Das Keyboard II: A Switch for the Better

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.

+5 to ePeen

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.

Oops!

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.

Re:Oops!

pe-key? No, the writer just spent too much time in the Canadian "French immersion" school...

Re:+5 to ePeen

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

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.

What's up with this article?

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.

If you're not just concerned with "looking cool"

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.

Re:If you're not just concerned with "looking cool

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

Why can't I just wear gloves? ;)

ther are still no keymaps other than US

I asked about a german version of "Das Keyboard" v. 1, but still no luck with it. Well maybe they now will make versions for other keymaps as well.

Mechanical keyswitches?

So it's even more deafening than the last revision. Great. I'll stick with my quiet Logitech keyboard, thanks.

w00t!

OMG ALL the keys are spacebars! What could be better than this for programming in Whitespace [wikipedia.org]!!

Locks

So... do you have DEDs to indicate when you hit numlock, capslock and scrolllock?

Hotblack Desiato would love this...

I believe it would complement the decor of his stunt ship: all black on black. Nice...

Re:Hotblack Desiato would love this...

And when you press caps lock, a black light lights up on a black background to let you know that it's on!

It's still ain't a Happy Hacking Keyboard...

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!

:)

Ok, I'm sorry but...

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 of

Re:It's still ain't a Happy Hacking Keyboard...

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

But does it...

But does it let me run pharming macros for WoW?

+5 for feel, -10 for noise

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?

Better luck next year?

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?

For one thing, the most obvious acoustic improvement to the buckling-spring keyswitch is patented by AT&T [uspto.gov].

"Teamed up with"?

It looks awfully like a recoloured Cherry G80-3000 [cherrycorp.com]. The LED design gives it away.

Paint it ALL black

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

Macintosh compatible

So which is the Apple key?

jfs

No . . . das Kraftwerk.

The album was "Autobahn".

Re:i wonder...

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.