Wednesday, July 29, 2015

Unicomp Ultra Classic 104 impression, part3

The buckling spring keyboard switch is an interesting beast.  As I chronicled before, the switch is definitely for enthusiasts who really like certain keyboard switch characteristics.  I was trained on a mechanical typewriter and I found that typing was work.  Really.  So, I went the other way to a soft touch typist friendly BTC keyboard, which was in some way a precursor to the today's rubber dome keyboard using foam pads.  Anyhow, now that I have been using the real deal for a while, I still have the same reaction as I had many years ago.  This thing is hard to press and quite loud….

One of the major selling points for a higher key switch activation resistance is that the fingers won’t bottom out as much.  Although I have my doubts about the theory applies to all as different people type differently, never the less, I think that may be true for a sizable user population.  So, I did do a brief test of the theory and perhaps I do bottom out a bit less because my fingers are already tired by time it goes to the bottom.  So, it is inconclusive right now.  I will need some major high grade instrumentation tools to prove this and I don’t have access to such facility.  Not yet, at least.  So, I am willing to accept that such phenomenon might exist, but further research may be required.  Anyway, that’s beside the point.  Anyhow, the Unicomp keyboard does invoke the classic IBM Model M experience and replicated quite well, as far as I remember.  However, this is indeed a specialist keyboard and hence quite limited to a niche market for those who really enjoy the buckling spring mechanism.  Do I like it? Yup as I am still a fan of the tactile clicky switch based keyboard and there’s nothing like buckling springs.

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