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
https://imgur.com/a/pmmLi for more beautiful shots.
The 1800 makes it slightly easier to go back and forth between a mouse and keyboard, due to the decrease in space between the home row and the right side of the board. (If you use a mouse left handed, obviously, this doesn't matter). But I'd say the difference between the 1800 and a traditional 104 fullsize is the numpad, function keys, and arrow cluster.
Look at this: https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/1994/3097/products/Kira-Wide_1024x1024.jpg?v=1517621238 Without looking, it's much more difficult to move from the home row to the arrow keys and numpad, and a farther travel for function keys like END or HOME. Because there's no negative space around these keys, it's harder to do it by touch. And the only thing you get in return is a mouse that's ~2 inches closer to the home row.
lol I realize this is a ridiculous discussion... and 1800 layouts look great, but they aren't a *better* layout unless you really care about your mouse placement.
Your posted picture of the kira 96 is actually one of the reasons I would not buy that keyboard. I think the kira 1800 is the perfect compromise of compactness and functionality. I don't actually agree with your opinion on the WASD though. I would much rather purchase a Varmilio or a Ducky. The keycaps alone are a massive drawback on a WASD.
https://www.massdrop.com/buy/varmilo-108-keyboard https://mechanicalkeyboards.com/shop/index.php?l=product_list&c=111
One last thing the 1800 style is available easily via kbdfans and has all the keys of a full size, you just have to use numlock. Since it's programmable that's not really an issue.
https://kbdfans.myshopify.com/collections/keyboard/products/pre-orderkbdfans-kbd19x-90-mechanical-keyboard-diy-kit