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Comment by geerlingguy | Hacker News Reader

Like with the MNT Reform (non-pocket), there are a few things that are aesthetically very pleasing (and fun, even), but in day-to-day use make it hard to adopt.

On the original Reform, I had some issues adapting to it's slightly non-standard (at least for US English) key layout... and on this one, it has a very visually-pleasing key layout, but I can imagine unless it's your only keyboard, it will take a bit of mind-melding to type well on it.

These MNT devices are—at least for now—not the type of things you'd consider to replace a Macbook or a slim laptop for portability and practicality/value.

I still want one, lol

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The latest keyboard version 3.0 is more standard. The swapped control vs caps lock position is something one can probably remap in software. The apparent lack of page-up/down and home/end keys would be more of a problem for me, though.

https://shop.mntre.com/products/mnt-reform-keyboard-30

The default firmware uses Hyper (the arrow pointing up and to the right) plus left/right for home/end and Hyper plus up/down for page up and page down. I'm not sure it's good enough either.

Input was my #1 issue with any tiny portables. Apart from getting a "good feeling" keyboard, losing the ability to properly touch type really rains on the parade of how you can run a "real" OS on the devices. The Pocket Reform does slightly better than some in that you can try to act like it's a normal keyboard experience if you have a solid surface and can ignore the tiny and non standard layout. The other half of the input story is of course mouse input. Touch controls are just a no go for using a "real" OS on a tiny screen, trackpoints style nubs are mid tier, and (surprisingly) I found ones which reuse the built in gamepad buttons and sticks (E.g. the Ally) are best. It probably has more to do with having the extra physical buttons to both control the mouse and modify the control behavior.

My #2 issue was always in realizing how disappointing it was to trade so much performance on top of the things still always being too large to comfortable fit in your actual pocket anyways. If you're already the type that enjoys carrying a portable game console with you then you might enjoy carrying one of the gaming focused mini portables since you can trade some minor clunkiness for more game library flexibility and raw power isn't a huge requirement to have a decent portable game library. If you're wanting to actually use it as a traditional computer... I just don't think I could ever see the device class being more than a novelty which ends up on a shelf after 7 uses for 95% of people that go and buy one.

It's cool this one is open hardware and focused on trying to provide a good open software experience but it does make all of the above even a bit rougher (can't help but recoil that every post about the Pocket Reform has a picture of the user at a text terminal).

FWIW I was all in on apple until I bought a brand new top of the line MBP in 2016, only to have it crap out on me a couple years later due to flexgate. Apple wanted me to pay something like $800 for a new screen due to their design flaws on a super small cable.

Clearly I'm biased, but the price for a new top of the line MNT laptop isn't bad comparatively at ~1,500 USD. Assuming you can wait a half a year to get one... On the keyboard comment, I have to say I find it quite easy to use. The only real difference is the split space bar, alt, and ctrl keys.

Would love to see a followup review on your channel whenever they get around to releasing the MNT Reform Next which should be much slimmer and faster. To your credit though, it's definitely for people who are willing to tinker. Simple things you'd expect to work like plugging in an external monitor don't work out of the box.

I haven't used a board that's not the default row staggered type, but from what I've heard when a keyboard is different shape, switching is actually easy. Like you probably have no problem using a touchpad and a mouse, but when using somebody's setup, the sensitivity is different or natural scrolling is enabled/disabled and it's just frustrating

Keyboard ergonomics vary a lot between individuals and you pretty much have to try until you know what can work for you.

Some people swear by ortholinear as the most ergonomic. I did give ortholinear a few serious attempts but it always ends in strain and pain. And I'm no stranger to exotic keyboards.

Otherwise I'd be all over the MNT Pocket Reform but alas. Column-staggered (crkbd-style) would be lovely.

Hey Jeff! Yes, I remember your review on the Reform as well. It is not a direct replacement for something like the MacBook (I'm using a MBP as I type this reply because I have a meeting in an hour and need the camera etc for Zoom...) - either in direct usability of the keyboard or the performance etc. It's a lovely machine though and I'm finding uses for it in commuting and other places.

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