Not to be left out in the cold, Matias is going for a 60% keyboard

It’s a little amusing to see this actually.  After all, Edgar Matias is one of the pioneers in the minimal keys keyboard business.  Some of Matias’ claim to fame includes a single handed keyboard for instance.  Yet, such device is so specialized that mainstream users don’t ever even take a second look.  So, for Matias to continue to innovate in the keyboard layout front, they are coming out with a few designs, some radical, some more calibrated to the market trends.  The 60% keyboard Matias is their interpretation of yet another keyboard layout to accommodate the necessary keys within the alphanumeric block.  Matias has chosen to change the shape of some keys by either halving the width or close to doubling it.  Thus the result is a new and interesting look for the bottom row housing an out sized space bar.  This way, the arrow navigation keys are not too small like those suffering on some laptop keyboards. 

I will be closely watching this development since Matias has elected to use this layout for their ergo keyboard as well.  So, it’s pretty much doubling down on the design.  Now, Matias knows a thing or two about keyboard layout and ergonomic designs, after all he is one of the experts in the area.  So, I am interested to see how this impacts this ever shifting place in the mechanical keyboard world.

Another interesting keyboard company, KBParadise

I have begun some research into the so called 60% keyboards.  These keyboards are smaller than the ten-keyless (TKL) by eliminating the navigation keys entirely.  So, basically what we have left is the traditional typewriter block with the alpha-numeric keys along with a few modifiers keys.  There are dozens of boutique keyboard companies out there in East Asia, mostly in Taiwan, South Korea and Japan that specialize in this area.  However, China has a quite a few that are more focused on the home market.  So, we don't hear about them as much here in the west.

One interesting company caught my eyes recently.  Like Ducky Channel, KBParadise is another Taiwanese mechanical keyboard company.  Unlike Ducky Channel which started out as an OEM, this one has a very humble, home brewed beginning.  Furthermore, KBParadise is more focused on the 60% and the TKLs market, whereas Ducky Channel is the other way around.  KBParadise's V60 60% keyboard is an interesting concept while the V80 TKLs are more conventional design.  Anyway, what's even more interesting to me was the they are the only other company that I am aware of thus far that makes Matias switches keyboards besides Matias itself.  They are the only one that is making a board with Matias linear switches.  I haven't seen Matias itself market a board based on a linear switch yet.  Talk about risk taking.  Of course, KBParadise mitigated the risk by also making the ubiquitous Cherry MX boards available as well.

Like Ducky Channel, I will be keeping an eye on this one and see what they come up with.