Well, I told you what I bought (Keychron Q2 Max, Alpaca V2, and GMK Muted Retro but not why I bought them). Here are all the reviews stuck on my iPhone fro that:
- GMK Keycaps. Of all the crazy things about this hobby. The crazy premise of these ABS keycaps is ridiculous yet I love typing on them! They are German and the founders are Gunther, Meinhardt, and Kredler so that sounds good. Normally ABS wears down. I’ve seen this with my WASD CODE v2, but these are super thick. They don’t warp like PBT but are expensive. You get what you pay for or desire I guess. At the same time, some are always around like the muted retro I got time to find the limited editions!
- Mech Group Buys. For the true power need, these are limited edition runs of key caps and other stuff.
- Gazzew Boba U4. This guy is a true power nerd. He hands assembles switches. And his switches are legendary
- Everglide V3 Water King. Nearly got these instead of the Alpaca’s. Also, linear and highly rated.
- Drop Holy Panda Controversy. They sell these as holy panda hybrid switches but there’s a real question as to how they were made. Makes true the point that C when the stakes are low politics gets crazy! A guy named Invyr tried to create a very sort of linear switch. It worked great creating demand for Holy Pandas. Then Drop bought the molds and then a ton of clones from YOK and others got to use the Holy Panda name. The basic issue is no one knows where the tooling went and it is rumored to be destroyed or damaged beyond repair. The deep issue is that a true panda is a Frankenswitch. You take the stem off of one and put it in the body of another.
What’s all this about the Hall effect
Yes, it’s sort of the latest trend but it lets you measure the exact position of every key. Turns your keyboard into an analog input measuring device:
- Wooting 60HE vs 80HE. They are the leaders in doing this stuff. The 60% small keyboard is my thing! This is a cool company in Holland that started the trend. The new 80HE has an 8 KHz polling rate!
- Meletrix Boog75 and others. They use Gateron switches and other nerds like the Boog75.
Net net, I’ll probably end up getting a Hall Effect next and probably the top tactile key switch since I now have the top linear and the top thocky.
Next Up: Gateron Melodic Clicky, Keychron Q2 Max, and more GMKs
Right now on Theremingoat, that’s the Gateron Melodic so off to look for that one 🙂 so maybe that should be my next keyboard?
It’s going to be hard to beat the Keychain Q2 Max as a bare-bones keyboard and although there is no backlighting I’m kind of in love with GMKs. I love the retro versions. There was a NASA version but it’s sold out so I’ll probably start watching Mech Group buys and find a cool set. Wish me luck!
