over the Poker? They're both quite portable, what is the driving factor that people buy the JD40. I am just curious, no hating on the JD40, the thing is gorgeous.

[Sent]

I'd say it depends how well you can utilize fn layers and how comfortable you are with them.  If I had to choose between my JD40 and any of my other 60% boards, I'd probably still lean towards a 60%.  It's ever so slightly more easy to use.  That being said, I don't really lose any sort of productivity with my JD40.  Plus, it's cute as **** and portable. 

[Oobly]

If you're only going for rarity value, a JD40 with Greys is it.

If you actually want to use the board, the Poker II with Clears is much more practical. My biggest gripe with the JD40 is that the Enter key should not be a home row key. There needs to be just one more column of 1x keys on there to make it truly useful.

[meow a cat]

I have a JD40 and a Poker X, and I much prefer the JD40. The build quality on mine is amazing, and the switches feel great (lubed 65g MX black). Mine was built by JD, but I'm sure CtrlAlt is doing a great job with the ones they are making.

 I find the JD40 more useful than the Poker, due to the full programmability (example, I have a numpad on mine, which I prefer over the Pokers number row). The JD40 can do anything you could ask a keyboard to do. It takes a little while to get used to the layout, but it only took a couple days. I barely have to move my hands to type either, as everything is right under my fingertips. It is now my daily driver. It's also beautiful to look at.

Really my only nitpick is with the enter key, as it's 1.75x. It's a little tougher to get keycaps for it, because you need two caps lock keys and sets generally only come with one, although JD40 kits are becoming pretty common in group buys. I don't mind the feel of the smaller enter.

I do like my Poker X as well though, both are nice choices.

[Yslen]

I have both boards. The JD40 took a bit of learning but it's pretty much as easy to work with as the Poker after a couple of weeks. Once I've programmed in page up and down, plus a custom delete, it'll be perfect. Every now and then I forget where an obscure symbol is, but it takes a few seconds to find that's all. It's lovely to type on and I've used it for several hours of coding with no real issues. It lacks a numpad... but so does the poker

EDIT: I should add I use the JD40 for coding/writing, and not gaming. The Poker is way ahead here, as having the numrow on a function layer makes many games very tricky. You can't switch weapons with your keyboard without taking your hand off the mouse, for example (or stretching from one side of the board to the other)