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Das Keyboard II: A Switch for the Better

Posted by timothy on Fri Jun 02, 2006 03:08 PM
from the black-like-a-springfield-xd-45 dept.
Input Devices
Last year, I reviewed the original Das Keyboard, the all-black, all-the-time keyboard from MetaDot, and found it disappointing. MetaDot was kind enough to pass on an example of their next generation keyboard for comparison. The upshot is that the new version is quite a bit better than the original: it's now equal in keyfeel to the best keyboards I could find at local superstores, which dampens my major complaint. It's still a cool-looking but questionably useful all-black, and is still more eye-candy than finger-food. Just the same, this unique product now bears more consideration. (Read on for the rest of my review.)

A switch of switches:

The packaging may be nothing special, but it's much more graphically appealing than the plain cardboard box in which my sample of the original Das Keyboard arrived -- it wouldn't even look out of place in an Apple store. I was happy to see Larry Ewing's iconic rendering of Tux on the outside of the box, too, alongside old-style MacOS (really! But it does also work fine with Mac OS X) and Windows XP icons. Considering that it's a USB keyboard, a pretty mature technology, there's no surprise that it's Linux compatible, but I still enjoying seeing a penguin on the box; I consider Ewing's penguin marketing genius. I wish more companies with products just as easily Linux compatible would take advantage of the freedom they have to advertise this.

Now, on to the keyboard itself: it's still black-all-black. The only labeling is the printed "Das Keyboard" in the upper left corner, and a sticker with the usual regulatory and manufacturing information on the underside ("Designed in Austin, TX"). And if it matters to you, the current iteration of the keyboard is made in the Czech Republic, rather than China as was the previous version.

However, Das Keyboard is no longer a dead ringer in for a black-painted classic IBM Model M board; the lines have been made a bit straighter overall, and there's now a slightly rebated edge on left and right sides where the Model M is straight. Viewed from the side, the "dish" of the keys is now quite a bit shallower than that of a Model M design as well. That sounds like bad news for those of us fixated on older keyboards for their superior hand-feel, but since we're not quite in the realm of IBM-style clackityclack keyswitches anyhow, that difference is fairly subtle. And there's one nice thing about the new board's design I'd like to see in more keyboards: the "F" and "J" home keys are more deeply cut than the rest of the keys on the keyboard (by something close to a millimeter); this makes it easy to get one's hands realigned in (on rather on) the dark.

Noise aside, the new Das Keyboard is now equipped with mechanical keyswitches (made by Cherry, as is the keyboard itself) rather than the typical membrane assembly found in most keyboards nowadays and one of the things I wasn't keen on in the original. It's a good change. The new version is actually fairly pleasant to type on, and for touch typists of moderate or greater proficiency, the unlabeled keys should be no problem. I'm still skeptical of the advantage of all-black keys to those trying to learn to type (or improving their speed), but the keyfeel is no longer a distracting liability, so I'd upgrade claims on that front from "silly hokum" to "an open question."

According to a company representative, the new key switches are rated for "50 million key strokes instead of 30 million key strokes"; I'm sure somewhere around keystroke 29 million I'll sigh with relief. Such numbers are pleasant to know about and hopefully reflect a reasonable methodology, but I suspect no keyboard's keycaps are going to last long enough to keep up. Still, the new keyswitches are far more responsive, and -- at least comparing the particular examples I have of the old and new versions -- far louder. It reminds me in fact of middle generations of the Dell "QuietKey" board (which were never quiet, despite the name). So if you must type around any light sleepers, perhaps you should treat them to some warm milk before bedtime. And though I prefer the slightly deeper dish of the old version, it's an easy trade for the new one's improvement in keyfeel.

Small bonus: the new one's USB cable is a few inches longer than the old. That's about all there is to say about the connection.

The long and short:

Das Keyboard is still not my ideal keyboard, and you pay a bit more than my budget deems reasonable for the novelty of a keyboard that looks like an ideal prop for the next misunderstood-teenage-hacker movie (about $80 from ThinkGeek). But I can type reliably on the new version, which I simply never managed to do on the old, so they're doing something right. Given the improved key response, I can even imagine buying into -- or at least reconsidering -- the claims of improved typing speed or confidence as a result; I've certainly surprised myself by tapping this out with less temptation to look at the keys than I usually have (and that's after quite a few years and a few thousand hours of at least desultory tapping at both computer keyboards and actual typewriters), so for one with more self-discipline than I have, the all-black keys might be useful enough to try out.

On a five-star scale then, where I'd probably probably give the old version only one, but I'd award this one two and a half stars.

For Bonus points:

The previous version of Das Keyboard was (except cosmetically) a clone of the Keytronic 3600 series; I'll shoot some subscription pages to the first reader to point (in the comments below) an otherwise identical keyboard, but with factory-labeled keys. Note: I don't know that such a thing exists, but have fun looking.

+ -
story

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[+] Das Keyboard: Hit Any Key 479 comments
Black hardware just can't help looking cool (think TIE fighters, NeXT Cubes, and the hard-to-find black SE/30 case you might have lusted for in 1994), but have you ever wanted an all-black keyboard? Das Keyboard, from Austin-based Metadot, fills the craving for those so afflicted, and by "all-black," I mean something very nearly that: except a small white label ("Das Keyboard") in the upper left corner and labels for the three usual indicator lights -- num lock, caps lock, and scroll lock -- there's nothing but black to see. The keys are unlabeled in any conventional sense, though the index-finger keys of the conventional home row (F and J) are marked with the usual small bumps; theoretically, this should make typing more accurate after a time, just because cheating with one's eyeballs isn't a possibility. It's the aesthetic opposite of the recently announced Optimus keyboard; this is high minimalism applied to the modern keyboard. The truth is, I wanted to like Das Keyboard. It looks cool, and the concept sounds, well, sound. The thing itself left me a bit disappointed, though; I've outlined my reasoning below.
[+] Review of Das Keyboard 713 comments
My old keyboard was so crusted up with junk from years of abuse that I found myself struggling to depress most of the keys on the left side. So I decided that it was time to find a new keyboard. My plan was to steal the keyboards of my co-workers and try them out when they aren't around. But as this plan was underway, Das Keyboard asked me to review their newest keyboard. I used it for a few days to see if their website's claim of 'the best keyboard on the planet' is valid. Read on to learn more.
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Das Keyboard II: A Switch for the Better 50 Comments More /

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  • +5 to ePeen (Score:5, Informative)

    by metasecure (946666) * on Friday June 02 2006, @03:10PM (#15457365)
    Since the article neglected to provide a picture, or link to the product website, click here - http://www.daskeyboard.com/ [daskeyboard.com] Call me stupid, but I just don't see what the big deal is. I guess it's analagous to something we have in Canada known as "French immersion" - they put you into a French school where no one speaks (or is allowed to speak) English and supposedly you'll learn French much faster. This allows you to learn touch-typing faster? Dubious. In my opinion, all it's good for is showing off to non-touch-typists and maybe increasing the size of your e-peen slightly.
    • Two words: "geek points"
      • Wouldn't a real geek simply use a solvent to take the letters off the cheap black Dell keyboard they "midnight requestitioned" from the office and save themselves $200 or so?

        • Re:+5 to ePeen (Score:2, Funny)

          by Anonymous Coward
          A real geek WEARS the letters off of his Model M.

          For mine, MNSOP90[; are gone, only 93 more to go?

    • Oops! (Score:4, Funny)

      by op12 (830015) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:17PM (#15457436) Homepage
      From the site: "We have teamed up with Cherry to equipe the Das Keyboard with the best and longest lasting key switches in the industry."

      Look out for that unlabled "pe" key! It must be right next to the "p" key.
    • I don't think it would help you learn to touch type, I think it would hurt. The only part I think it would help is after you have learned the key locations and to touch type but you look at your fingers because you don't "trust" yourself yet. Back in school I remember seeing many kids get to this stage in typing class. Many don't get past it. They just don't type enough to get over that hurdle. Something like this would help them.

      That said, it's easier to just cheat. Why is IM so full of "LOLs" and "U R so

    • Re:+5 to ePeen (Score:4, Insightful)

      by hackstraw (262471) * on Friday June 02 2006, @03:43PM (#15457695) Homepage
      Call me stupid, but I just don't see what the big deal is.

      I don't either. I've designed and studied keyboards over the years and the best way to type faster is to type more accurately. 30 words per minute accurately is much faster then 100 words per minute inaccurately. These are estimates here, but they are based on my own measured speed.

      The best thing to do to a keyboard to increase keying speed is to make the backspace much more difficult to use. Back "in the day" when people had to type on typewriters and they had things like carbon copies and whatnot where a single mistake meant that the whole thing had to be redone if there was an error, or it took considerable time and white out to correct the problem, people learned 1) to type correctly the first time and then 2) to type more quickly _with_ accuracy.

      Sure you can use a split keyboard, a kenesis keyboard, a dvorak layout, or even a custom one, but until you get accuracy together nothing else will increase your speed or productivity.

      • backspace should be on home row (Score:5, Insightful)

        by j1m+5n0w (749199) on Friday June 02 2006, @04:52PM (#15458251) Homepage Journal
        The best thing to do to a keyboard to increase keying speed is to make the backspace much more difficult to use.

        I disagree. Perhaps mistakes make typing much slower because the backspace is already far too difficult to reach? And perhaps the typist may decide to write something else after having typed it? For awhile, I had a keyboard set up with semicolon and backspace swapped, and I liked the arangement much better, even when coding C, which requires a semicolon at the end of most lines. Perhaps you think me a horrible typist if such an arrangement is an improvement (and maybe you'd be right), but realistically, much of what a person types will need to be erased shortly thereafter anyways, not because it was mistyped but because the typist changed his/her mind. Keyboards should accomodate the way most users use them in real life, not maximum speed for copying text. We have OCR software for that.

        • For tasks such as typing, your nervous system has an "action queue" - you decide which letters you are going to type about half a second before you actually type them. If you make no errors, you can keep up a constant speed much faster than a letter every half second - but every single letter error you make typing takes a long time to correct, reguardless of how quickly you can reach the backspace key.

          • A typer typing at 40 WPM with no mistakes needs to type a bit over 3 characters per second to keep up th
    • I really do think that typing without printed letters on the keyboard helps to learn how to write good and fast. I also think that you do not have to buy a 'Das Keyboard' for that, but that you can remove the letters yourself if you want to.
      1 year ago, I started learning dvorak, and since I didn't want to buy another keyboard for that, I just learned to write with this one, keeping a window open with the dvorak layout image, which is quite the same as having a keyboard without letters. I always used 10 fing

  • What's up with this article? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Umbral Blot (737704) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:17PM (#15457435) Homepage
    It's nice to try new things once in a while, but the dark green bars with black lettering make for poor section dividers, not to mention that it usually makes sense to divide an article into relatively equal sections. Even weirder we have the quote: "On a five-star scale then, where I'd probably probably give the old version only one, but I'd award this one two and a half stars." The article title however implies that the new keyboard is better than the old one, which usually implies that it in some way is up to standards that the previous version wasn't However a 20% to a 50% approval is still failing, by any standard. A better title perhaps would have been: Das Keyboard II: Not Quite as Bad.

    • On my monitor which has never had good gamma at the black levels I didn't even *see* the black text on the green bar until I read your comment. I've tried no end of adjustments but eventually I realized that any site worth reading does create this problem to begin with.
  • "Das Autobahn" or the like.

    Too germanic.

  • If you're not just concerned with "looking cool" (Score:4, Informative)

    by bill_kress (99356) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:22PM (#15457474)
    This concept really works well. I used the same concept in the 80's.

    To break yourself from looking at the keys, place a hand-towel or washcloth or something over your hands while you type.

    It will take about 2 sessions and you'll be typing like a pro.

    If you buy this product, the net result (over the alternative listed above) will be to simply annoy anyone else who uses your keyboard. If this is your goal, you NEED this product, but if you're not just doing it for appearances, go grab yourself a towel and have at it, you'll be cured in 2 days.

  • Mechanical keyswitches? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by croddy (659025) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:23PM (#15457492)
    So it's even more deafening than the last revision. Great. I'll stick with my quiet Logitech keyboard, thanks.
    • Enjoy yourself.

      I suppose, just like you, there are people that prefer McDonald's hamburgers over a perfectly cooked Kobe steak. Personally, I don't need one of these because I've still got a stockpile of Model M's to use.

  • w00t! (Score:5, Funny)

    by GillBates0 (664202) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:26PM (#15457527) Homepage Journal
    OMG ALL the keys are spacebars! What could be better than this for programming in Whitespace [wikipedia.org]!!
  • I have two favorite keyboards: the IBM Model M I'm using here at work, and the Happy Hacking Lite I have at home. I love the feel of the Model M, but don't like the location or spacing of the function keys (LALT-F5 and higher to switch to higher-numbered desktops) gets a little painful and awkward by the end of the day. The Happy Hacking board is wonderful, but I do occasional miss the extra keys (ever play Tux Racer when you have to chord arrow keys?).

    Given that my boss says he'll buy me a nice keyboar

      • I dropped the thing on my foot once and now my big toe makes this funny clicking sound whenever I flex it.

        Sharpening stone? I don't know what they make ax heads out of where you live, but Sears doesn't sell the depleted uranium wedges your local store must carry.

  • Locks (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jethro (14165) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:28PM (#15457545)
    So... do you have DEDs to indicate when you hit numlock, capslock and scrolllock?

  • Hotblack Desiato would love this... (Score:5, Funny)

    by fahrbot-bot (874524) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:29PM (#15457550)
    I believe it would complement the decor of his stunt ship: all black on black. Nice...
  • ... as someone who can't reliably touch type ( a rarity for /. I think) I wonder if this would actually help me. Not knowing where they keys are without looking is not my main problem though. My main problem is that I only really use 2 fingers to type which I'm pretty sure this couldn't help (I know, but I learned bad habits and now have just got quite quick at it this way)... so what it should say is that it "could have you typing at the same speed, only this time you'll be able to look at the screen whi

    • Re:i wonder... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Eideewt (603267) on Friday June 02 2006, @04:46PM (#15458222)
      Using two fingers is definitely your problem. It's pretty much impossible to touch type accurately like that. Touch typing relies on being oriented to the home row and having each finger assigned to specific keys. When you have to move your hands around to reach them all, it becomes really hard to know where you are.
  • If you're buying a keyboard with blank keys do yourself a favor and get the Happy Hacking blank keytop model [yahoo.net]

    Das Keyboard contains a major conceptual flaw- What good is a keyboard with blank keys if you can't touch type on it? The Happy Hacking keyboard places ALL 101 KEYS within touch-typing range. I've been a happy customer of this keyboard for years- It has a fantastic key action, is very compact and allows for very fast programming if you learn to use it well.

    Plus, if you're an emacs geek, it allows for perfect ctrl key placement that is perfect for emacs navigation.

    Das Keyboard, on the other hand, looks like something a wussy vi user would type on!

    :)
    • Plus, if you're an emacs geek, it allows for perfect ctrl key placement that is perfect for emacs navigation. Das Keyboard, on the other hand, looks like something a wussy vi user would type on!
      Actually, I use vim and I've been considering the happy hacking keyboard partly because of the advantage it gives to a vim user. On the happy hacking keyboard the escape key is where the tilde key is on a normal keyboard, making it a little easier to hit.
      • On the happy hacking keyboard the escape key is where the tilde key is on a normal keyboard, making it a little easier to hit.

        Do yourself a favour and map CAPS Lock to Ctrl. In your xorg.conf file it's just the line:

        Option "XkbOptions" "ctrl:nocaps"

        in your InputDevice section for your keyboard (this remapping is also possible in Windows I believe). Then ESC can be typed with a Ctrl-[ and your hands can stay on the home row for maximum vim power :)
    • Between the name and the post, I just have to bite:

      Why the FUCK would you pay $250 for a keybaord that is small and has no type on it? That is over double even the most advanced keyboards out there.

      I really can't see any reason other than trying to show off. "Look, I'm so amazingly l33t I don't NEED other keys, I don't NEED text! I'm better than YOU."

      Seriously, what's the point. If I wanted a small keyboard, I could get one, something like one of the USB keyboards for tablets. However if I wanted a good key

  • But does it... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Nom du Keyboard (633989) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:31PM (#15457579)
    But does it let me run pharming macros for WoW?
  • I think the blank key thing would eventually make me insane. I already flop around uselessly, stuck in paroxysms of hunt-n-peckery, after switching from my work keyboard (IBM P/N KB-0225) to my home keyboard (Eluminx Sapphire). The delete and right-ctrl keys are in different places, see... http://www.thinktechie.com/reviews/05-2003/eluminX /kb05.jpg [thinktechie.com]

    However, I do dig the "clicky high-end mechanical switches". Anyone who's played a Kurzweil KX88 next to a cheapo Casio can agree with that.

  • the original. I really like it. The only time the blank keys are a problem is when you're typing with one hand (haa haa) or hunt and peck; since it's more difficult to see which letters you are hitting you will make mistakes. That's why I prefer to always put my hand on the f or j buttons so I have tactile feedback.

    A bit off-topic: I cleaned the keyboard and took the space bar off. I didn't manage to put it back correctly and now it's a bit "lazy." Any websites which describe in detail how to properly put t
  • Why can't people make a keyboard that has the feel of the old Model M without sounding like you're firing off a machine gun?

  • "Teamed up with"? (Score:3, Informative)

    by mjg59 (864833) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:40PM (#15457667) Homepage
    It looks awfully like a recoloured Cherry G80-3000 [cherrycorp.com]. The LED design gives it away.
  • Das Keyboard is rated up to 50 Million key strokes where as regular keyboards barely reach 10 to 15 Million strokes.


    Wow, you could save a file in Emacs without having to swap keyoards halfway through! ;-)

  • Paint it ALL black (Score:5, Funny)

    by Marge N. Lacoste (801569) on Friday June 02 2006, @03:44PM (#15457700)
    I see a Num Lock and I want it painted black /
    No LEDs, of course, I want them to turn black /
    I see the words scroll by, can't read but half, I know /
    Cut me some slack: I learned to spell from reading Rob Taco.

    I see a row of keys and they're all painted black /
    That logo distracts me, I think I'll send it back /
    I used to hunt and peck, then quickly look away /
    Then I wore the letters off with hardcore Nethack play.

    I wanna see it painted, painted black
    Black as night, black as coal
    I wanna see the sun blotted out from the sky
    I wanna see it psinted, paontrd, paimyed. [aint4d nlack
  • For $50 you can get a USB keyboard from Sun either PC-style or UNIX-style (X3738A) layouts. Just drop X3738A into Sun's store [sun.com] and there you go. It's hard to find any other way. It has gobs of extra keys, and the extra keys work great on Macs (like the volume, power and help key) and can be made to work on Linux. I haven't figured out how to get the volume keys or additional F-keys to work on Windows.

    Word of warning, the X3738A is a massive keyboard. it has f-keys on the top and on the side. It has esc where
  • $80? I can make my own with duct tape and a $10 keyboard.
  • Remember when making things sound pesudo-german made you Über-cool?

  • Macintosh compatible (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Princeofcups (150855) <john@princeofcups.com> on Friday June 02 2006, @05:16PM (#15458421) Homepage
    So which is the Apple key?

    jfs

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