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Keyboardio’s Model 100 keyboard – a review
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##########################################
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:date: 2022-06-18T03:02Z
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:category: blog
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:tags: review,keyboard
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:url: blog/keyboardio-model100-keyboard-review/
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:save_as: blog/keyboardio-model100-keyboard-review/index.html
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:status: published
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:author: Gergely Polonkai
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TL;DR: despite the fact that i almost have to re-learn typing, this thing is awesome and i think
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everyone typing a decent amount of letters a day should get a split, or even a split+vertical
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keyboard.
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-----
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I’m not a keyboard enthusiast, but i heard so much about split keyboards and `Keyboardio
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<https://shop.keyboard.io>`_’s Model 01 before that i decided to back their `Model 100 on
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Kickstarter <https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/keyboardio/model-100>`_ about a year ago. It’s
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super expensive in my book (about 20% of my monthly salary when i ordered it) but since they
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announced the project way before the KS campaign i had time to slowly put aside some money every
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month. This makes it the first electronic device that i actually wanted so much (and probably
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needed; ergonomics is important, as i learned the hard way coming closer to 40) that i put aside
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money for it. Their hunt-and-pecking chicken in the promotion video was also pretty convincing.
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We got a lot of info on what is happening during the time between backing and delivery.
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Some video footage of how the keyboards are made, from production to QA, was one of them, and it
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looked really awesome. Even though i only gave my money, the whole project felt more personal
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this way.
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They had a lot of delay in production due to various reasons (COVID and Chinese new year being the
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biggest among them) but when i finally got a mail that said
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your early-delivery Model 100 is due to be ready to ship out this week. I’m writing today to
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confirm your shipping address. We’ll send you another email with tracking information as soon as
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your keyboard ships out.
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i was super excited about it and couldn’t wait for it to arrive.
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Shipping was handled by FedEx; they did duty handling and delivery quick and with great care.
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This post is not their review, but they surely deserve a shout-out. My package even arrived one
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day before they originally promised.
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And now, finally onto the review itself! Keep in mind that things below are not in order of
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importance but more like in the order of how i discovered them.
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The package
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===========
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I really don’t like unboxing videos; i just find them boring. For this keyboard i tried to make
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one, but quickly dumped the idea. Then i tried to make pictures of the steps, but still no luck:
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i got two photos of the early steps (opening the first box) than i gave up. So if you are here
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for unboxing material, you should close the page now.
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The package contained two black boxes. They look really cool, with the Keyboardio logo on them.
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The smaller box contains the stands (which have a standard tripod screw, so you can technically
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put your keyboard halves on camera tripods next to your desk, if that’s your game). The bigger
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box contained nothing but a travelling case. It’s pretty sturdy, covered with black textile, and
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with a bumpy logo. The keyboard has travelled all the way from China in that case; travelling
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case redefined.
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Inside the case were the two keyboard halves, a USB-C to USB-A cable, two RJ45 cables (a short one
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when you use the keyboard as one piece, and a long one if you want to use it split), a key switch
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puller (because if you don’t like your switches, you can switch to different switches; i’ll show
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myself out), two pieces of plastic to hold the two halves together in a linear or a rooftop shape,
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and a screwdriver. Because your warranty is not void if you take the keyboard apart. Because why
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should it be?
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Assembling the keyboard, especially in a split fashion, is not a big deal, just connect one of the
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RJ45 cables to both halves, then use the USB-C cable to connect the left half to your computer,
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and you are good to go.
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The Look
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========
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This thing has got the look; it is beautiful! The folks at Keyboardio didn’t name it “heirloom
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keyboard” for nothing. When i ordered it i had a green desk so i chose the walnut case, which is
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a darker shade of brown. Since then i switched to a new desk i got from my brother-in-law, which is
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also dark brown (although slightly darker then the keyboard’s enclosure), so i’m probably up to
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painting or re-foiling my desk soon. Still, it looks good on my desk, even if it doesn’t
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stand out.
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My new(ish) desk has a drawer-like thingy for the keyboard, but its height is designed to hold a
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traditional keyboard; for the Model 100 on its stands it’s not high enough; plus it’s about 15cm
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below the desk itself which is too low for my height. On the desk i already had an XP-PEN tablet
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so the Model 100 got placed next to it in a split fashion, on both sides. I had to drill two
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holes in the desk for the RJ45 cable so it doesn’t take unnecessary space, but it’s a worthy
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compromise.
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.. figure:: {static}../images/desk-photo.png
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:alt: Photo of my desk, a dark brown computer desk with a monitor stand and a separate monitor
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next to it.
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This is my current setup: a tablet with wings! And a messy table. And a `rubber duck
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<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubber_duck_debugging>`_. And a rubber shark for tougher
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problems. And some retro-computing.
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The Feel
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========
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With the adjustable stands it’s really comfortable. It took me a few tries, but now that it’s
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done my hands never felt this good on a keyboard before. It’s worth noting that i’m typing
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extensively on traditional keyboards since my early teens, so my arms developed a little different
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(my radius bones are slightly longer than they should be). I didn’t even have those V-shaped,
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so-called ergonomic ones, although i yearned for one. Some consequences of this are that my hands
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don’t feel distorted at all when i use traditional keyboards, stuff designed to be ergonomic for
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the general public might not be comfortable for me immediately, and typing on a split/ortholinear
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keyboard is totally new ground for me because for me *this* is distorted (a bit).
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Holding your fingers on this keyboard is slightly different from traditional ones as you don’t
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have to keep them on a straight line, but the curve of the home row actually follows the curve of
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your fingers. You know those little bumps on the :kbd:`F` and :kbd:`J` keys? In case you don’t
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know, they are there to help you position your hands on the “home row” for touch typing (maybe the
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reason they call it touch typing instead of blind typing?); you have to find them with your index
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fingers, and you’re all set. Now, since you hold your hands a bit different on the Model 100,
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they didn’t only add this bump to the usual :kbd:`F` / :kbd:`J` keys, they are also present on
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:kbd:`A` and :kbd:`;` so you can easily position your pinkies, too. Really thoughtful design!
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Typing on it after using traditional keyboards for all these years is… different, to say the
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least. It took me some time to get up to *a* typing speed (ie. not hunt-and-pecking; heck, typing
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my 14 characters long desktop password took 3 tries for the first time) and it was clear that it
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should probably take days, if not weeks, to get up to my original speed. It’s a completely
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different experience and calls for lots of learning and maybe a layout change, too. For the
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record i use a Dvorak inspired layout for several years now; on this keyboard the letters are more
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or less where they should be, but some symbols are not that comfortable to reach than they were on
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my old one. A lot of non-letter keys are at different places: reaching for the top right for
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backspace and top left for escape was an issue for a while, but it’s almost completely gone now.
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It’s funny, though, that the keys arranged in this ortholinear fashion didn’t make my head spin
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too much. I did reach to the side a bit sometimes, but i got lost of that habit after only two
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days.
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The learning process
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====================
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Even though the designers `suggest <https://shop.keyboard.io/pages/model100>`_ to start using
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split keyboards gradually (start with 15ish minutes in the morning and increase your usage every
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day) i used it almost exclusively for my first full workday. We had a short emergency at my $job
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for which i used my old keyboard because of speed, but other than that i used the Model 100. What
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can i say? I’m a rebel. Also, this method worked really good for me when `i switched to Dvorak
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<{filename}2013-03-13-dvorak-and-me.rst>`_, so i guessed it will be fine for split keyboards, too.
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Even after a day my typing speed was still far from my old one, but it got better every hour. I
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still occasionally pressed Num Lock when i wanted to Backspace (Backspace is under your left
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thumb on the default layout) and i often pressed Backspace when i wanted Space (Space is under
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your right thumb). Enter being to the left of my right index instead of being to the right of my
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right pinky was also confusing sometimes. I probably haven’t looked at my keyboard this much for,
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i don’t know… 20 years? But i was slowly getting rid of hunt-and-pecking which was a win in my
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book.
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After more than a week the keyboard felt really good. I was already pretty close to my original
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typing speed which wasn’t super fast, but decent enough to amaze some non-techie persons.
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Technicalities
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==============
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This section is specific to `Kaleidoscope <https://kaleidoscope.readthedocs.io/>`_, the factory
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firmware of the Model 100. If you want to use a different firmware (i guess you could, but don’t
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ask me how), just skip ahead.
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Early delivery keyboards arrived with QWERTY keycaps and a default firmware, both holding some
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strange things.
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Left half
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---------
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First, there is a :kbd:`prog` key at the top left corner. It is used by the keyboard’s boot
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loader to enter programming mode (ie. firmware upgrade), but otherwise it can be used as any other
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key (more on that later).
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There’s also a :kbd:`led` key, which sounded strange, but who knows… after giving it a few pushes
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it turned out that it was switching between different LED modes, of which there are plenty from a
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rainbow wave to dull single colour backlight.
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:kbd:`Esc` moved to the bottom right of the left half is also strange, but i guess there’s a
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reason for that.
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:kbd:`Page Up` and :kbd:`Page Down` living on the leftmost column was also a big surprise and, as
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time showed, a real waste of precious keys for me as a hardly ever use those.
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Right half
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----------
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The first surprise was that although it *does* have a logo key (with a Keyboardio butterfly on
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it), it doesn’t act as one. Rather than that, it’s actually a right :kbd:`Alt`, AKA :kbd:`AltGr`
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key.
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On the top left there is an :kbd:`any` key. Like, a key actually labelled as ``any``. It
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sends a random keystroke (showing you the power of macros).
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Thumb rows
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----------
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Under four rows of keys (except the middle two columns which only have three keys each) are four
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“thumb keys”, arranged in a way that your thumb can comfortably reach them.
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On the left side, they are :kbd:`ctrl`, :kbd:`backspace`, :kbd:`cmd`, and :kbd:`shift`; on the right side they are :kbd:`shift`, :kbd:`alt`, :kbd:`space`, and :kbd:`ctrl`.
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The :kbd:`cmd` key’s label is foreign to PC people but is used a lot on Macs. Turned out it’s the
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:kbd:`Super` key (AKA logo, AKA Windows key).
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There are also two palm keys labelled as :kbd:`fun`, which are placed so they are easy to press
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with your palms, but not easy enough so that you press them all the time. By default they act a
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bit like a regular notebook’s :kbd:`fn` keys, adding extra functions to most keys like media
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player control, arrow keys, and mouse operations.
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Layers
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------
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The default firmware has 5 layers: one for the basic keys (what you see printed on the keycaps), a
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number pad layer, one for the extra functions (what you get by using the :kbd:`fun` keys), and two
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empty ones you can use for your own dark goals (after configuring them in Chrysalys; more about
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that later).
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Layers don’t have a fixed order but they are stacked when you switch between them. You have a
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default layer, and when you press a layer changing key another one is put on top of that. Now
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when you press a key and it has a function configured, you get that function. The key can also be
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transparent on that layer, so the same key’s function from the layer below (the one previously
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active) will be activated. If it’s transparent on that layer, too, then the layer below that will
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be taken, etc. If you hit a transparent key on the bottom layer, it acts as a blocked key. Keys
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can also be configured as blocked; blocked keys don’t send anything, as if they weren’t even
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there.
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There are four different layer change modes:
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- Layer Shift is temporary, like how the :kbd:`Shift` key works
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- Locking also pushes the new layer onto the old one like shifting does, but it remains active,
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like how :kbd:`Caps Lock` works
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- Moving clears the whole stack and makes the target layer the default one. This is like changing
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your keyboard layout in the OS
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- The OneShot plugin (enabled by default) adds another method, labelled “layer shift for next
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action” in Chrysalis. If you press such a key once, it will act like a layer lock for the next
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single keypress. If you press it twice, it will act as a layer lock, until the OneShot effect
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is cancelled (with the :kbd:`Escape` key, or with a preconfigured “OneShot cancel” key).
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Pressing it once more will also disable the OneShot effect.
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Mouse functions
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---------------
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The keyboard itself doesn’t just advertise itself as a keyboard, but a fully compliant HID, Human
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Interface Device. It can also act as a mouse, except instead of moving around a piece of plastic
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on your desk, you press keys. I put away my actual mouse for about 30 minutes and made myself
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using the mouse functions exclusively, and i must say it’s not terrible. For the record, i don’t
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use the mouse too much; mostly for gaming only. Well, for gaming you probably won’t use a
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keyboard based mouse (especially not for mouse-heavy shooters), but for my desktop use case it’s
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totally enough.
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The most useful feature here (for me) is having a scroll wheel integrated into my keyboard. This
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way i don’t have to reach for the mouse when all i want to do is scroll down a bit (for one-page
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scrolling there’s still :kbd:`Space`).
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Mouse movement is… not ideal. It starts very slowly and gradually increases the pointer speed to
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so fast you won’t be able to follow it with your eyes. There’s also mouse warping for moving to
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the different corners of your screen, but it doesn’t work well on my multi-monitor Sway setup; i
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haven’t tried it on other OSes or desktop environments.
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LEDs
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----
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I experimented with the LEDs, too. Every key has it’s own RGB LED underneath and all of them can
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be customised to be lit in different colours. The firmware has a lot of modes from your average
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single-colour backlight through moving rainbow gradients to more exotic ones. My favourite is
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called Stalker (we agreed with the authors that it’s a pretty bad name) with the blazing trail
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effect: whenever you press a key it lights up in white, then fades through red to turned off. It
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looks really cool, especially since i have accumulated some actual typing speed so the LEDs don’t
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have time to turn off before i press the same key again. Not the ideal one for typing passwords
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in public, though. Also, if you use the ColorMap mode, you can configure a different LED layout
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for any or all of your layers which can be super helpful in some cases. Unfortunately the LED
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mode is global, so you can’t have different modes for different layers, unless you write a plugin
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(although you can get close enough with colormap).
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The Software
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============
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`Chrysalis <https://github.com/keyboardio/Chrysalis>`_ is a “desktop application” to configure
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your Kaleidoscope based keyboard on the fly. It’s a really good one; my only problem with it is
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that it’s based on Electron (ie. not a real desktop app, just a fancy web page running in a
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dedicated browser), although i do understand the choice: iterating over new features is really
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straightforward and fast this way without risking that one platform falls behind another.
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I had some trouble making it run on my desktop (i’m using `Sway <https://swaywm.org/>`_, a Wayland
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based window manager; it’s not your everyday Linux setup unless you’re a geek like me), and there
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were some permission issues, too; but it all worked out fast thanks to their developer, `@algernon
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<https://asylum.madhouse-project.org/about/>`_’s help (one of the software’s developers, and with
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whom we share first names!)
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Chrysalis has just the right amount of bells and whistles and it can fully customise every single
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key (given you use the official firmware, which you don’t have to, but i really think you should,
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at least until you get used to it). There are some things to grasp before you start using it
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(layers being the one of them), but after that one can probably use it without much of a thought.
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Closing thoughts
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================
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I originally wanted to write about my final setup (as of now) but it would have doubled the length
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of this post, so it will have its own.
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All in all, the Model 100 is a really good keyboard. I could probably have spent this money
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better given that i’m a family man with kids and a house that constantly needs fixing, but i’m
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happy i didn’t. If you type a lot then you should probably treat your hands with a split and/or
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ortholinear keyboard. It gives a fantastic experience.
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Also, given the whole thing is open source, and all the parts you need are available to buy you
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can even build one at home, but if you have the money you should definitely buy it. If for
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nothing else, then as a heirloom.
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