Best modern keyboard or company

[Wodan]

Sponsored by:

Vote in this round for a chance at winning an Excalibur SE Spectrum keyboard from Tesoro.

Round 3 rules:
It's time to choose this year's winner. Please vote to determine the best modern keyboard or company of 2016.

See the first and second round for reference. Congratulations to all participants.

The final round ends on Saturday 10 December, 20:00 UTC. You can change your vote until the end of the round by resubmitting the poll. The winner and full results will be released soon after the vote closes.

Official nominees:

VE.A by Oddforge
VE.A by Oddforge for their pursuit of "a very high standard that many others do not even consider"



Cooler Master
CM has been an active member of the keyboard community. We'll all miss their Novatouch, so consider this its last hurrah.



ZealPC
Zeal has been "aggressively innovating in the Keyboard space, instead of just using what has gone before."



XMIT Hall Effect Keyboard by XMIT Keyboards
XMIT revived a great technology and tuned it to enthusiasts' taste.



MiniVan by TheVan Keyboards
The MiniVan is the one 40% that nails it. The tiny keyboard made a huge splash in the community.

[Tesel]

I gotta go with the Zealios, such a great company and I love their keycaps.

[Hydra04]

we need some 40% love

[DirtierDan]

The only category XMIT was in where he didn't get my vote.

[Techno Trousers]

I feel like XMIT's project is the one for this category. A revival of a classic switch in a modern form factor. What more can you ask for?

[Ratfink]

I feel like XMIT's project is the one for this category. A revival of a classic switch in a modern form factor. What more can you ask for?

Calling XMIT's Hall effect keyboards "a revival of a classic switch" makes about as much sense as calling Topre "a revival of capacitive buckling spring" or calling Gaterons "a revival of Alps". He's (or rather, the Chinese company he's working with is) using a sensing mechanism that hadn't been used in keyboards for a while, but it's a new switch.

[Techno Trousers]

I feel like XMIT's project is the one for this category. A revival of a classic keypress sensing technology in a modern form factor. What more can you ask for?

[chuckdee]

I feel like XMIT's project is the one for this category. A revival of a classic switch in a modern form factor. What more can you ask for?

Calling XMIT's Hall effect keyboards "a revival of a classic switch" makes about as much sense as calling Topre "a revival of capacitive buckling spring" or calling Gaterons "a revival of Alps". He's (or rather, the Chinese company he's working with is) using a sensing mechanism that hadn't been used in keyboards for a while, but it's a new switch.

Why so much shade on XMIT, here and elsewhere? Would a usable board have been brought to the masses without him? I'd say the answer is no, so his work in this space deserves to be acknowledged. And for him to get to the final votes? That means more people agree than disagree with that assessment.

[002]

My interpretation of Ratfink's comment was not that he was having a dig at XMIT. He was just nit-picking Techno Trousers' comment.

[chuckdee]

It's not just here, though, nor the one statement, so I wasn't pointing to one specific incident.

[Ratfink]

I've got nothing against XMIT, I just get riled up when people say things like he "brought Hall effect back". The Hall effect never went anywhere.

[XMIT]

I've got nothing against XMIT, I just get riled up when people say things like he "brought Hall effect back". The Hall effect never went anywhere.

From final-vote-f101/best-project-or-innovat ... ml#p342737

putting 1960s-70s technology back into production

Hall sensors never went /out/ of production. Do you have a recent Macbook? If so congrats - a Hall sensor in the base detects a magnet in the lid to determine when the lid is closed.

Why just a quick search on Diki-Key reveals thousands of options:

http://www.digikey.com/product-search/e ... l%20sensor

[Ratfink]

Do you have a recent Macbook? If so congrats - a Hall sensor in the base detects a magnet in the lid to determine when the lid is closed.

In some laptops it's the other way around, so you can fool laptops into thinking they're closed by holding magnets near the tops of their lids. A great trick to scare your friends, or just random people sitting behind you!

[ohaimark]

In alphabetical order, the top two contenders are:

Spoiler:

Cooler Master
ZealPC

Please remember to vote!

[JarateKing]

In alphabetical order, the top two contenders are:

Spoiler:

Cooler Master
ZealPC

Didn't vote for either, but well deserved for both. After the deskthority this is probably the hardest one to pick, everyone deserves it.

[zefyr]

Hello, I'm Vermillion of team Oddforge.
This is an unexpected surprise.
We are absolutely honored by just being nominated.
Thanks for your interests on our piece!

[thedford]

had to vote for zealpc on this one, a one man show... that stays up till 5 am fulfilling orders.

[drevyek]

The minivan was so ambitious, and the board looks great. Plus, going for both Alps as well as MX is always something to be admired!

CM killing the Novatouch was just too much for me.

[Shihatsu]

CM killing the Novatouch wasn't CMs fault, afaik.
I vote for CM for a different reason: They set the price point for castar-quality combined with genuine cherry MX switches, thus showing als these modern "gaming specialists" where the hammer is.