Best regular keyboard 2013

[webwit]

Please vote for your winner of the award for the Best regular or full-size keyboard or keyboard family in 2013.

By voting in this category you can win keycap sets from Signature Plastics.

This is the final round. See the first round and second round for reference.

The official nominees are:

Ducky Shine 3
The Ducky Shine 3 is Ducky's new backlit MX keyboard with USB N-Key rollover and repeat acceleration.


The Ducky Shine 3 in all its shiny glory.

IBM 3278 beam spring keyboard
The IBM 3278 keyboard recently escaped its status as vintage but unusable, by applying xhwatsit's beam spring usb controller, so it can shine as one of the highest quality keyboards with the highest quality switches in history.


Make your workspace look like a missile control center with the IBM 3278 beam spring keyboard.

IBM Model F Personal Computer keyboard
The IBM Model F Personal Computer keyboard, sometimes simply addressed as the PC/XT or Model F XT keyboard, is a capacitive buckling spring keyboard with near ISO layout, a short reach to the mouse, NKRO, and the most click for your buck!


The IBM PC keyboard in its natural habitat.

Topre Realforce HiPro keyboard
The Realforce HiPro ("High-Profile") is a full-size keyboard available in a couple of layouts, sporting high-quality Topre switches and spherical keycaps.


The Realforce 104UG HiPro with US ANSI layout.

WASD V2
The WASD V2 is a mechanical MX keyboard available in 104, 105, 87 and 88 key variants, has a high quality construction and various DIP switch settings.


A WASD V2 105-Key ISO version.

[kint]

best regular keyboard 2013. Somehow this disqualifies vintage ones imo, so it's Topre vs Ducky vs WASD, I prefer clean looks over bling, so WASD got my vote.

[7bit]

Wait! I voted for this already and it was the 122 key Model M!

[Kurk]

I'm with kint regarding vintage keyboards in this poll. WASD has my vote, too --- mainly because it supports Dvorak and Colemak. And of course change the position of the stupid key.

Configurable Key Output
- Switch between QWERTY, Mac, Dvorak, and Colemak output modes
- Switch Caps Lock to Ctrl

[7bit]

The next time, we should make one category for products that came into the market in *this year and another category for keyboards that already exist.

[matt3o]

The next time, we should make one category for products that came into the market in *this year and another category for keyboards that already exist.

agreed

[webwit]

There were only 7 suggestions for nominees in the first round, no reason to split this category up.

[Broadmonkey]

best regular keyboard 2013. Somehow this disqualifies vintage ones imo, so it's Topre vs Ducky vs WASD, I prefer clean looks over bling, so WASD got my vote.

I'm with you one that one!

[Halvar]

The mixture is part of the charme, because comparison is much more feasible for a keyboard than for most other parts of computer hardware. Dare to compare!

Is the WASD V2 really a better keyboard than the Model F?

Is the beamspring monster really better than the HiPro?

Have keyboards gotten better or just cheaper in the last 20 years?

[7bit]

The point is that the best regular keyboard of 2013 should win, not the best regular keyboard of all times.

[mr_a500]

The point is that the best regular keyboard of 2013 should win, not the best regular keyboard of all times.

Even though I much prefer vintage keyboards, the "Best regular keyboard" of the year should probably be a keyboard that is still being produced in that year.

[Halvar]

You mean the best regular keyboard that entered the market in 2013? Or that was in the market in 2013? Or that you could use with a computer in 2013?

I'm not sure if the beam spring keyboard deserves being called the best of these keyboards (I mean it weights many a kilogram and is 10 cm high and has quite a strange layout), but given that it was finally made usable with modern PCs in 2013 there's enough connection to this particular year for me.

If not, we should have taken it out in an earlier round.

[7bit]

You mean the best regular keyboard that entered the market in 2013.
Including community projects for sure!

The beamspring could compete against other older keyboards in the contest "Vintage keyboard of the year 2013".

It is like you have these cars for best middle class car of 2013:

Mercedes W212
BMW F10
Rover P6
Jaguar X351
NSU Ro80

[Muirium]

A best new keyboard award is definitely required. We would likely have more nominations that way, too.

Correct answers:

Best new full-size keyboard of 2013: Topre Realforce.

Best full-size keyboard on the list: IBM beam spring.

[webwit]

Best keyboard 2013 means whatever what was the hottest in 2013. That could mean a new exciting keyboard, but if IBM Model M manages to win the award like last year, it means more people got into that than any new release, and I can only conclude the new releases weren't that exciting.

[matt3o]

fair enough

[Muirium]

I voted for the beam spring even though I was quite pleased to see Topre release the HiPro. Why? Because it's the better keyboard. Now you're trying to talk me out of it, apparently. Interpreting the question…

[7bit]

Nobody wants to talk you out of it. I might vote for it too out of protest, because webwit manipulated the contest by removing the 122 key Model M from the list, right after I voted for it yesterday night!

[webwit]

Sorry, I had to prepare the 60 nominees and the 122 key Model M almost made it if it weren't for some votes cast in the last hours. I caught my mistake after verifying.

EDIT: Also 5 nominees instead of 4 as planned in round 2. The 4th and 5th nominee had an equal amount of votes.

[Muirium]

Ballot stuffing! It was rigged!

(I wouldn't have voted for it anyway. The 122's a fine keyboard, and I quite like my own, but it's not quite the equal of the big guns on this ballot.)

[Flox]

I vote for the WASD-keyboard. It has a simple, yet modern look. You can custom design your own layouts which is pretty nice. So that's my opinion.

[Ekaros]

Group both space-saving and regular to one. Split in 3 categories. Commercial released in the year, custom builds and historical. But we can discuss it before next years elections ;D

[Muirium]

Group both space-saving and regular to one. Split in 3 categories. Commercial released in the year, custom builds and historical. But we can discuss it before next years elections ;D

+1

We can figure out how to keep the number of awards in check, too. One out, one in.

[webwit]

Sounds like a good idea.

Currently weak categories are Best regular keyboard (most are into tenkeyless or less and new releases aren't very exciting, so it's the usual suspects each year), Best ergonomic input device (I like this category, but not a lot of releases each year, same problem) and Best other input device (at some point we gotta face it that we're really deep into keyboards only).

[matt3o]

(at some point we gotta face it that we're really deep into keyboards only).

that's really a shame, wondering if there's anything we could do about it...

[webwit]

^ Next month, matt3o presents his custom built pointing device.

[Muirium]

Pointing devices might be threatened by other input systems entirely, anyway. Like voice (the obvious choice that's never quite been up to snuff) and multi point gestures (like touch screens and Kinect) that are moving on apace.

Best new, best custom, and best historical make a great set of categories. It's tempting to use them on everything, like one axis of a matrix, but that would be overload. It's not like there's a new key switch every year. But there are plenty of things like group buys to choose from. We've some thinking to do to find the perfect set of awards which are both competitive and important.

[matt3o]

I don't know maybe we could start reviewing pointing devices like we do for keyboards.

we have to start from somewhere, if there's no interest, well... okay... let's ditch that subforum away

[webwit]

I think Muirius is right, pointing devices might be the same as desktop computers and monitors. The money ain't there (professional computing), but in consumer computing like tablets and mobiles, gesture and voice in other words.

A good method of checking if a new category setup works might be to consider if a previous deserved winner would still pull the same trick. For example, Ergodox won the award for best ergo device last year. If we'd remove the ergo category, there should be a category where a great ergo product still could win it.

@matt3o The mice & other input devices subforum has been there since the beginning, you can draw your own conclusions from the number of topics. Not sure if we should remove it though, it doesn't cost us money, and if there's something which catches our interest in that category, there's a place for it. There was a lot of interest into trackballs a while back, maybe something new in the future. I agree it is a shame, pointing devices are very important.

[webwit]

The vote closes on Monday 9 December at 20:00 UTC. Vote now!

The two nominees with currently the most votes are (in alphabetical order):

Spoiler:

IBM 3278 beam spring keyboard
WASD V2