Worldwide Switch Try Numpad ALPS

[RC-1140]

Alright, I'm now holding the Numpad in my hands. My first impression about the switches (my first and only impression of the numpad: “Damn, something looking this cheap is mechanical?”) was, that all of the clicky Alps are all pretty similar. I like the clicky creams the most, followed by the blue ones. The Whites (btw. are they complicated or simplified Alps? I would guess they are complicated, based on the simplified and complicated white board I have.) and greys don't feel that good imho (though much better than Cherry MX Blues). But the switches I was really interested were the tactile nonclicky ones. If I can't have a click comparable to a Model M I prefer not to have a click at all. There the differences are bigger than on the clicky ones. The Cream Tactile switches don't feel good to me. They feel mushy on the way down, and the bump is pronounced better on the way up than on the way down. Also you can push the switch down for a few millimeters before you can feel the tactility. The Black Tactiles are a little better, you can press the switch not as far down as the creams, but they still feel mushy. But I really like the orange tactile ALPS, even though there is only one of them on the board. They are the winners for me. Looks like I have to look around for an orange ALPS board...

Will try the switches more until I send them away to the next one (let's see who it will be. Cowabunga didn't answer HzFaq, and ~Blood~ who would be the next one is on vacation, and can't ship to the US anyway, so the next one might be Trent.) and then post a more detailed review.

Thanks a lot MrInterface for making this possible! And thanks to HzFaq for sending it quickly and the good communication about the shipping!

RC-1140

Update: I just received a message by cowabunga. He isn't interested in participating anymore.

[Mrinterface]

Ship to Trent......

[RC-1140]

Yup, don't worry, the package is already lying here, packed up, with Trent's address written on top of it. It's going to be brought to the post office on Saturday (tomorrow/today, depending on timezone) morning. I'm tired now, so I will write my final impressions and the photo tomorrow/later today.

[RC-1140]

Ok, the package was sent away this morning, Trent has the tracking number.

My final impressions about the switches are the same as my first impressions. I really dislike the Tactile Creams, they feel far too mushy for a mechanical switch. The Blacks aren't bad, and the Oranges feel good. With the clicky switches, the blues one win, but they feel only a little bit better than the whites.

I took the numpad to my local Hackerspace (where we have around 4 people interested in mechanical keyboards), and the general consensus was similar. Nobody liked the Tactile Creams, and most people preferred the Clicky Blues. But most preferred the Tactile Blacks over the Tactile Oranges.

Here's a picture of the Numpad on my (untidy, I envy you all for your tidy desks) desk, next to my mouse and my Unicomp:


I hate my camera… It was too dark, so I had a lot of noise (even at ISO 100), and I hate to use that much denoising.

Thanks a lot MrInterface! With this Test Board you have kept me from buying 4 Alps Boards which I don't like, and showed me 2 which are fine.

RC-1140

[RC-1140]

According to the online shipping tracker of USPS the tester arrived at Trent's yesterday.

Trent: could you please confirm this?

[Trent]

Received from RC-1140 yesterday 8/20/12 -- Will be mailing to postlapsaetia within a couple of days. Tipo33 lives near me and he needs to come take a look at the board too ^^

Edit, forgot picture! It doesn't blend in too well with my current color scheme, but it is cool to feel the difference between all of the clicky versions of the ALPS variants. I'm leaving all of the items in the surprise bag as I have them already but I'm gonna be putting more in there, and some weird stuff at that, some keyboard related, some not, be prepared

Edit 2:

According to the online shipping tracker of USPS the tester arrived at Trent's yesterday.

Trent: could you please confirm this?

^^^ Didn't see this, yes it has arrived

Just like RC said, pardon the shitty phone camera image. I was gonna take a picture of it with the desk but I just moved and I am still tweaking the setup, and I want it to look nice for the workspace thread



Will post when I plan to ship it, I want to give tipo33 the chance to try it out if his schedule permits.

Edit 3: Final Writeup
Sidenote: my first mechanical keyboard was white clicky alps, and then my 2nd one. So I'm very familiar with typing on white alps.

Getting to try the different clicky variants was interesting for me. I didn't actually know there was a clicky cream or a clicky grey so I learned something new this week.

Clicky Grey - Felt like they had the most force requirement. They actually reminded me of the extremely stiff white clicky alps that I have on my FK-8000

Clicky Cream - Similar feelings to Grey, very stiff feeling but nice tactile bump

Clicky White - <3 forever

Clicky Blue - I've wanted to see how the clicky blue have felt for quite a long time, and to my disappointment seem very similar to MX blues which i dislike.

Tactile Black - Yuck! I don't like these switches at all. The only board I have that uses tactile black ALPS (Dell AT101W) is currently sitting in my window to prop it open, that about sums up my thoughts on this switch.

Tactile Cream - Felt very mushy to me, I like them on my AEKII but don't on this keypad for some reason.

Tactile Orange - Woo! Now that I have felt orange ALPS I must say that I like these way more than the cream ALPS.

That's all folks! I'll have the board shipped out to postlapsaetia today!

[roflbunnies]

Hi, where could i buy one of these?

[Mrinterface]

Darn,

postlapsaetia isn't responding to my emails...... He is the current owner of this item.

I hate this. People sign up for these items and then stop responding when they receive them.

I guess I'll put some more work in tarredfeather.com and get it online fast ....

[webwit]

The Try Before You Buy items are evil charms which cast black magic spells cursing bad luck on the receivers, disabling their Internet connections so they cannot receive or respond, making them move on short notice, making them sick, bringing mayhem into their lives, making them cheap out on tracking, etc.



MrInterface preparing yet another try before you buy item

[Mrinterface]

Hahahahahahaha......

You are misled, my fellow DTorian.

The fact of the matter is, that MOST do adhere to the rules. See Ceesa's thread.

So, it is the other way around : I attract those weak chainlinks and then the chain gets broken.

That's why I choose to have the lists managed by different people than me.... *evil grin*

[Mrinterface]

Update : this sinklist item has to wait till I have assembled a new version ( Hopefully with Matias switches on it )

ETA : Unknown

[Mrinterface]

Updated OP with new subscription round!

[domin8r]

New subscription round located at: http://deskthority.net/try-before-you-b ... t4948.html