At the End of the Day, Which Keyboard do You Actually Use?

[Hypersphere]

When responding to questions about favorites (switch, form factor, layout, sound, feel, keycaps, etc.) we sometimes list things we might have tried but do not (yet) own or use very often. For example, I might list blue Alps based on trying them once upon a time, but I do not yet own a keyboard with blue Alps. I also tend to list Model F keyboards, but I do not yet use one on a regular basis (awaiting refurbishing, etc.).

With this in mind, I am curious about what people here actually use most of the time.

In my case, the keyboard I actually use most of the time is:

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HHKB Pro 2 with the following: 45g Topre, Silencing Rings, black case, blank black modifiers and spacebar, blue alphanumerics, red Esc, white cursor diamond keys.

[scottc]

I swap between two boards:

- HHKB Pro 1, black, blank, with one of matt3o's PBT spacebars.
- FaceW PCB from DanielT, black low-profile aluminium case, 50g MX blacks, semi-standard 60% ANSI layout with the right shift key split HHKB-style, either DSA Granite Cyrillic, SA Retro, or Cherry doubleshots. Previously it had blank Gateron PBT keycaps.

The HHKB is my travel board.

Previously, my "daily driver" was a winkeyless G80-1800 modded with 62g stickered MX blacks and Polish ISO typist layout terminal keycaps. That keyboard now has 62g MX clears and I don't use it as often. I also used to use my IBM keyboards much more, but due to arthritis I find low-force Cherry and Topre much more comfortable over long periods of time.

[Hypersphere]

@scottc: Would like to see pics, especially of less common boards such as your custom with the FaceW PCB.

[scottc]

Definitely! I'm with family for Christmas so don't have my usual keyboards with me but should be able to show you in a couple of weeks. I should have the G80-1800 around, albeit with UK ISO Cherry keycaps instead of the usual Polish typist ones which have been returned to the original board for storage.

[zslane]

My daily driver at work is this:

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A Filco Majestouch-2 with Round 4 SPH on it.

I also have my iPad off to the side with a black Pok3r connected sporting Dolch DSA.

My home computer has a Filco Majestouch-2 with PuLSE on it, and when at home my iPad is connected to a white Pok3r with Granite on it.

It is all so very conventional by the standards of this community, especially all the MX red switches, but I love my boards.

[ettasian]

QF TK with MX Green's and G80-0777/G80-1000/Wyse PCE keycaps. It's a nice combo in my opinion.

Excuse the bluriness

[Azhdar]

I could sell all keyboards and keep this one only:



LZ-SQ with gateron blacks, WOB azerty + JTK WOB.

[Muirium]

Right now: HHKB all the time. Because my other working boards are thousands of miles away. Lots of fixer uppers here.

Back home, I use my SSK extensively, my Kishsaver, and yes my HHKB. Small wins. I'll sometimes pull out a big board for a week or so, the NMB is a nice one, or indeed spend a while on the NovaTouch. But the 60%s are where I'm at, day in day out. Doubters like to think it's just the looks we prize. But I'm plain more comfortable on a 60% too. Only TKL comes close.

[Madhias]

At work since a few months now my Realforce 87UW with 55g, and at home for about two weeks now my HHKB. But at work I will go back to my SSK again, and change that again to the Realforce in maybe 5-6 months. Sometimes in the future I want to use a keyboard with Cherry switches again, but I am currently waiting for a G80-1800 Leeku PCB. Damn that TX1800 group buy by the way.

[Hypersphere]

My daily driver at work is this:

Spoiler:

image.png

A Filco Majestouch-2 with Round 4 SPH on it.
<snip>
It is all so very conventional by the standards of this community, especially all the MX red switches, but I love my boards.

That's what this thread is all about: The board(s) we actually use. Let's see the face of convention!

[derzemel]

At home I oscillate between a custom Dolch (Leeku, vintage lubed MX Black, 52g springs, backplate, LEDs and Windows key) and an ISO Novatouch:




But at work I use an ANSI Novatouch (no picture because it is completely unmodified, but I would like to find WOB Cherry keycaps for it). Now that I think about it, the Novatouches are the ones I use the most. I blame it on the TOPRE switch even if I really enjoy the linear smoothness from time to time

EDIT: if you are wondering what is the improvised wrist wrest I use, it's a slab of red granite stone (it weighs 2Kg)

[photekq]

My one and only!

[Hypersphere]

@photekq: For those who like to type inside the box! Seriously, though, those Cherry legends are exquisite.

[scottc]

Don't you have some precious dyesubs for that 5000, photekq?

[Khers]

Home: HHKB

Work: HHKB

The work one is a standard Type-S, while the home one was Ghetto-S'ed a while back with dental bands (don't do it ), but it's currently awaiting Hyper's Silencing Rings.

[snuci]

At work I use my new Topre Realforce HiPro and when I am disconnected from my docking station, a Microsoft Surface Type Cover. At home I use a Microsoft Surface Type Cover also. I'm not super happy about the Type Covers but there's not much of a choice given what I use as a PC.

[photekq]

Don't you have some precious dyesubs for that 5000, photekq?

I should probably put my SAG set on there..

[ramnes]

I change often, to be honest. I like to rotate so I can re-discover the pleasure of each one's particularities every time. I don't think I stayed with a single keyboard more than three months in a row since I discovered mechanical keyboards. Though, cycles are tending to get longer and longer.

I'm mostly rotating between buckling springs (any variant), different vintage linear switches and Topre, in that order. I am convinced that Topre and IBM have the best switches in their categories, respectively tactile and clicky switches. But for linears... the competition is harder!

So in the end, my current daily drivers are my recently acquired IBM 5576-003, at home, and my custom 60% at work.

[Muirium]

At work I use my new Topre Realforce HiPro and when I am disconnected from my docking station, a Microsoft Surface Type Cover. At home I use a Microsoft Surface Type Cover also. I'm not super happy about the Type Covers but there's not much of a choice given what I use as a PC.

I'm not a fan of the Surface TypeCovers at all. Out of all chiclet keyboards, I actually like the one in the MacBook the best. Absurdly low travel. Throw everything behind what it does best — taking up next to no space at all — and forget about pretending to be anything else. The wonky, wobbly Chiclet boards on Apple's other laptops aren't any better as far as my fingers are concerned. Ditto all those chiclet boards on every copycat out there.

Speaking of which, Apple's cheeky attempt at the Surface — the iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard — feels way worse than the MacBook to me as well. If I had the dough for an iPad Pro, I'd get the Pencil and forget all about that board.

[ohaimark]

If I'm gaming I use a Quickfire TK (soon to be replaced by a board with Gateron Clears).

If I'm typing I use a Leading Edge DC-3014 with Blue Alps.

[HzFaq]

Don't you have some precious dyesubs for that 5000, photekq?

I should probably put my SAG set on there..

Yes you probably should .

This is my work trio; Alps64, GH60 and Phantom,I rotate between all of them fairly regularly depending mostly on how I'm feeling when I get into the office (you can tell they are work boards because they are dirty as shit, also terrible pictures as usual).

Spoiler:

I have a Dolch and a MX5000 that I also use fairly regularly at home, but the Dolch is too loud for the office and the MX5000 is too expensive to leave the house .

If I had to keep one though, it would be the Phantom mainly due to nostalgia (first custom board, first custom plate, first programable board I actually made use of) and because it still feels and sounds amazing.

[seebart]

I rotate a lot. In terms of productivity TKL or full size is the ticket for me. Since I own quite a few Alps boards I spend a lot of time on various Alps SKCL/SKCM switches, blue and orange being my favourite. IBM F and M come in close second to Alps.On the road I tend to take my FC660C along if I need to.

[Muirium]

Here's my current setup…

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Not quite what I have at home, but wherever there's an HHKB, I'm good!

[snuci]

Speaking of which, Apple's cheeky attempt at the Surface — the iPad Pro with Smart Keyboard — feels way worse than the MacBook to me as well. If I had the dough for an iPad Pro, I'd get the Pencil and forget all about that board.

The Surface has a pen but I don't use it. I never get used to pens. A long time ago a I used a Fujitsu Stylistic and couldn't get used to the pen on that either.

I have a Surface 3 at work and a Surface 2 at home. The Surface 3 is a little better because it connects better through extra magnetism but the Surface 2 Type Cover bends and then the keyboard doesn't work properly. It's not great but it's better than the Touch type cover that was unusable.

[Muirium]

Yeah, the Touch cover was truly horrible! I know someone with a Surface RT and just that one accessory. Don't think it gets much use these days…

The Apple Pencil interests me purely from a drawing and photo retouching perspective. I can type better on glass than I can write by hand. Always been a horrible scribe! The only RSI I've ever had was back in school before they let us submit work on computer. Writer's cramp, ach!

[Findecanor]

At the end of the day (home): My Phantom with Cherry MX Clears. I have not changed for at least a year.
Like HzFaq's Phantom above, it has 1.5u mods and 6u space bar on the bottom row but my mods are row A profile.

During the workday: Sun Type 7. (I work in Solaris and Linux) It is a rubber dome, but actually quite OK except for being a bit large on the desk and having the Alt Gr key a bit too far to the right. It is not as mushy as previous Fujitsu/Sun domes and it rides low on the desk.
At my previous workplace I had used a Ducky G2PRO TKL with MX Clears and blank Leopold thick PBT Cherry profile keycaps, but now I work at the fringe of critical infrastructure with some rigid security protocols so if I would bring my own keyboard then it would first have to go through an approval process...

[chzel]

I mostly use my Phantom, and the SSK. Occasionally I'll bring out the NerD60 or more rarely the AT (which I love but it's a bit bulky, and my desk is packed with stuff)

[Hypersphere]

Right now: HHKB all the time. Because my other working boards are thousands of miles away. Lots of fixer uppers here.

Back home, I use my SSK extensively, my Kishsaver, and yes my HHKB. Small wins. I'll sometimes pull out a big board for a week or so, the NMB is a nice one, or indeed spend a while on the NovaTouch. But the 60%s are where I'm at, day in day out. Doubters like to think it's just the looks we prize. But I'm plain more comfortable on a 60% too. Only TKL comes close.

It's a bit frightening that the Muirium and Hypersphere brains are so similarly wired (well, at least the keyboard lobes).

Starting out, it was a full-size Model M. Then various TKLs. Finally, the HHKB Pro 2 and other 60% boards remapped to the HHKB layout. Now it is mostly the HHKB Pro 2. I use TKLs once in a while (mostly SSK and Novatouch), but I remap them to the HHKB layout and tend not to use the F-keys or those in the navigation island. I've tried various form factors and layouts in the twilight zone between 60% and TKL, but none of these worked for me.

[HAL]

At work I use an IBM SSK and once in a while I use my TKL WASD Code with MX Greens. At home I use a TKL RealForce 55g and once in a while the RoyalKludge Topre Clone with 55g with some custom key caps (Jukebox at the moment).

[chiptea]

I use a Nissho kb106de as my daily. Surprisingly, 35g Topre grew on me a lot. I originally intended to trade it for a SSK, but after using it for a few hours, I could't bring myself to let it go.