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
The keyboard is tiny. It is about as wide as the iPhone 7 Plus, and only three columns of keys taller. The construction seems very solid. The anodised aluminium case is of a high quality, but the four rubber feet on the underside to stabilise the keyboard seem flimsy. I cannot help feeling that they will wear off before long.
Whether or not this keyboard can be used for programming is a matter of personal taste. I, for one, have been using the TypeMatrix 2030 for over two years now, so I was able to adjust to the basic alphabet keys of the Planck in no time. (I find my typing speed to be quite a bit faster on ortholinear keyboards than on staggered ones.) On the Planck, I am going to need a few more days to fully memorise all the layers and combinations to get the various brackets, numbers, and other mathematical symbols. Once that has been done, I don't think it will be difficult to use the Planck as my main programming keyboard.
One problem is that, out of the box, almost all of the non alphabet keys are mislabeled. Were it not for the default map that was included in the package, I would not have been able to use the keyboard at all. I have been informed by e-email that we will be provided with new firmware that will allow us to re-programme the keyboard. Once I have been able to do that, I will post an updated review.