A Few Months With A Das Keyboard Model 4

[bridgman]

Monraaf, Grifter...why did you both post the same thing...four times? XD

Probably a stuck key

[dungeon]

Not sure why i always returned to $2 IBM KB-7953

[Grifter]

Nobu

I dunno, the forums borked maybe? I posted and nothing came up, other posts kept being added afterwards though so I figured mine hadn't gone through. At first I figured it was because I was on the bugmenot account so I dug up my old account and tried there. I was just excited to share my own experience with mechanicals. Is there a way for the user to delete a post they themselves made?

I emptied 3 of the posts.

Yes it's my personal experience that brown switches feel horrible like there's maybe not sandpaper, but certainly grains of sand in the stem. And it irks me every time I feel it =P

bridgman

No, it must have been the loop macro

Well anyway, sorry for the multiposting, I just wanted to share my story, the forums just behaved super weird.

[rdnetto]

I have the previous model Das (with brown keys), which is pretty nice. My only criticism of it is that the multimedia keys are inconvenient to press with a single hand. The new Das fixes this, but at the cost of moving them to the other side of the keyboard, which is kind of inconvenient. It's also significantly more expensive than the previous one.

The next mech keyboard I get will probably be one from WASD Keyboards - even with a completely customized set of keycaps it costs less than the Das 4, and their multimedia key placement is designed to be easily pressed with one hand.

[Nobu]

Not sure why i always returned to $2 IBM KB-7953

Sounds like me when I'm typing my 7+ word passphrase...about the only time I type that fast, although I do get close sometimes when I know what I want to type. This, on my not so great (but pretty decent) Logitech k360 wireless keyboard. A nice little keyboard, but a bit annoying when it just randomly decides to stop typing, probably because it doesn't have line-of-sight with the receiver and it's pretty low-power.

[dungeon]

A nice little keyboard, but a bit annoying when it just randomly decides to stop typing, probably because it doesn't have line-of-sight with the receiver and it's pretty low-power.

It might interfere with other wireless devices too, i had one A4Tech's wireless mouse which randomly can't click if wlan is turned on my ruter

[Adarion]

Most of the time I got either an ancient "Escom" (Fujitsu Siemens iirc.) keyboard under my fingers, a half brokem IBM Model M of similar age or currently my relatively new WASD custom keyboard. I grew up with things that were mechanic keyboards and I was really scared by the spongy feel of rubber dome keyboards. There are some of them that don't really feel that bad or that are better crafted but that varies.
PCKeyboard still makes the IBM buckling spring ones, everybody else iirc. uses either the variety of Cherry switches or I think Alps also makes some. My WASD would have been with Cherry green (those resemble IBM Model M most, not exactly but close) but that wasn't available. After some testing I went with the brown ones because I knew I was going to type much and I would not want to tire my fingers. And they still felt well enough even without the louder click. At WASD they also offer dampeners for the sound.
I'm very satisfied with it since it has a good bunch of individual options and it seems well crafted. Best thing is: They show you how to desolder switches if you want to change some of them for a different type. Means: It's quite repairable which is an awesome thing these days.
Price was average for this type of keyboard, still high for me incl. shipment to Europe, but it was meant for my write-your-thesis-and-papers-box so I wanted something good and was willing to spend the money on it.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

You must not be very old to have had no experience with Mechanical keyboards.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

Not sure why i always returned to $2 IBM KB-7953

If you took several classes in high school, like I did, just to learn typing, business processing and a room full of women, you discovered how to type 80 wpm and not bat an eye. You learned them on the IBM Selectric typewriters that crank over when the power switch kicks in. Then you moved to IBM's M series and never looked back.

Keyboards today really have misengineered their way into a corner.

[TheCycoONE]

I have the Das 4 Ultimate (MX-Blue switches) and have been extremely happy with it. Before I bought it I played with in store with both the brown and blue switches - the brown felt a bit too mushy to me, but to each their own. There was no bend, though I did take it out of the box in store before I bought it so if there was I wouldn't have gotten it. The ruler is fine as a foot rest, at least it doesn't snap off like some, though as a ruler it is pretty unusable - very difficult to read. I can also say that the Ultimate helps with touch typing. I had a pretty good grasp to start with from several high school typing courses and years of programming, but the Ultimate made me very aware of the times when I did look at the keyboard (symbols in the number row, several of the middle functions, and when typing passwords) so I've become a more confident typist.

In replying to the poster above, there is a faint pool chemical smell if I press my nose close, but nothing distracting.

Otherwise, on the front edge there is a paint scratch that is very visible (shiny metal shows up particularly well on an all back keyboard). I've only had the keyboard for a few months now so I can't comment on overall build quality.