Aliexpress scissor mini keyboards

[jakkul]

Hi!

After I've replaced a full MX blue board with a lenovo 0B47190 at work, I instantly fell in love with scissor type switches on for regular use. I want to get some other scissor switch enabled keyboard and I found this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Mini-Bl ... 11767f130b

(i know this link is stupid, but hey, this is aliexpress).

Does anyone else have experience with this? If this is really bad, what else sub 50$ would you recommend (mini scissor switch USB keyboard with US/UK layout),

[davkol]

Ripster called some of these things "HHKB killer" years ago, but in practice… you get what you pay for. ThinkPad, high-end Logitech and a few others are very good (while they last), otherwise though? Inconsistency, inconsistency and inconsistency.

[REVENGE]

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/surface ... e-keyboard

[jakkul]

@REVENGE

http://www.ebay.com/itm/A4TECH-KV-300H- ... Sw4DJYhIX4

this is something that other people at my office use. In PL it costs about 20-25 euro. So not 100 USD for the MS product. The A4tech KV-300H is a really decent scissor board, it even has a nice passive USB hub. I like it and recommend it, but prefer narrow ones more.

@davkol

thanks A cheap keyboard being able to live through 3-4 years is enough. It does not need to work 50 years, we're all be dead by then and USB will not be used anymore

I guess I'll buy it and let you know about how good/bad it is.

[davkol]

These cheap boards can be expected to last closer to 3-4 months, but then… it depends what kind of use it gets.

[jakkul]

this one will be used at home, and since I've got 3 small kids, I have very little time for leisure computing, max 3h/week.

I'm using the lenovo 8 hours a day for a year or so at work. My fingers are very dry, so I've already "polished" most of the keys on it, but the mechanics still work fine. Better than a month old macbook pro (the 2015 model).

Well, we'll see. 14 usd is not that much.

[jakkul]

Ok, so I got the board. Some pics are here https://goo.gl/photos/7KqCgJS75drbLVKp7. I've put some of my conclusions from a few days of using below.

The scissor boards and laptops I use daily:
- Lenovo X220
- MacBook Pro early 2015, 13 inch
- Lenovo KU-1255 03X8715
- cheap Chinesse scissor board

Layout
The cheap board tries to mimic MacBookPro layout nearly 1-to-1. The "enter" area is a bit different, the rest is the same. The area covered by the keys is exactly the same. Mimicing a Mac layout and then putting PC layout on top of if means sacrifices. There is no insert button, and F11 and F12 need Fn to work. I like that the right alt is near m and , as I use it a lot for Polish characters.
The size of the rows q to p and ], a to l and ', z to m and / is standard and matches all other keyboards and laptops I have.

Chassis
Both chassis of Lenovo KU-1255 and the cheap board suffer bending while pressing keys. In the Lenovo it is bearable, in the cheap one no. The chassis hits the desk if you press the space a little to hard. I'll stick something under it later.
The plastic of the cheap one is not that good, but still better than what you usually get for 10 usd.
The rubber feet are good, the board does not ride along the desk - better than Lenovo.

Button shape
The cheap board tries to make the keys look like MacBookPro keys, but are a little too big, spaces between them are too small. Feeling if you are pushing the right button is much more difficult than on any keyboards compared. The keys have sharper edges than the mac ones to.
The ideal here is the X220 and KU-1255 from Lenovo. Both provide excellent curved keys. I like the newer design more, some of my friends prefer the older one.

Tactile feel, key travel and noise
The travel feels the same in all except the X220 which travels further. The fill is a bit more clicky on both Lenovos than on the MacBookPro and cheap board. The cheap board key feel is very near the MacBookPro except for MacBookPro being a tad softer and much noisier. X220 produces the largest amount of noise, than MacBookPro, than the KU-1255, leaving the cheap Chinesse board being the quietest of the bunch.

Summary
I'll try to use the Chinesse board at home a bit longer. Right now I see why the Lenovo KU-1255 costs 50-60USD. It's just worth it and so much better. I think that you are getting a good deal on the cheap scissor 87 board anyway with 10+something USD. The biggest downfall of it is the chassis (that you can reinforce yourself) and the shape of the buttons - these are too big and sharp and do not let you feel the spaces between buttons as good as the other boards I have.