A mechanical keyboard 06/14/21
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The kids bought me an inexpensive mechanical keyboard for father's day
(and a ball mouse, but I'll get to that in just a bit.) It's a
Sunsonny with MX blue copies. I've enjoyed mechanical keyboards since
the old IBM XT days, but I've never bothered buying a modern one.
This one has white LEDs. There was no way I was getting one with some
psychedelic rainbow light-show in my face. The keys are a mix of black
and gray. I think it cost about $30.
A few observations:
1. I enjoy the multi-colored keycaps in black and gray. Maybe it's
old-fashioned of me (the IBM's had multi-colored caps), I don't know,
but I just appreciate the visual. I don't think it makes the thing any
easier to use (I don't look at it, so why would it matter?), but I
like it anyway.
2. The MX Blue copies are, in my very uneducated opinion (I use retro
keyboards, remember?) quite nice. Especially for the price-point. I
don't know how they'll wear or hold up, but out of the box they're
great. People online complain about these being loud, but I'm guessing
they're not comparing them to anything retro. To my ears, they're fine
(even though I was coming from a logitech wireless on this computer,
which made no noise at all.)
3. The Fn-keys are good. They did a great job. Easy and intuitive to
control the lights, for when they get annoying. Quick and easy to get
a simple on or off with the lights too (even though there's a stupid
amount of light-show-esque settings as well.) Media Fn- combos work
out of the box too.
4. Font on the keycaps is dumb. I guess they were trying to impress
gamers or something, it looks like a wannabe Call of Duty mess. It's
both blocky and rounded at the same time, and is surprisingly ugly.
Certain characters are hard to read quickly (c'mon people, font
readability matters, even if you're not looking most of the time!)
That said, it doesn't matter much.
5. Base as some good weight to it. Keycaps are easy to remove.
Switches look like they'd come out pretty easily too, but I haven't
tried. Angle of typing is good. Slight curve is good.
Five stars, for the price, and for someone with nothing to really
compare it to.
***
Ok, the trackball mouse, real quick. It's a simple Kensington Orbit,
silver ball. The ergonomics aren't great on it, but they're not
terrible. It's been years since I've used a trackball. From the feel
of it, I think I'll enjoy the break from a normal mouse.
Had to turn the sensitivity way down with xinput. Still not sure I've
got those settings quite right.
It has a scroll ring that works exceptionally well. Very loose. Easy
to flick it and go to the very bottom of the page (some websites still
have a "bottom of the page"! I think I'll probably have to explain the
concept to my grandkids though.)
