Where to buy 104 US layout keyboard in/for GERMANY?

moltobene · 05 Sep 2015, 13:16

Hi all,
since I want to get rid of the rubberdome keyboard at work I am looking for a mechanical replacement (MX brown). I already got 3 boards at home but they are DE 105 ISO layout and I want a board with US layout since it is more convenient for work for me. No fancy gaming keyboard (so Razer's Blackwiddow - though easy to get in GER with the US layout - is off the table). There is also the option to go for Topre, but these boards are significantly more expensive.
So far I found three alternatives:
1. Get a Majestouch 2 from The Keyboard Company (http://www.keyboardco.com/keyboard/usa- ... yboard.asp)
2. Import a Leopold FC900R from Korea via ebay (http://www.ebay.de/itm/Leopold-FC900R-S ... 3f416046b9)
3. Get a custom build from WASD keyboards

Now my question to you: Do you have a clear recommendation for one of the options described above or did I miss a shop where I could get an unobstrusive but well built keyboard suitable for an office environment (preferably cheaper than the ones of the described options)?

Thanks in advance for your help and recommendations!

pcaro · 05 Sep 2015, 14:03

Amazon?

I do not undenstand german but It looks like mechanical:

http://www.amazon.de/Cherry-G80-3850LYB ... _1_fkmr0_2

moltobene · 05 Sep 2015, 14:29

This board is actually the version with 105 DE layout. It's described in the Q&A section (German), so not your fault

Thanks for your help anyway!

Daniel · 05 Sep 2015, 14:36

I bough my ANSI G80-3000 here: http://tastaturen.com/ (it's a German company)

rsr · 05 Sep 2015, 16:19

Last week I bought a Novatouch TKL at https://www.getdigital.de/shop/mechanische-tastaturen with very good price.
You can find a good offer for a Das Keyboard too.

Muirium · 05 Sep 2015, 16:38

Not too bad. I'd ditch the fullsize requirement and go for a NovaTouch (biased: typing on one just now) which they sell in both ANSI and ISO DE versions for the same price.

Then I'd add damping rings and nice caps.

http://deskthority.net/videos-f63/topic11287.html

You know, since you mentioned Topre! That's the best price for a new one that you'll find here in Europe.

Findecanor · 05 Sep 2015, 18:05

Instead of getting a keyboard from USA, buy it from the Netherlands. They use mostly US-International, which is US-ANSI with additional letters on Alt Gr-combinations.
BTW, you might want to use US-International anyway if you would need to write the occasional German: With Alt Gr, Q->Ä, P->Ö, Y->Ü, S->ß

Eszett · 05 Sep 2015, 18:26

Why not AltGr + a > ä, AltGr + o > ö, AltGr + u > ü?

Nuum · 05 Sep 2015, 18:51

Well, äöü are not the only "umlauts" there are others as well:

So there many alike letter located around aeiou.

moltobene · 06 Sep 2015, 09:36

I use indeed the US ANSI keyboard mapping on my PC at work and I don't have any problems with the Alt Gr key combinations. Since I have to write mainly in English it's no big of a deal anyways. BUT I want to have a full 104 keyboard since I use the numpad quite often, otherwise I would already have ordered the Novatouch TKL...

@Findecanor: Many thanks for the info about the Netherlands! I think I should find something nice there and am already checking for stores.

Eszett · 07 Sep 2015, 06:53

@Nuum OK, I see, US-international keymapping is determined that way. However, it is made to serve everyone, and "serve everyone and you satisfy noone". So for Germans, Swedes, Italians etc. this US-international has downsides in not beeing as intuitive or efficient as it could be.

Ray · 07 Sep 2015, 11:35

I guess it is not aimed at germans, swedes or italians, but aimed at americans who have to type internationally on occasion. At least that's what I take from the name US-International.
Also there are already layouts dedicated for one language each, so it wouldn't make that much sense to make a new layouts to replace the existing ones.

seebart · 07 Sep 2015, 11:51

Apart from their slightly highish prices getdigital is alright, their shipping is good I have bought from them.

Eszett · 07 Sep 2015, 13:57

Ray, well, the thing is, that a german who changes over to US-ANSI layout loses the dedicated keys Ä Ü Ö ß which he was accustomed to. So he could use US-international keymapping to get access to these characters. However, and that was my argument, this is not that satisfying for him, since US-International keymapping serves mainly US-Americans who occasionally want to have access to international characters, as you said.

Muirium · 07 Sep 2015, 14:21

True. Also bear in mind the fundamental difference between ANSI and ISO. How do PCs handle trying to type in a German QWERTZ layout, while using an ANSI keyboard? On the Mac, you get hybrid layouts when you try that, like this:

: Screen Shot 2015-09-07 at 1.04.21 pm.png (98.54 KiB) Viewed 5953 times

: Screen Shot 2015-09-07 at 1.05.33 pm.png (99.54 KiB) Viewed 5953 times

ANSI-DE and ANSI-DK I presume! The orange keys are dead keys. You press them to engage a diacritical mode for the next character:

: Screen Shot 2015-09-07 at 1.19.43 pm.png (56.24 KiB) Viewed 5953 times

I'm guessing the basic layout switcheroo is universal (if not the dead keys) and you guys can do that too.

shreebles · 07 Sep 2015, 16:04

You can try them but they are either not cheap, or not with browns:

https://mechanicalkeyboards.nl/de/shop/full-size-model/

Another option is to get a G80 3000 and swap in the brown stems and springs, quite an easy, if time consuming mod that requires few tools.

Here's one on ebay right now, though it has some silly branding: http://www.ebay.de/itm/271973009369
Or, get them new here with the US ANSI layout: http://geizhals.de/?cat=kb&asd=on&asuch ... _US#xf_top

They are very office compatible (I've been using G80 1800s and 3000s in the office for the same reason)

If you need brown stems and springs I can sell you some.

Ray · 07 Sep 2015, 18:58

Muirium wrote: ↑True. Also bear in mind the fundamental difference between ANSI and ISO. How do PCs handle trying to type in a German QWERTZ layout, while using an ANSI keyboard? On the Mac, you get hybrid layouts when you try that, like this…

I can only speak for the german layout: the deadkey ´ is standard at that place. # moved around the ANSI enter. < moved to the corner above tab from the position next to the short left shift. The (deadkey) ^ that should sit there seems to be gone, but isn't needed for german typing anyways (i only ever use it as a “power to”-operator and smilies ^ ^)

I was in a situation where I had a US-ISO board (i guess, was in Southafrika) and did have trouble hitting keys like +,=,-,/,* for programming, where my touchtyping on a german layout was just good enough to start the handmovement but often I confirmed by looking. Switching between german layout on my laptop and the english on those boards wasn't the most clever to do either. Luckily I never had to type umlauts on those boards - although that would have probably made me do the better choice and change the layout to german where I would have found the right keys eventually.

I hope moltobene doesn't mind off-topic-thority

moltobene · 16 Sep 2015, 19:15

Hi again,

I found the following board on ebay, which would IN THEORY fill my request:
http://www.ebay.de/itm/Retail-Topre-ZA0 ... 3d02d478b8

So a Topre board with 104 keys at almost the same price level as the Nova Touch TKL.

Since I am open to give Topre a try and this seems to be a good deal for me especially after some of you recommended the Nova Touch TKL, is there a serious reason against getting this keyboard?

Thanks again for all your contribution!

Muirium · 16 Sep 2015, 20:05

You'll get hit by customs fees. And the Type Heaven is a bit strange, it's Topre's entry level board. ABS caps, but Topre instead of MX mount, so costly to upgrade.