A brief reflection and look at how far our community has come since joining. I’ve been in the mechanical keyboard hobby for a very long time. It started as a high school student’s search for a keyboard for writing novels back in the 2008-2009 school year. I thought I wanted to be an author and I felt I needed a keyboard that I could sit down to at my desk and just write. After researching, joining forums, and saving money, I made my first purchase in the hobby, a blank black Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2. I still own this keyboard and while it is heavily modded now, it remains one of my all-time favorites. My HHKB Pro2 with MitchCapped Accents Many people would have stopped there, but keyboards became a hobby. I enjoyed learning about them, and early on, I enjoyed hunting for them in thrift shops. I would dig through bins at Goodwill and Salvation Army while popping keycaps off with paperclips looking for mechanical switches. I searched for a birthday Model M...
May 7, 2024
Also, I believe the poker II's DIP switches allow you to change to other keyboard layouts (Colemak, dvorak, workman's, etc.) and I see no mention of that here, unless I've missed it.
I would put one caveat to this - you can get this board with the far superior Matias alps clones, far far better typing experience than cherry types.
No real reason, build quality is close enough, the pok3r is probably a bit better but not enough to not get this keeb.
As far as Cherry vs Gateron it's also a wash. I own several of both, the Cherry's are more clicky and gritty while the Gateron's are quite and smooth it just depends on what you want both have there strengths & weakness.
The build quality on Gateron & Kailh switches have really improved over the last few years. Most of the people talking about build quality haven't bought them recently.
I agree that the Cherry switches feel grittier than their Gateron cousins. I've found a preference for tactile non-clicky and have been impressed with Gateron quality and consistency so much that I have bought them in bulk for re-switching some of my other keyboards.
Also cost wise the pok3r will run you 129-130 dollars.. with metal case... the v60 will run ya 75bucks... so there that to think about also.