Numpad forces you to move the more important piece of input equipment - mouse - further away. And with a properly aligned keyboard (none pictured in the article) it's better to have numpad near your right hand home row keys anyway to use with a modifier. Even more so for the cursor keys - instead of having to move your wrist back&forth you could just use the home row keys for that

Same. I use my numpad constantly - Excel, programming, VoIP, calc, etc.

I don't use the number row above my keyboard except on rare occasions or to type the shifted characters. If I need to quickly type a number without looking, the numpad is the only way to do that (for me).

I tried a friends "compact" gaming keyboard, and then to the right of his keyboard was a separate "macro" keyboard which was basically just a numpad... so why not just have a numpad?

I want the option of having the numpad at the left side of the keyboard.

The asymmetric nature of having it at the right side drives me crazy.

I want my hands at the middle of the keyboard, not cramped to the left side, with so much space at the right, for keys I almost never use.

Having said that, my current keyboard has no numpad.

If you have programmable keyboard then it's trivial to throw numpad into a layer if you so wish and avoid the ergonomic problems of conventional numpad. Especially if you have ortholinear layout then the difference between real numpad and a layered one should be small.

Overall the ergonomic trend seems to be towards reducing wrist movement, thats why layouts like Corne are relatively popular, you can basically keep your hands at "home row position" all the time.

I do also think that numpads are also simply just less useful today than they were 10 or 20 years ago. Back in the days lot of data was still on paper or some other disconnected form. But these days? Where are you getting all those numbers that you are entering on numpad? What numeric data are you handling that is not already on your computer? I really do believe there has been shift in workflows so that people are far less typing in strings of numbers all the time.

If you're right handed and use the mouse right handed, the increase in angle of your right arm is a lot harder on your shoulder over time.

I have never missed the numpad, as I am not an accountant.

I've thought like this before but it's nice having a smaller keyboard, you can keep your hands closer together which is nice and unless you’re doing a lot of accounting, you don't really regularly use the numpad. Best configuration I've found is to have a separate numpad/macro keypad that you can keep off to the side on your desk.

Same man. Reduced size keyboards are absolutely awful to use and I have no idea how anyone can stand them. 100% or nothing.

It is popular in PC FPS gaming to have a smaller keyboard so you can go more distance to the left with your mouse hand before running out of space. Have you never hit your keyboard with your mouse? More likely to happen when playing with lower DPI/sensitivity. I don't use numpad for anything while gaming so it's extra space I'm happy to get rid of. All these people saying they don't get why someone would want a smaller keyboard are probably confused because they don't play FPS or games that require mouse space beyond their 6 inch mousepad.

Some gamers even position their keyboards at very harsh angles or nigh perpendicular to their body all just to make more space.

I bought a keyboard without the numpad about ten years ago and rarely miss it (I do have the arrows and keys above them). I would miss it with my work keyboard, but I don't miss it on my personal use gaming PC.

I don't like moving across the numerical keypad area with my right hand every time I switch from typing to mousing. That extra few inches adds up over a long coding session.

I got a nice numpadless mechanical keyboard to conserve my deskspace, and because I never used the numpad anyway. Then I promptly got into Blender, which makes great use of the numpad for zooming, rotating etc.

Off to buy another keyboard...

I don't get the tiny keyboard obsession either, I've got a tenkeyless so no numpad but an area for arrow keys, page up/down etc. and it's a good compromise. For me, the numpad would conflict with what I already put next to my keyboard--my trackpad.

I agree. I really like the Keydous NJ98 CP he V2 something that's full sized with hall effect, BUT ut also is compatible with regular mechanical switches. It really should be a standard.

What's especially bad is those that remove FN keys. I'm convinced that anybody that's okay with that doesn't use keyboard shortcuts very often.

I was given a 75% keyboard and I just can't get used to the spacing. Plus I miss my numberpad.

I want a separate numpad on the far side of the mouse (or left side of the desk) for RSI reasons.

Using Razer as an example, the full size keyboard is 6 inches wider than a 60%, and 3.5 inches larger than the 80%.

You said 2 inches but it’s actually half the width of a 13” laptop.

I can fit a compact keyboard and a trackpad in the size of a normal keyboard.

A full size numpad keyboard gave me wrist pain, since my hands were spread out while using the mouse! Plus I like having more desk space.

I do have a full size keyboard in my closet just in case I have to use excel someday!

Well, I personally don’t mind removal of numpad because it is badly designed. Telephone style numpad are a much better design. I have no idea on why we are stuck with such a bad design.

if you have your left hand on WSAD and right hand on the mouse then having the numpad in the way makes the sitting posture less natural

that's the reason

The problem is mainly that normal numpad placement is for left mouse users.

I bought this in their pre-release sale and sold it immediately after the first day. It’s incredibly large and heavy, cheap keycaps, action doesn’t really feel nice for typing, latency was high, wired only, and I could not find a good use for the multi-stage-activation feature.

With the high latency (I measured up to 90ms at 1000hz which is ridiculously high), and competitive games banning use of macros, it’s pretty useless for gaming.

Interesting, their configuration tool runs in browser and they explicitly mention linux; I don't have much experience with gaming keyboards but the only one I bought in the past had some windows-only configuration software and was a bit of a pain.

I'm usually ambivalent about keyboards but... that one looks pretty sick. I'm still using a Filco Majestouch for my gaming / day to day use but it's at the end of its lifetime, some buttons need to "warm up" a bit before they register nowadays.

Shame they don't make a full sized keyboard.

Could you expand on the complicated reasons? Or have a resource handy? Is it Bluetooth wireless or 2.4GHz radio adapter wireless that’s faster?

Lower latency than PS/2?

> An Open Source Analog Keyboard with Adaptive Typing AI.

So the keyboard learns your current mistakes and fixes them in the future. This sounds excellent except once you get used to having your mistakes fixed for you, you become dependent to this type of keyboard. Personally I'm not ready for AI keyboards, I like the control I have over what I type, mistakes and all.

I hope it works out for you and get your moneys worth... How much did you pay for yours?

The Keystone keyboard is never going to ship. The Kono web store is currently doing a rug pull and scamming their customers.

This is because sites like this shove ads in every conceivable whitespace on the page, so you have ads/videos/images and JavaScript loading and executing from all corners of the internet. What was once a page that was supposed to give you text and images is now executing all kinds of shit you don't want or need, burning up your CPU and battery and giving you a truly horrible, janky experience even on newer phones or desktops. If you visit these sites on older phones, it's truly excruciating. All for some text of what could have been a comment on a site like this, or a blog post on a statically-hosted site which costs next to nothing to run.

Here was my experience on an M1 Mac Mini with 16GB of RAM, in Safari with no extensions:

https://imgur.com/RDv2n7Z

This is why I have absolutely zero qualms with using an ad blocker to the fullest extent I can.

I hate what these people do to computers.

Incentivizing publishers to load massive amounts of third party JavaScript was an industry mistake and the people who write JavaScript for ads are profoundly irresponsible and unprofessional.

It's not even that good of an article. I tried to understand what Hall Effect is and what its advantages are, but it was so vague, beating around the bush and forwarding you to other articles on their site, that I gave up and searched on the YT mechanical keyboards channels instead.

Here's a nice intro review of a Hall Effect keyboard, from Switch and Click, which explains its features and differences compared to a normal switch keyboard: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FNANUquoXOA

I recently started using Firefox Focus enabled as an extension in iOS Safari, and it works great as an ad blocker. The op site loads for me. Was a hn rec from another thread I think.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/firefox-focus-privacy-browser/...

Not to mention the popup that scrolled me back to the beginning of the article.

iOS is genuinely terrible. I appreciate the point that so is web design for many sites, but even if you ignore that, 97% of bugs on our product with no cookies, ads, analytics etc come from iOS. My favourite time burner right now is when apple pushed for new viewport units and then don't respect them. Their address bar animated design is atrocious.

The brand "Das Keyboard" did that almost 20 years ago on a non-mechanical keyboard. The activation forces were tuned in exactly that way across the keyboard. The keycaps also didn't have any legends on them, so it targeted the nerdy/elitist audience a bit. Their later keyboards seem to have gone for uniform mechanical switches though.

NYT article about it from back then: https://archive.is/ANcdu and a picture of it from wikipedia showing the lack of legends on the keycaps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Das_Keyboard#/media/File:DasKe...

These days, it wouldn't be that hard to make yourself. Various brands of mechanical keyboard switches come in a variety of activation forces. Get a keyboard with swappable switches, and tune the weights to your own preference. For example, on my keyboard I use these switches with a 67g weight, but could get some 62g and 65g ones for the pinky keys.

https://zealpc.net/products/zilent?variant=5894832324646

"Endgamed" keyboard nerd here, and I was able to find different boards that were better for certain roles, until I got to WFH full time. These newfangled magnets aren't convincing enough for me to ditch my workhorses.

I had an HHKB-looking mechanical 60%, and just remapped a few things to be nicer for programming. Function key instead of caps lock, and suddenly so much was at my fingertips. Something like Fn-IJKL for arrows, and pageup/dn, home/end, located somewhere reasonable relative to the arrows. And, a bright red anodized aluminum case, which had a built-in angle, making it very nice to use. More pinky movements than usual, but I made sure to have Fn keys on both sides, to be able to give one or the other a break.

The Preonic '50%' is also pretty neat, and I was pretty productive with the default layout. Hand size was a bit of an issue, but once again, everything I could need was under my fingers with a layer change or two, or some 2-key-combo layer.

Gaming was a nonstarter on either of those boards. I need to at least have a TKL or 65+%, and have it be a sturdy tank. I love my NK87, and use it with Kailh Crystal Box Pink switches. Used to use Box Jades, but these Pinks are crispy.

If someone wanted to get crazy about their mech board and individual key strength, properties, etc, there's a dead simple option of "Buy the stiffer/softer switch as well, install in desired position". Hot-swap sockets are on plenty of keyboards these days, and I've totally heard of people using stiffer switches on the spacebar.

I wonder if with a sufficiently fast ADC measuring each switch's voltage transition, you might be able to do velocity detection with normal switches? I guess might need an ADC wired to each switch rather than row/column matrix scan.

Would be a fun way to implement a modal text editor. Full press for normal mode, light press for insert mode. Could be unintentionally hilarious though.

You can't easially do adjustable actuation points and a click feel so I doubt it. They can put a click in someplace, but that is a mechanical operation which means either it is fixed at the factory or you need to take a screwdriver (or something) to each key to adjust. The nice thing about hall effect switches is you can choose the actuation point(s!) in software making it quick and easy to change until you find what works, but software cannot adjust a mechanical click.

I can think of a couple ways to adjust a mechanic click from software. You could put gears and a stepper motor in the keyboard to adjust where the click is (you of course need to design a click mechanism as the keys don't have it) - this would be complex, fragile, and expensive (likely large as well). You could put a coil under each switch and fire that when the key actuates to provide a force change. There are probably others. I have no idea how practical anything is, but I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying it if you are interested - it sounds like a fun project (of the type I don't have time for)

This article is about GAMING keyboards. Magnetic keyboards seems to offer some nice features gamers will use. However for general typing a traditional mechanical keyboard may well be better: do not feel bad about using Cherry MX browns if they work for you (I use them myself, but I'm trying to figure out if my budget allows for a model F) - the only downside is in competitive games you may lose to someone who has a keyboard that can do things yours cannot.

I had optical "clicky" switches in my Wooting One TKL, so it is possible. In hindsight I would not go for the clicky or even tactile ones again, but use linear switches, because the great thing about optical and HE switches is that you can select the actuation point to your own typing style, which of course is not possible with switches that provide mechanical feedback.

Do you prefer a click or a quiet tactile bump? The MX browns you describe are a light quiet tactile switch.

Most of these Hall effect keyboards are all running linear switches - no tactility whatsoever. I’ve seen a handful of switches which are HE and tactile, but I’ve not tried them. Glorious Panda HE are a notable model - if the name is consistent with their past efforts these should be significantly more tactile than the MX Browns you currently use.

What ads? https://ublockorigin.com/

Kinesis Advantage2, brown switches, look no further.

From the perspective of a programmer using vim, the Advantage2 is mankind's peak achievement in the field of computer keyboards.

https://kinesis-ergo.com/keyboards/advantage2-keyboard/

Wooting is still around and still makes HE keyboards. They offer 60% and 80%, but not 70% models.

Perhaps I'm just unaware, but I thought Wooting was the company behind HE keyboards becoming a commercial product. When they did their first HE keyboard I certainly didn't see any other HE keyboards on the market. I would still be using Wooting if they had a Low-profile HE version.

It seems that while I've been not paying attention, HE keyboards have become a thing finally and, more importantly, Low-Profile HE keyboards are now a thing. This makes me super happy as I only use LP keyboards now days. I love my Keychron K15 Pro!

Wooting is in fact mentioned in TFA.

Right, but the hall effect sensor measures the strength of a magnetic field.

The key/switch has a little magnet on the stem and the hall effect sensor is measuring the strength of the magnetic field as the magnet moves up/further & down/closer to the sensor.

There are tons of sports where the amateurs end up buying top of the line gear.

People will spend thousands to ride the same bikes the Tour de France riders do. You can spend crazy amounts on basketball shoes, sweat wicking synthetic shirts and all sorts of other gear that LeBron uses.

If there is a sport that requires buying specialized equipment, there are people buying stuff that is completely unnecessary for their use case.

Peaked in Silver in Valorant, lemme tell you, the hardware isn't much of a gamechanger after a certain price/quality point. I'm just a very tactile guy, and like diving down rabbit holes for stuff that suits me. My input devices are how I interact with the world, so, why not take some care to find one that sparks joy?

Kids these days who are 'graduating' from default laptop keyboard, $40 wireless keyboard/mouse combo, etc to "Hardware I picked out for myself" have plenty of good options, considering how hardware has gotten SO much nicer over the few decades I've been using it.

The 1mm actuation thing is probably for advertising how 'good/sensitive/capable' their switches are. I would personally never use something like that, what with my heavy hands. Little Timmy, on the other hand, is wading through a bunch of actually-decent mass-market options, and may see 1mm actuation as "WOW, NOTHING HAS EVER BEEN THIS GOOD!"

You get this everywhere.

There's amateur photographers who have a super-expensive camera.

Weekend artists with a cupboard full of the pricest paints and papers.

Super-expensive bicycles that only get ridden a few days a year.

The cool feature of hall effect keyboards is the ability to set multiple actuation points on a key.

For racing games, that means a real throttle.

And it's also nice with FPS games to have the W key mapped at half-press to W, and full-press to SHIFT and W. Most FPS games require you to press an additional key (such as shift) to run, even though you'll spend 99.99% of your time running.

That being said, I wouldn't buy a keyboard (magnetic or otherwise) for more than $50.

If you like mechanical keyboards with relatively light to mid-weight linear switches, you’ll probably enjoy Hall effect switches.

Being contactless, they’re extremely smooth, quiet and reliable, and being able to set the actuation point exactly where you want it is a very nice bonus.

I’ve been using a Monsgeek M1 HE (I think probably still the cheapest option on the market, even though it’s an incredibly solid block of aluminium) since the summer, mostly just for coding, and for me it’s the best keyboard I’ve ever used.

If your preference is for tactile/clicky switches, or heavier linear switches that you hit hard enough to bottom out, or you’re perfectly happy with any old membrane keyboard, it’s probably not worth the expense.

The question that should have been answered, but wasn't.

Since booleans default to false, I would say: no.

More seriously, if you assign different meanings to a key relating to how deep it gets pressed, it will result in lots of key misses I suppose. You will have to develop a piano feel, but for a piano there is a correlation with loudness.

So if you define a soft action for a gentle press on space, and a "stronger" action for a deep press on space, maybe you can do useful things without fucking up your typing.

Things like: going to

  start of word, (soft)
  start of sentence (medium)
  column 0 (hard)

But i am a bit wary about how precise and consistent the board will be. But if it works, it might save on key combinations to learn.

I got one a couple months ago, I _really_ enjoy typing on it and use it for programming. Perhaps I just never found the right mechanical keyboard, but it feels like my fingers just glide over it when typing.

There's no tactile feedback when the switch activates, but you can adjust the actuation point of the switch to where it feels comfortable to you. I've set mine to be just about as sensitive as possible.

Do you fully press (or mostly fully press) your keys when you type? If so, then no, Hall Effect keyboards probably aren't going to get you anything a mechanical keyboard won't. The headline feature is extremely high sensitivity, i.e. you barely have to tap the key for it to register.

I don't think it's worth much even if you are a gamer. Unless you're at the absolute top of the game, the fraction of a second you save on your inputs isn't going to make a bit of difference (and even for those at the top of the game I have serious doubts that it would). But a lot of gamers are young and extremely gullible, so it's easy to sell them snake oil like this. This sort of thing is like the high end cables marketed to audiophiles, it is all hype and no substance.

Svalboard uses opto-interruptors, not hall effect sensors, though it does use magnets for return actuation instead of springs. The keys are either on or off, no floating point value like you get with hall effect so some of the features described in the article won't work.

Source: currently working on an open source hall effect sensor keyboard similar to svalboard.

Unlikely, at least in the sense being discussed here.

A Hall effect sensor works by running a constant current in one direction while measuring the potential difference in a different axis. The keyboard’s PCB needs to be able to register a range of values, not simply binary on-off. Regular keyboards aren’t equipped to do that.

Typically in an HE keyboard, the sensors are mounted to the PCB. The “switch” itself is just a neodymium magnet at the end of a POM stem, in a polycarbonate housing with a spring.

There are other kinds of magnetic switch that have historically been used in keyboards – e.g. Fujitsu used reed switches in the 70s – and in theory you could probably build them into a Cherry MX-compatible package. But they wouldn’t provide many of the benefits of HE keyboards, besides smoothness and reliability, and I’m not aware of anyone doing it.

I currently run a Keychron K15 Pro and can easily remap my volume scroll as a mouse scroll (U/D or L/R or any combo). I can even have it on a different layer so it's volume control most of the time. In fact, I use the knob to control keyboard LED brightness on a secondary layer.

I play single-player games from time-to-time and avoid multiplayer games as much as possible.

Just out of curiosity, is there some vetting process for keyboards that qualifies them as "not cheating"? Any hardware advances in input/output devices could be considered an unfair advantage, right? If my keyboard is a simple, non-smart one with significantly lower latency than your keyboard, does that mean I'm cheating? At some point you have to draw a line and say 'this is acceptable' and 'that is not', who draws the line? Does the line move? When does it move?

Cheating is going outside the defined rules of a game. If a specific game calls out that macros of any kind are forbidden, then great, that means some of the features of modern keyboards are cheating. Now, how do you police that? Pro-level competitive players are likely to be so fast and coordinated as to be close to indistinguishable from a well configured macro. Really, if you want to have limits on input devices, you need to codify that into the game, not say any advances in keyboard design are cheating. If using a macro lets a player be better than everyone else, limit the input capability to the level that is considered fair and don't worry about what keyboard someone is using. Otherwise, it's like complaining about someone using expensive high-refresh-rate gear and calling them a cheater.