HHKB Pro 2

cookie · 04 Jul 2013, 01:30

Hey there,
I am drunk as hell and I (finally) bought a HHBK pro 2!

Review soon!

Cheers!

webwit · 04 Jul 2013, 01:34

No no, give us the drunk review. Just because.

Muirium · 04 Jul 2013, 02:08

Something like this?

The HHBK is a fantastic keyborad. Better than yours! Just face it. Look at the caps on that! Look! AND! Then theres the qality Toper switsches. They is the best that money can buy! In the world. Yeah baby! Wanna feel it? Don't be shy!

So, all in all I think I like this HBHK. Its pretty descent.

Cheers back at you, Cookie! You might be drunk, but you picked a keeper.

ne0phyte · 04 Jul 2013, 09:11

Finally!

I just hope you went with the black/black/blank model. Muirium will tell you that the white one is the only right choice but don't listen to him! White is ugly! White can yellow!

Everything electronic should be matt black!

let the flamewar begin

Muirium · 04 Jul 2013, 11:29

Ah, it's PBT. Whole other story from the cheapo 1980s ABS whites. My lampshade iMac is ten years old and I don't even bother keeping it out of the morning sun. Still sparkling! Ditto for my AirPort Extreme base station from 2007.

Helvetica legends have grown on me since I got my IBM Model F, which looks like an original Battlestar Galactica take on the HHKB: it has no arrow keys either! Still white, of course. And this is 1985 PBT!

cookie · 04 Jul 2013, 11:38

Well... sometimes good things happen when you are drunk haha

I am at my office today and I'm suffering from a manly hangover right now.

I was hesitating for over a year now if I should go for the HHKB or not... and yesterday I had enough of it and handle it like a real man! I drank my shot in one go, flipped a coin and bought that damn thing!!! Moment of silence half of the staff looked at me like "What was that?" I told them the truth... The faces were priceless

Sorry Neo, It's this baby:

And this is the boards companion:

Seems legit to me

cookie · 04 Jul 2013, 11:54

I hope I will like this thing, otherwise I burned some Money

webwit · 04 Jul 2013, 12:01

Just sell it to me if you don't like it.

ne0phyte · 04 Jul 2013, 12:23

You didn't burn the money yet. Selling a white HHKB within the EU can't be that hard

Muirium · 04 Jul 2013, 12:23

You're the most intelligent drunk I know, Cookie! And I'm Scottish, so I know a ton of them…

Now is the time for your ordeal! Topre switches take time to adjust to. Fight through that doubt if it strikes! Beware the meh! And don't sell Webwit (or any other eager buyer you'll find here) your precious HHKB until you've survived the challenge. It's worth it.

I'm interested to hear how the HHKB stacks up against 002's Realforce once you get it, too.

cookie · 04 Jul 2013, 14:27

Hahaha Muirium made my day

Nahh I will try this board at least for 3 month or so, because this board is something totally new to me.
Topre, Ansi and HHKB layout... I think this will be a pain in the ass to get used to but I hope the benefits will worth it.

Otherwise I will sell it, because it is nonsense to have a 200+ board lying around :/

But I devinately promise that I will not judge the board, switches to soon!
And the combination simply looks way to good hahaha

@Neo Put it that way, so we can swap keycaps! Those will look killer hahaha

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 11:37

Man I got that baby yesterday and Its a really nice keyboard!
The Layout ist pretty hard for me right now but I can definately see much potential after getting used to it.

Verry light switch, nice sound, and by far the best keycaps I have ever typed on, lets see how I will get used to all this in the near feature. I am in the office right now. Back at home I will take some pictures of it

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 15:22

Man I think I love this KB!
The switches are verry soft without beeing mushy. They definately have a noticable bump but really soft and nice. The sound is just badass... I love it. Layout slowly becomes more and more natural but my wpm dropped from around 90 to 45-50. Writing source code is a pain in the ass.. I love the blank caps but sometimes I wish I have legends... Otherwise the caps are forcing me to learn the layout faster. An the look is really nice.

I would describe the switch as a buttersmooth MX brown switch without any scratchyness or plastic on plastic sound at all... The Bump is pretty much on top, like white alps but not so harsh on your hands and without that noisy sound.

This KB is made from engineers for engineers and you can see and feel i overall.
I am curios how this baby feels compared to the variable weight RF, lets hope not too bad

Muirium · 10 Jul 2013, 15:47

The difference (besides size, weight, blank caps, variable switch weight, layout and did I mention SIZE?) will be the plate. HHKB uses a plastic plate, Realforce has traditional metal.

Before you say: aw, plastic!?! let me say: hold that thought. I've heard people say the HHKB's sound and feel is better than the metal plate Topre switch Leopold, and maybe even the Realforce. You should definitely compare them yourself.

Now you know just how badass the HHKB really is. And soon you'll have one of the very few keyboards that money can buy which is right there in its league. Enjoy them! And do a mean head to head. I'm still more than a month away from the Topre here!

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 16:09

Man I really enjoy that little beauty!
I hesitated so long to get this keyboard and I must say, at least I am not some kind of keyboard hipster who bought this thing just because it is so exclusive and hyped, I am making a living with that thing and it will earn itself 1000 times

And it was a well thought move, okay yes I was drunk as I bought it but at least I thought it out really well before and I grew to this KB over a fullsized cherry g80, to a TKL, tried different switches but always had an eye on HHKB.

I really need to get some of my old rubberdomes to compare them with the hhkb just to make sure my brain is not manipulated by the high pricetag. At least we believe most the time pricey means good, and thats not true.

But what you pay for is definately a good build quality, byttersmooth switches and killer keycaps. And that is one of the main reasons I bought that thing. I absolutely hate shiny keycaps and how they look and feel... Then I got a thick pbt keycap set from an old g81 wich I had to modify to fit in one of my QFR. At this point I knew, PBT is the way to go and from what I read about Ralforce and HHKB they had the best PBT kaps on market!

And this KB has pretty much everything I need.
Blank PBT, oldschool kinda look, USB Port at that form factor is just kickass!

And I am not afraight anymore that I will not be able to get used to the layout, It is a matter of time till I will use this thing to it's full potential!

For now I am glad that I got this thing (Sorry webwit, no HHKB for you :* )

Only thing I don't like for now is the z and y positioning of the keys, this will take a while till I fully got used to it.
And this thing is so slippery on my desk... 250 euros and no propper feet? Shame on you PFU!!!

webwit · 10 Jul 2013, 16:14

You're just DRUNK! Give this hateful keyboard to me.

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 16:18

Do you already have one or had one before?
I an just curious, because I found a great Ebay store with really friendly japanese guys from osaka wich declare this thing as 19$ cheapo keyboard so you don't have to pay tax or duty.

250 euro to your doorsteps, I think thats an okay deal tbh.

I can send you a Link if you like.

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 16:21

And I need some kickass sleeved curled cables... It's time to get in touch with paranoid

webwit · 10 Jul 2013, 16:23

I had one when you were still sucking on your mama's tit!

When the yen was worthless and the euro strong and you could get a HHKB for 170 EUR.

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 16:26

HHKB was first released 1996... Naaaahhh no tit sucking me, sorry

So you had one before they were cool?

170 euro for a hhkb, not a bad deal!

Muirium · 10 Jul 2013, 16:55

Link please! I haven't the 250 Eurobucks to spare, but I'll keep an eye on them.

Sonic · 10 Jul 2013, 17:49

170? From Ebay?

webwit · 10 Jul 2013, 17:53

No, it was only available in Japan at that point, for international buyers from shops like geekstuff4you and benippon.

cookie · 10 Jul 2013, 18:54

@Mu Here is the Link: http://www.ebay.de/itm/330829872478?ssP ... 1439.l2649

A normal HHKB Pro 2 costs around 175 euros in japan, a type s somewhere around 215.
EK sells a normal HHKB for 260 and the type s for 400 excl. shipping. I say RIPOFF!

I don't know how they came up with those prices but the type s are sold on ebay for around 350 euro. Thats way to much for my taste. My keyboard cost me 75 euro more then the regular japanese price but I am satisfied with the communication, shipping, packaging and how fast they delivered the thing. 3 hours after the payment I got a notification mail with all neccessary information about the order plus shipping tracking. Good service and propper communication gives me a good feeling that I spend 75 extra.

I enjoy this little board, I really do!

Muirium · 10 Jul 2013, 18:59

Cheers!

Smart Imports is the other option right in that price range. I'm not sure if they'd spare me the small matter of Her Madge's cut of the action, though. Good to have backup!

http://www.smartimports.net/products/Ha ... nal2-.html

I'd only consider the non silenced HHKB, too. Hell, I like my clack!

matt3o · 10 Jul 2013, 19:19

I really can't live without an arrow cluster when I'm coding. How do you use your keyboard cookie?
For general purposes I find the HHKB awesome, but it's a €300 awesome (if you consider import tax)... which makes it a little less awesome...

I'll soon review my Realforce 10th Anniversary, that it's still €300 but at least I have arrows and 55gr

Muirium · 10 Jul 2013, 19:25

What's different about the way you use you keyboard when you code and when you use it for general purposes?

I'm a heavy keyboardist and do arrow movements very frequently when writing and generally navigating around. I code a little and it feels the same there, but I'm no pro so maybe you guys arrow at another level!

Do you just mean that ordinary computing is more mouse heavy for you, and so arrows aren't essential? I try to leave my rodent alone until I have to, whenever.

matt3o · 10 Jul 2013, 19:33

It's not the arrow cluster per se but the combos to navigate and select text. When I'm developing I'm constantly navigating through the code, select text, cut, move around, paste... etc... this translates into a lot of ctrl+shift+arrows or ctrl+shift+home/end. If you don't have a dedicated arrows you need one additional key ctrl+shift+FN+whatever.

Consider that when you code you navigate more than you actually write (since the IDE helps you completing text with macros and auto-completion). So when I code a dedicated arrow cluster and home/end are really-really helpful for me.

For anything else from browsing, to document writing, emailing, etc the navigation is less frenetic and I find myself perfectly comfortable with a Poker (for example).

Muirium · 10 Jul 2013, 19:39

Right. I use Shift+Option+Arrows (the direct equivalent) with the convenient shortcut of Up=Home and Down=End. (That threw me off when I first used the Mac, but now I miss it elsewhere.) That is indeed a four key combo in any case, but the keys don't alter much, and I can use both thumbs when arrows are on home row.

So far my experiments with a 60% layout embedded in my big old IBM PC/XT are working pretty well. The main "coding" I've done there is on Soarer's configs to fiddle with the layout! I like where I've reached, so far. Anticipating using an authentically small 60% next!

matt3o · 10 Jul 2013, 19:54

When I'm not on linux I'm on Mac and I find the FN+arrows navigation completely natural. In fact it's the same config I have on my custom BrownFox. Having an arrow cluster reduces the number of key presses by a huge amount.