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HHKB Studio: The New Happy Hacking Keyboard with TrackPoint
- azeirah 3y agoDoes anyone know if there are any portable bluetooth keyboards (think usable in the train) with a trackpoint? The only ones I can find have a trackpad, but I think a trackpoint would actually be a lot nicer.
- Fnoord 3y agoYou can make any USB keyboard a BT keyboard with a USB2BT (from Japan) and a battery. If it has LEDs you might have to disable or dim those (I had to enable tachyon mode on my keyboard).
- ly 3y agoIsn’t this keyboard exactly that? It has Bluetooth and isn’t any wider than your laptop already is. If it’s too thick due to the mechanical switches, the ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II might be an option.
- ductsurprise 3y ago- ThinkPad TrackPoint Keyboard II Bluetooth ? It's pretty close to full size, but very slim and light weight.
- jwells89 3y agoI have one of these in usage as an entertainment center PC keyboard, as an alternative to the media PC keyboard with godawful integrated trackpads or extra coffee table clutter of a mouse. It’s solid. Not quite to my taste for primary keyboard usage but not bad.
- code-blooded 3y agoI'm writing this message on that keyboard and I don't really recommend it. It's a literal copy of the modern ThinkPad laptop keyboards, only a little worse. It's mushy for a proper desktop keyboard, the TrackPoint is too flat and requires a lot of force to use (just like in the recent laptops) and worst of all, dust, crumbs and dirt easily get under the keys and make them not register unless you press hard.
- thoweir234234ff 3y agoSurprised that they abandoned the signature Topre switches for this 'custom' HHKB switch. Doubt if any of the keyboard-otakus will go for this esp. given the sheer variety of MX switches now.
- onetimeuse92304 3y agoYou need custom switches to go around trackpoint. I had the same problem building my own custom keyboard. In the end, I opted to redesign the layout to have one key worth of space dedicated to the trackpoint. I was able to do this because I can learn a completely new layout on a whim, but if you want to produce a keyboard for mass market then I see how this could be a deal breaker.
- fomine3 3y agoActually this model is designed by PFU with Japanese DIY keyboard otakus.
- raskelll 3y ago[flagged]
- bauerd 3y agoToo bad they shifted away from Topre switches
- comboy 3y agoIt's weird. That seemed to have been their selling point. Plus black? I don't know about others, but my all my black keyboards acquired some gray parts pretty quick (tiny ones, I like my keyboard clean, but that's precisely why it hurts the aesthetics).
- dannyobrien 3y agoI'm a happy owner of a Tex Shinobi and Tex Shura. It's pretty hard to get a good trackpoint experience and Tex have done a good job getting right over the years (including producing a Lenovo-branded mechanical keyboard). They're a small shop based in Taiwan. Shura is $169. https://tex.com.tw/collections/keyboard https://tex.com.tw/collections/keyboard
- nottheengineer 3y agoThose boards are absolutely gorgeus. I'm not looking for a trackpoint or a standard layout, but I'm still tempted to buy one.
- thoweir234234ff 3y agoIf you're in Japan, you can get, https://archisite.co.jp/products/archiss/quattro/tkl-jp/ https://archisite.co.jp/products/archiss/quattro/tkl-jp/ , for ~ 15000 円 ＝ $100.
- skowalak 3y agoI used the Tex keycaps for a keyboard I built about three years ago. After three years of daily usage I have noticed a lot of wear on the keycaps. Some letters are barely visible, and some of the caps have gotten really shiny, i.e. they have lost their surface structure. Have you noticed something similar? Other than that they feel really nice and I like them a lot.
- jwells89 3y agoThe Shura uses double-shot keycaps, where the legends are a different colored plastic whereas earlier TEX models used UV printed or laser etched keycaps. TEX’s older method is common to a lot of keyboard manufacturers and is prone to wear like you’ve seen. By contrast double-shot keys will get shiny, but their legends will always be legible no matter how many years they’re used.
- fmajid 3y agoThose keycaps are doubleshot ABS, though, and ABS is widely considered to be an inferior material compared to PBT. At that price, you would expect the latter.
- threatofrain 3y agoIt really surprises me that the Happy Hacking Keyboard brand has stuck with their key layout. For a more conventional layout one might consider keychron. https://www.keychron.com/ https://www.keychron.com/
- eurekin 3y agoFor a split version, there's https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q11-qmk-custom-mechanical-keyboard https://www.keychron.com/products/keychron-q11-qmk-custom-me... Now, if only there was a track-pad or -ball
- petepete 3y agoWhy would anyone need a capslock?
- tomthecreator 3y agoTo rebind it to Escape of course. :D Works wonders if you're using vim or vim mode somewhere.
- rgoulter 3y agoElsewhere in the comments, someone said "I want dedicated keys for arrows / function keys, I use these frequently enough that I don't want to hold a modifier". Some programming languages type constants in UPPER_SNAKE_CASE. -- The same rationale applies: it's easy to understand why someone would prefer to avoid having to hold a modifier key for that. -- I quite like Caps Word as an improvement on CapsLock https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_caps_word https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_caps_word Though, I'd agree that CapsLock isn't important enough to put where it is on a traditional keyboard. (Nor does the spacebar need to be 6 keys wide..).
- eviks 3y agoBesides the better caps word (by the way, you can have it in software in Win/Linux apps like https://github.com/jtroo/kanata/blob/main/docs/config.adoc#caps-word https://github.com/jtroo/kanata/blob/main/docs/config.adoc#c...) you can also toggle capslock with e.g. a double tap while having on-hold functionality to the more useful Control, so you still wouldn't need to hold any modifier key
- TheRoque 3y agoSorry for being such a newbie, but I never understood why HHKB was popular, and where it got its fame. I saw my roomate already having it 10 years ago, I find cool the minimalist aspect, but why such keyboard with basic design made it so far ? Also, on a personal note, having a 65% keyboard now for 3 years, I'll go back to a 75% keyboard. I think functions keys and arrows are used way too frequently to spend your time using shortcuts. Also sometimes it becomes a hell of shortcuts in shortcuts.
- nottheengineer 3y agoThey used to use topre switches which many people swear by and combined it with a modern design. Compared to the gaming keyboards with MX blues and the ultra-cheap rubberdome boards of the time, it was a great package so they gained popularity. Not sure how they got traction at the start because the main selling point was the weird layout and they didn't have topre switches yet. This one doesn't have topre either. It still sounds great, but if I wanted MX switches and a trackpoint, I'd go for a Tex shinobi. Shortcut hell is a problem indeed, I want to Alt+F4 with one hand and on a 60% that's impossible to implement without something like spaceFN, which again has to be turned off for gaming.
- khnorgaard 3y agoIt's mainly due to using topre switches but they also swap CAPSLOCK for CTRL by default (which used to be normal back in the day). For me, having gone through heaps of MX-based boards, I always return to topre. The typing experience is just superior IMHO. Unfortunately this new board uses MX type switches which to me is weird because it's their biggest differentiator and selling point.
- JohnBooty 3y agohaving gone through heaps of MX-based boards, I always return to topre Have you compared/contrasted Topre switches vs. higher-end MX-compatible switches? Actual CherryMX branded switches are not great in my experience. I find Gateron's factory-lubed MX compatible switches to be excellent, and they are considered (I think?) middle-tier. But I have never tried "exotic" or "high-end" MX-compat switches, nor have I tried Topre. I would love a comparison.
- eviks 3y agoTrackPoint is cool, but happiness can only be reached on a proper ergo split keyboard without a huge space
- kybernetikos 3y agoYeah, I would love a keyboard like this except that I've now moved entirely to corne-ish zen. I wish I could have a corne-ish zen with a trackpoint, but I expect the people who would like that must be a tiny niche-within-a-niche.
- ivanjermakov 3y agoYep. I think QMK's mouse support[1] is sufficient for those who need it. But personally I use mouse _really_ rarely because of my keyboard centric workflow (DWM, Neovim & Vimium). [1]: https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_mouse_keys https://docs.qmk.fm/#/feature_mouse_keys
- eviks 3y agoTrack point offers the unbeatable awesomeness of "analogue" reaction - the harder you push, the faster the mouse goes. - 360 (or whatever the effective number of directions you can push with a finger) is also much richer than 4 You can't replicate it with binary down/up buttons, so QMK-like support isn't a good replacement. (at least for the first one you could have a newer generation of keyboards that have "analogue" buttons the track more than 2 positions)
- kamray23 3y agoyou could technically slam a trackball onto an ergo split keyboard. wouldn't recommend it but you could. people tend to put one between their keyboards so why not just build it into the right one?
- gregwebs 3y agoI have always been a fan of the trackpoint. The Ultimate Hacking Keyboard is a split keyboard with trackpoint, trackball, and touchpad modules (choose one). https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/shop https://ultimatehackingkeyboard.com/shop I am excited for the upcoming release of the dygma raise 2 because it has integrated 60 degree tenting in addition to being split. It has a module system as well which will hopefully offer trackpoint. https://dygma.com/pages/dygma-raise-2 https://dygma.com/pages/dygma-raise-2 I am happy using the NuPhy Air v2 as my portable keyboard. I love the low profile- not for looks, but for better ergonomics and portability. No track point though!
- eurekin 3y agoOn paper; it checks all the important marks: split, mechanical, has a trackpoint. I wish Keychron added similar (they have great mac/windows switching support; as well as some minor adjustments for some keys)
- mqus 3y agoLooked at the UHK Trackpoint module just now and I can't imagine buying this. It can't be used with index finger+thumb (without moving your hand) and does not have a third mouse button which is crucial for jumping between scrolling and moving the mouse. They also can't easily fix the first issue, because they expect their modules to be attached at certain places and the trackpoint should be way up there. Maybe I'm just prejudiced from my thinkpad keyboards. Haven't used an ergonomic or split keyboard yet, no clue if this would make a difference on how to use a trackpoint.
- wodenokoto 3y agoOT: What’s a great keyboard for people who don’t like mechanical keyboards? I took the plunge when I switched to a job where we worked on windows instead of macOS and got a keyChron as my daily driver instead of a Magic Keyboard. I had good memories of clicking away on an old IBM as a kid in the 90s so I thought I’d enjoy a “real” keyboard. I don’t dislike my low profile keyChron. But even after a year and a half it still feels tall and I mistype a lot. I don’t think a Mac keyboard works well on windows so I also don’t want to connect my Magic Keyboard to my work PC.
- 8draco8 3y agoLogitech makes excellent, "mac style" keyboards for Windows. Checkout Logitech MX Keys. It should fit your needs if you liked Apple Magic Keyboard
- wodenokoto 3y agoWhich caps did you go with?
- gregwebs 3y agoNot sure which keycron keyboard you got, and how low pro low profile it actually is. The NuPhy Air v2 gives me the low profile feel that I like. Tented split keyboards for me also help avoid the issue of a keyboard raising from front to back although certainly the feel is still not low profile.
- JohnBooty 3y agoBut even after a year and a half it still feels tall and I mistype a lot. I had a Keychron K3 and I found the default keycaps to have a weird shape ("profile" in keyboard lingo) This was resolved by getting a new set of keycaps: https://www.keychron.com/collections/keychron-low-profile-keycaps https://www.keychron.com/collections/keychron-low-profile-ke... ...at which point I found it to be an excellent typing experience! However... feels tall There are low profile models from Logitech and others but I don't know that their height would be different enough to matter. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6WZNKzHzXc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6WZNKzHzXc Maybe the Corsair A100? That looks like it uses unique laptop-style switches. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-kC_tnXGj4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-kC_tnXGj4
- TurboHaskal 3y agoI love it. I want it. I've been dreaming of this for years. But I refuse to buy a black HHKB.
- pikseladam 3y agoI've been using hhkb pro 2 for 5 years and I haven't found a better solution. This is one of the best purchases for me. I can say that it is a device that I am emotionally attached to. However, if I want to buy it with mouse features, I can buy Text Shinobi. The design and quality seem to be better and I have never needed bluetooth.
- WesolyKubeczek 3y agoI like that it's non-Topre. They claim the switches are hot-swappable, but what with? Only black-on-black keycaps are very lame, though. They don't offer any other ones, and you cannot just buy any other ones, gotta accommodate that TrackPoint. Also US-only, meh.
- tbitrust 3y agoQuestion to keyboard enthusiasts: Are ergo column staggered keyboards that much more ergonomic, comfortable?
- code-blooded 3y agoColumn staggered and even more so ortholinear are easier for my brain to work with: the layout can be made almost symmetrical and fingers always go up. One thing to watch for is that many have same size modifier keys as letter keys, which I find not ideal.
- BadJo0Jo0 3y agoI want this for my HTPC, but cant justify the price. Happy to see other similar options mentioned here.