deskthority

Hellow,
I am looking to buy a new small form factor keyboard from Amazon UK, Ebay UK or from another site that you can recommend to me and it is safe to buy from. I want the keyboard to be under 50£ (if the price of a keyboard is 2-5£ more it's fine) with silent switches, small form mactor and if it is possible I would like a keyboard which can be customized. Please leave your suggestions down below to help me.
Thank you

What is small? Is Tenkeyless small enough, or keyboards below 60%?

The HHKB Type-S fits exactly what you want, but not price-wise - $250. An average build is easily north of $100 or $180 (if you buy them new, as low cost as e.g. pcb $30, switches $30, case $15, keycaps $30, cable $5 - if you solder and assemble by yourself)

There won't be much option on Amazon UK or eBay UK. I suggest you check out https://kbdfans.cn/ they have customized build service and a lot of parts including silent switches for you to choose from in one stop.

You could get an anne pro as your first board. It's not super silent but you should get a decent entry level board that fits your budget and which can also be customized with other keycaps (which isn't that easy with the hhkb).

Here’s a 60% layout keyboard:



Note: no arrow keys. If you think you’re up for using something as compact as this (I do) then a Poker is a good place to start. Perfect for swapping caps.

Here’s a Tenkeyless layout:



This one is a Filco Majestouch. They’re nice and compatible for modding too. I think of TKL as mid-sized keyboards because they’re really a lot bigger than 60% and the more awkward sizes in between. But you get all your navigation keys with these guys so they’re a very simple migration from full-size.

hansichen wrote: ↑

04 Feb 2019, 10:58

You could get an anne pro as your first board. It's not super silent but you should get a decent entry level board that fits your budget and which can also be customized with other keycaps (which isn't that easy with the hhkb).

May I have a link to amazon uk or ebay uk for the anne pro? Can't find it

tsemb_p wrote: ↑

04 Feb 2019, 12:01

May I have a link to amazon uk or ebay uk for the anne pro? Can't find it

from what I see, Anne Pro 2 seems to be discontinued or out of stock.
There is a preorder option on CandyKeys (german shop), but it is only for the clicky blue switches.

Or directly from China:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Cube-Do ... 18946.html

But those do not have silent switches. From what I know the following are silent switches:
Cherry silent black / red
Cherry clones: Gateron silent
Cherry clones: Zeal Zilent
Cherry clones: Zeal Helios
Cherry clones: Aliaz
Alps dampened cream
Alps dampened white
Matias tactile (?)
Matias linear
Topre silent series (but they're not modular so you cannot build a keyboard from individual switches)

Cheapest to get 60 of them will still be around $30.

Menuhin wrote: ↑

04 Feb 2019, 14:44

Or directly from China:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Cube-Do ... 18946.html

But those do not have silent switches. From what I know the following are silent switches:
Cherry silent black / red
Cherry clones: Gateron silent
Cherry clones: Zeal Zilent
Cherry clones: Zeal Helios
Cherry clones: Aliaz
Alps dampened cream
Alps dampened white
Matias tactile (?)
Matias linear
Topre silent series (but they're not modular so you cannot build a keyboard from individual switches)

Cheapest to get 60 of them will still be around $30.

Also zeal has a limited edition cheaper version of healios for a short while this month, called roselios that are identical. Still absurdly priced but worth mentioning

You'd do better to support businesses within the community, such as web stores like The Keyboard Company, Candykeys, or Caps Unlocked. The latter store is offering something that is both getting towards your price range and sport cherry switches, which are the most popular brand.

squizzler wrote: ↑

04 Feb 2019, 17:07

You'd do better to support businesses within the community, such as web stores like The Keyboard Company, Candykeys, or Caps Unlocked. The latter store is offering something that is both getting towards your price range and sport cherry switches, which are the most popular brand.

KBDfans is kind of like a killall-competitors kind of business.
If I have extra money to say, eat out, or have a car, or afford public transportation, then community stores with sometimes exclusive offers can also be an option for me to feed these addictive obsessive pursuits.

tsemb_p wrote: ↑

04 Feb 2019, 06:04

Hellow,
I am looking to buy a new small form factor keyboard from Amazon UK, Ebay UK or from another site that you can recommend to me and it is safe to buy from. I want the keyboard to be under 50£ (if the price of a keyboard is 2-5£ more it's fine) with silent switches, small form mactor and if it is possible I would like a keyboard which can be customized. Please leave your suggestions down below to help me.
Thank you

As others have said, "small" covers some considerable territory, typically ranging from 60% (such as the HHKB, Pok3R, or KBP V60) to 80% (TKL) -- many different brands. There are also various form factors in between 60 and 80% as well as niche boards in a 40% form factor.

If you must have dedicated arrow keys, I recommend going with a standard 80% (TKL) board. Smaller boards that try to provide arrow keys tend to jumble up the lower right-hand side of the keyboard, and finding replacement keycaps can be difficult. There are many good TKL boards available at reasonable prices, but selections with silent switches are more limited.

If you can get along with arrow keys in the Fn layer, then there are many available boards in the 60% category. My personal favorite is the HHKB Pro 2, but this is expensive. I like the various offerings in the V60 line by KeyboardParadise (KBP). Many people like the Pok3r -- it is a solid board with many available options. The deal-breaker for me with the Pok3r is that while it is highly programmable, it is not completely programmable, and you cannot remap certain keys that I would like to remap.

One intermediate form factor board that appeals to me is the Vortex VIBE keyboard. It is sort of like a TKL, but it omits the F-keys (accessible in the Fn layer) and has a NumPad instead of a Nav cluster. You can toggle the NumPad into a Nav cluster using the NumLock key, as in many full-size boards. It has nearly the same programming as the Vortex Pok3r, which ruins it for me, but if you like Cherry mx switches, it has a good selection, including silent red or black.

you're looking for something like a magicforce. they're cheap, switches are better than rubber, small and keycap set compatible

do not bother with vintage as much as anyone pressures you to, clearly all you need is something along the lines of cherry mx

@tsemb_p - if you act quickly, that saber60 is close to what you want (programmable with qmk - I think!; switches are not silenced, but they are not clicky either): https://www.reddit.com/r/mechmarket/com ... _w_paypal/

Edit: seems to be programmable, but not with qmk

What is qmk?

ph3l4n85@gmail.com wrote: ↑

06 Feb 2019, 01:08

What is qmk?

QMK = quantum mechanical keyboard. It is firmware that enables complete programming of keyboards equipped with certain processors. See the GitHub site:

https://github.com/qmk

Hypersphere wrote: ↑

06 Feb 2019, 10:36

ph3l4n85@gmail.com wrote: ↑

06 Feb 2019, 01:08

What is qmk?

QMK = quantum mechanical keyboard. It is firmware that enables complete programming of keyboards equipped with certain processors. See the GitHub site:

https://github.com/qmk

It's a project that borrows a lot from TMK, actually originally a fork of TMK
https://github.com/tmk/tmk_keyboard

guys, what do you think about the Cherry Slim Line?
They are Compact-Keyboards

The Cherry G84-4400PBGB-0 comes with 83 keys, US layout, trackball 2 buttons, and PS/2 protocol.

G84s are ML switches I think. Not highly regarded. Whole different line from MX.

yup, and even cheaper. I'd also like to hear some feedback about the built-in trackball.

im a "cherry fanboi" according to some, and i dont even like ml. i do like chicklet keys on my laptop ect but ml just dont feel great to me and doesnt live up to the high quality of the mx switches. which is understandable considering it has a lot less room to work with

Wonder how their new low profile switch compares.

ivelegacy wrote: ↑

06 Feb 2019, 15:22

yup, and even cheaper. I'd also like to hear some feedback about the built-in trackball.

Over here…

viewtopic.php?p=437346#p437346