beamspring vs capacitive buckling spring, my take on it.

nickg

23 Apr 2019, 02:10

As a long time lover of all keyboards ibm, I've been wanting to be able to do this for a long long time so now after a few days with it I think I know just how i feel about the beamspring boards. Since model Fs are *much* easier to come by, and so far have been the best switches ive used, I'll be using that as a reference point.

One, look and size: Shapewise, the beamspring 6850 is basically a larger (width and especially height) pc 5150 keyboard case. But man at roughly 3 inches tall and 12 pounds this is a THICC board! Both have high quality keycaps, but neither have the line on the homerow keys, the beamspring does have extra deep j and f keys to help find the home row however.

Sound: honestly their sound may be the biggest difference. The model f is loud booming and commanding, but then again its a large flipper slamming down onto a pcb that is covering a dang steel plate. Thats gonna make some noise! The beamspring however is FAR quieter, mine does not have a solenoid so I only have one volume settings. Honestly its a good bit quieter than even mx blues, i think even more so than blues with o rings. Its click comes from the beam spring doing its thing and lifting the plastic off of the capsence board so it should be no surprise that lifting up is quieter than slamming down.


Keyfeel: also night and day, but since its got a *very* satfying yet light tactile feedback its not as drastic as the last two. While the model f is fairly heavy 65G while the beamspring is closer to 55g. With the model f you can feel he spring slide, bend, then buckle under your finger then the flipper hit the board. A very mechanical/metallic feel in the best way possible. The beam spring on the other hand is fairly linear until you get to the spring actuation point and the beamspring moves the plastic from the board. Its almost cloud-like, so light and fluffy but then a nice tactile hey you did the thing. Almost as soft and fluffly as a topre switch but more typewriter feel. Which since these were made to replace the selectrics for computer use and even use the same caps should be expected. My family who has been a secretary since the 70's said this board does strike feelings of typewriters of yesterday but while being much more nice and quiet. - for what its worth both the model f and model m were used in ibms later typewriters from the late 80 to early 90s.-


Overall Id have to say this is tied for my favorite keyswitch type overall, yes its tied with the model f. They each fill different needs of mine. When i want to just write something or want a relaxing as cloud like coding session that makes me feel like im using an old school typewriter I use the beamspring, if I want to call up feelings of the retro ibm pc days I use the model F and I think thats how I'm going to like life. they each bring me joy in different ways due to how they function differently. Both are pretty good for gaming being cap boards and ive had zero issues with ether of them in that department.

The one thing I'm not 100% happy with on this is how its foam was replaced, dont get me wrong I'm happy it was done but the guy that did it wasn't 100% perfect and now 3 keys on the outer edge of the boars(including 7 and 8 and the 3rd is one of the left hand side(would be f7 on a model f)) take marginally more force to activate and when my fingers are used to the other keys it can slow me down if I accidentally dont hit them quite hard enough. But from what I understand this should be temporary as gravity takes its effect and smashes that foam down eliminating that issue. dunno how long it'll take but given how rarely I use those i dont forsee an issue there even in games since i dont use the numrow to change weapons i use the scroll wheel on my intellimouse pro and every other key is perfect.


Who would I recommend a beam spring too? Someone who loves oldschool ibm more than money *and* wants a typing experience as close to a classic bigname type writer as can be had. AND doesn't want buckling springs feelings under the finger(since they were used in typewriters too and they feel so very different yet equally good). If you dont want an old school type writer feel well... yeah this aint for you, not everyone is as crazy as I am and chases as many different type writer feelings keyboards as he can get, save yourself some money and get a model f, or heck one of elipse's remakes if you wanna go full ham. Which im just saying I'd be all over a beamspring remake thats as faithful as that is shaping up to be. So yeah heck if I can afford it next year I'm hoping to buy another one of these(or a 5251 but i prefer the tkl 6850) unless a miracle happens and someone starts a fully faithful beamspring remake.


11/10 would recommend if you want an oldschool typewriter like board, otherwise get the also 11/10 model f. Just be careful if you decide to replace the foam ;) on ether board really.

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