Mechanical keyboards that offer custom-built features for half the price

pcworld.com

14 points·ohjeez··5 comments

These shoulder-murdering single-piece keyboards are a complete nonstarter for me going forward. On laptops, they are a necessary evil; everywhere else, merely an evil.

Unfortunately AFAICT options for much more natural and comfortable split keyboards are still very limited. I've been waiting for my UHK (https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/) for a year now, and it would appear Mistel Barocco MD600 60% keyboards (which I use at work) are no longer available.

Hmm... no, I take that back — https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_det... has a weird-looking new version of the MD600, but I guess the design is identical so functionally should be okay. (6 is still on the wrong side...)

Why are split keyboards so expensive? The UHK shown on the homepage as configured costs about $500, and the second one is one of the cheapest available at $150.

I would guess they're in a sweet spot of demand outpacing supply, but demand not being high enough for economy of scale to enable increased supply.

Between the Kinesis Freestyle (Edge/Pro), Ergodox, and Moon lander, there are a number of split mechanical keyboards that you can order and have shipped to you in a matter of days.

> moon lander

Ortholinear key arrays are not keyboards! They're torture devices for edgy people.

> Freestyle

Hmm... interesting, but 75% is my limit.

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