Write a review about the Keyboardio Model 100

content/blog/keyboardio-model100-review.rst

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

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