Unicomp Ultra Classic 104 long term use review

Ahhhh… Buckling spring switches keyboard certainly turns nostalgia up a notch or two.  The keyboard switches remind me much of my youth.  I always thought it was funny to having a PC with a buckling spring keyboard in a library.  Echoes could be heard around the library when someone busy typing up a book report.  Fun times…..  Anyhow, as much as I want to be objective, the tinted rose color memory of teenage years simply get in the way, but I will try anyway.

Since IBM no longer manufactures Model M keyboard and sold the rights to Unicomp, it’s up to Unicomp now to maintain the mantle.  Given that Unicomp is vastly smaller than IBM or Lexmark, it’s hard to have the same market presence.  Also, the Model M keyboards are close to indestructible.  So, one can still find one within reasonable price in the used keyboard market.  Despite these negative factors, Unicomp soldiers on with this important keyboard legacy.  The world is just a little better place because of it.

Now, the buckling spring switches work, sound, feel overall just as I remembered it.  The classic PBT key cap feel right at home with this keyboard and boy is it loud!  The melodies of the buckling spring keyboard is a divisive force.  One might enjoy it while others will give you a dirty look as soon as your hand get near the keyboard.  Folks who passed by also commented that the keyboard sound reminded them of college and high school computer labs.

Indeed, Unicomp priced these keyboards to move.  The price is competitive with the Cherry MX clones and are within shouting distance of a mainstream genuine Cherry MX board.  Perhaps because of cost or even acoustic factors, Unicomp ditched the all metal clad shell and opted for a plastic case that could easily manufactured, provided that it has a good mold and plastic injection machine.  I bring this up because it clear that the keyboard’s looks are secondary design goals.  Upon first glance, someone might mistake this board for a run of the mill cheap board.  OK, it does look cheap, run of the mill cheap keyboard.  However, one push on the key and all perception change.  So, the production value is on the low side.

Quality control is another thing.  Little things here and there don’t quite align perfectly; nothing a little trim here and polish there won’t solve, but it simple pales in comparison to higher machining prowess of other larger keyboard makers.  For example, putting it next Ducky Legend with its all metallic top covering and it is clear as day and night.  Unicomp spent all the budget on the key feels and not really the looks and it shows.  However, this keyboard will hold up to years of use without much missing a beat because all the attention is on the important bits.  I have been using this keyboard for a while now and I have gotten quite used to the key weights and it still looks new.  So, I have reasonable confidence in its durability.  I have not encountered any issues regarding to the keys thus far.

I enjoy typing on this keyboard quite a bit, but it is most certainly an acquired taste.  The keys march in precision with authoritative affirmation, a traditional typist’s dream, but touch typist need not apply.  Also, this keyboard will not be welcomed at a library these days, I am pretty sure about that.  The only minor thing I have noticed is that the key caps seem a little slippery to me, probably because it doesn't have as deep of a scoop like the Realforce 104UG.  On the other hand, fingers easily glide off from one to another if needed.  Thus, it does facilitate higher typing rate if one learns to take advantage of that.  I, however, don't have such graceful typing style.  So, that's probably their goal rather than a design slip up, no pun intended.

Overall:  This is a specialist keyboard, but it excels at its primary directive at the expanse of its looks.  So, this one will not attract attention, unless it’s the A-10 Warthog type attention you are looking for.  Indeed, the Ultra Classic is not going to win any design awards, but boy, does it shine at what it does while holding up well after much use.

Grade: B

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is something rather unique in North America in general.  Canada and US celebrate it on different days and Mexico does it a little differently, the idea is still the same.  A few other countries around the world also picked up on the tradition.  I understand that the readership is world wide and I am grateful.  So, I want to take this time to wish the blog readers a happy Thanksgiving.  It's a wonderful time to be with friends, family, to help those in need and to give thanks for all the blessings.  Enjoy.

Congratulations, you got twins! Leopold FC660M and FC660C

Leopold is clever enough not to waste a winning layout design.  Apparently, Leopold also manufactured an identical looking keyboard named FC660M, which is Cherry MX based.  That alone should bring the price back to Earth.  From the looks of it, mechanical keyboard.com is selling it for $150 or so, depending on the color schemes and MX switch types.  I am aware that there are white color scheme versions with MX brown and MX red switches.  I am pretty sure that other combinations exist.  It’s not that much difference, but could be a deciding factor.  If one fancies that Leopold’s layout but doesn’t like Topre switches, then this is a good alternative to consider.

I don’t have a FC660M in house for testing, so I can’t honestly tell you what exactly to expect.  By most indication, the keyboards should be almost identical, except the switch and some minor differences because of the switch related changes.  You never know tho.  So, this is more of an informational post than anything else.  If you have experience with FC660M that you would like to share, that would be great!

That Topre switch sound

One of the key reasons that people love Topre switch based keyboard because of its switch sounds.  Topre switch has an unique “thock” sound signature that is pretty universal on all the Topre switch based keyboards I have tried out.  The volume might vary based on the weights.   Honestly tho, there’s not much difference that I can detect.  The only one that I believe has a slightly different bottoming out sound is HHKB because of the different mounting method it deploys.

However, these various Realforce keyboards still sound different when I do type on them.  What gives?  Turns out that like any keyboards, there’s at least 2 sound events, on for bottoming out and topping out after the key bounces back to neutral.  There are others as well such as the finger tap on the key caps.  So, the material of the key cap can make a difference as well as the keyboard construction itself.  The key cap and surrounding build can influence the upstroke sounds.  So, the 104UG sounds different from the 87UW and Leopold’s FC660C sounds even more so all together.  Which one is better depends on the listener.  I really like them all.  Then again, I really like the buckling spring keyboard sounds too.  So, check out Youtube as many folks have posted videos and audio of various different keyboard sound recordings.  Pretty cool.

Topre Realforce 87UW55 SE08T0 image gallery

Here are some images that I took of Topre Realforce 87UW55 SE08T0.  This is the Realforce keyboard with off-white 87 keys (TKL) layout using uniform 55g actuation force switch.  Enjoy!

Front view

Right view

Left view

Topre switch revealed and key cap.  There is no easy way to tell what actuation force is

Key cap view, notice the extra legend in number-pad mode on the front side

Back side of the key cap

Switch view

Back side of the keyboard, notice the trench for the cable routing

DIP Switches for configuration changes like switching the shift and control keys around

Keyboard foot stand down

Keyboard foot stand up

Cherry announce new MX keyboard switch- RGB Nature White

This one came more or less as a surprise to some, including yours truly.  Cherry recently announced a new Cherry MX RGB switch that is a linear switch with little or no tactile or auditory feedback.  This new white switch slots itself neatly in between the MX red and MX black with 55g activation force.  It comes with all the latest bells and whistles such as clear casing for lighting and RGB color capability.  For some reason, Cherry designated this one as “nature white”, not to be confused with a previous, discontinued white switch.  To distinguish the two, Cherry added “nature” before white to denote the new switch.  Unexpectedly, this one does not use the new quieting polymer that Cherry recently announced.  So, this is a more traditional version.  However, since Corsair has an exclusive on the new quieting technology, thus this switch is either an exclusive to some other keyboard maker or available to all.

Yup.  Looks like Ducky’s flagship Shine-5 keyboard is the launch product as Ducky Channel has won the exclusive right to this particular switch, at least for a while.  I wonder if there was a bidding war going on in the background since Cherry has historically favored Corsair.  Maybe Ducky asked Cherry to make a special switch for them because Corsair kept getting mindshare.  Who knows…..  In any case, the one who’s laughing all the way to the bank is still Cherry.  This is another strong evidence that Cherry is still large and in charge despite the recent influx of cloners.

This also offers another indicator of the mechanical keyboard market: it’s largely gamer oriented.  Folks like me more or less benefited from this gamer wave and has elevated mechanical keyboards popularity and prompted recent innovations.  However, I am not a gamer, so I don’t really fancy these new linear switches.  Perhaps someday, Cherry will migrate some of these new hot technologies to a more traditional switches such as MX brown, blue and its cousins.  Let’s hope that’s the case.  Then again, maybe someday, I will try a linear switch to see what the hype is all about.

The clones’ war

Cherry MX switches are the most popular mechanical keyboard switches.  There’s very little doubt about that.  However, being popular does bring its own set of issues as I noted before: unwanted attention.  This time, from the cloners.  Indeed, an interesting thing that’s happening in the main stream and lower tier market segments is the move to Cherry MX clones and away from genuine Cherry switches.  The price range from $50 to$90 USD boards are now dominated by Cherry clone switches.

I have no doubt that Cherry MX clones are of decent quality.  It’s foolish to underestimate China’s manufacturing prowess and does it well cheaply.  So, a Kailh or a Gateron or other cloners’ switch might not have the coveted Cherry logo.  Never the less the quality doesn’t suffer much, at least from what I have been hearing.  I think any respectable cloner would like to put a little bit of their spin or perceived improvements into the product to differentiate themselves from the myriad of other cloners.  So, these clone switches aren’t exact copy just like the original Cherry.  Often many reviewers detect hints of differences perhaps due to slight design change here and there.  The only consistent issue that comes up is the consistency of the switch feel across the keyboard.  Now, there are several factors that could influence this.  However, the manufacturing tolerance of the switch is a major one.  Therefore, I think people tend to veer back to the Cherry MX switches based boards after a while because the price difference is just not wide enough yet to justify a perceived difference.  It also appears that Cherry is ramping up production to meet demand and is starting to take the cloners more seriously.  After all, Cherry can no longer use patent rights to deter copies from flooding the market.

In any case, I think this should be another interesting space to watch.  Often cloners tend to begin a war of attrition for race to the bottom because it doesn’t have a brand recognition.  Only the fittest survive as keyboard switches are treated as commodity item that are sold cents per unit.  Of course, the other way is to branch out and strike out a path on its own.  From the look of it, Gateron and Kailh are starting to look into beating Cherry at its own game: innovation.  Also, given the durability of these switches, I doubt there will be some sort of massive upgrade cycle coming soon unless there’s some major breakthrough.  So, there’s a huge incentive to move the ball forward in order to drive sales.  Man, things are just getting more interesting these days.

Everyone tries to guess where Apple is going next- my prediction of its next moves

Piezoelectric effect illustration 

Soon after introducing the new Apple Magic Keyboard, Apple Insider has discovered a patent on a possible new keyboard mechanism that Apple is considering.  The patent mentioned using piezoelectric material for switch activation and perhaps haptic feedback.  Now, piezoelectric are sensitive to pressure applied and itself can generate a slight mechanical moment given an electric field.  So, Apple might be thinking of making an array of little trackpads with each cell to function as a key switch.  It’s going to even thinner than a butterfly switch that for sure.

So, the word is thin.  I don’t remember how much moment a piezoelectric material can generate without some sort of amplifier, but the moment it generates is small and requires quite a bit high voltage.  So, I am going out on a limb and say that Apple is not only trying to build a thinner keyboard, but moving toward a virtual keyboard design in general.  I have commented earlier that Apple is hard at work to unify the user experience across its Mac lines.  I have a feeling that the next goal is to unify that user experience with that of the iDevices.  Since all the iDevices have virtual keyboards, the logical step then is to get rid of physical keyboard and go into a virtual one.

Apple is pretty patient with its plans and it needs a stop gap or stepping stone to move users away from a physical keyboard to something in between- hence piezoelectric actuators and sensors based key switch.  The travel will be very small, and likely the feedback as well.  The switches are pressure sensitive rather than mechanical movement sensitive.  Unless it’s supplemented by solenoid like device (just like the iPhone) and without an amp, the tactile feedback from a piezoelectric device is likely small as well.  So, by slowly taking away the sensations of key travels and tactile feedback of the keys themselves, people are more likely to accept a virtual keyboard later on after they get used to a piezoelectric one.

I am not sure if I like what I am predicting since I really enjoy using a mechanical movement based keyboard.  Not that physical keyboard is going to disappear overnight, but Apple pretty much commands the trend of industrial design and large chunk of capacity for much of the personal computer manufacturing industry.  Just look at the popularity of the Chiclets keyboard on laptops.  It’s not easy to find one without it nowadays.  I think physical keyboard will likely become rarer and everyone will be tapping on a pad like thing instead.  Physical keyboards are not going anywhere, I am sure.  Somehow, I feel things will be less lively and less interesting if Apple goes with the virtual keyboard route.  Typing on a virtual keyboard is a portability compromise, not really the best way in my humble opinion.  So, not a fan of that future, I must say.  So, hopefully this is just one of those experiments rather than a sign of things to come...

Image credit- ("SchemaPiezo" by Tizeff - Template:Ownnn. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons)

Leopold FC660C keyboard image gallery

Since I just mentioned this keyboard, here's an image gallery for it for your enjoyment.  :)

Traditional front view

View from the left side

View from the right side

Switch and key cap view

Key cap view, note the front side legend for numeric pad mode

Back side view of the key cap, sporting a typical Topre switch cap connection

Back side of the keyboard

DIP switches for alternative modes on various control key locations

Keyboard foot down and the QC sticker

Keyboard foot up and the non-slip pads on top and bottom of the keyboard

Mini USB port making keyboard cable detachable, suitable for transportation