I finally started working on my series of reviews of all the 71-key layout keyboards that I have acquired. (We’re up to 11 now…) I found some interesting history via Drop and @SharktasticA that I’ve included in the article, along with some personal experience.
The reason this has taken so long is (a) I tend to write and re-write things a lot (this article has been through five drafts), and (b) I decided I wasn’t happy with using Blogger as a platform so I built a new website.
The benefit of the new platform is that it is accessible from the FediVerse for anyone on Mastodon, Pleroma, Hubzilla, etc. The address is: @gdb@www.no-thoccs.cc
I honestly couldn’t believe how close the M4 layout is to the C70’s layout. Kind of makes me wish for a C70 style layout with the function row restored. Basically an alternative layout to the other 75% keebs that are out there.
An interesting read, thanks for sharing. The M4 navigation cluster of six keys is very interesting. It reminds me of the layout of the Ikki68, except they decided on a badge instead of the third row of keys. Well I guess technically the ikki68 layout reminds me of the M4 confusing the M4 came first.
I would love to see the M4 nav key layout with the arrows but on the left side of the keyboard.
I look forward to reading more and hearing if you feel owning so many keyboards with the same layout is worth it, or if there is a favourite 71 that you stick with.
Thanks. I’ve watched a lot of YouTube content, and while I think it’s fun and all, I think there is a lot to be said for having long-form written content, with more technical information. The only YouTube channel I’ve seen doing really good technical content is Scott on his Keybored channel, but I think there is a disadvantage to video for technical content as it isn’t easily cross-referenced, or even found later unless you bookmark it and take notes…
For example, his upgrade video for the Womier WK61 has a really good, technical discussion of the acoustic properties of plate materials. It’s really an excellent presentation. However, six months from now I doubt I’d be able to find it. There’s no mention of it in the video description, no cross-references, etc.
However, a website article is more likely to be something that can be searched for & found. So yeah, I think there is a real need for long-form written content. While some might not like reading vs watching videos, I think there is benefit to both.
Yeah, this is what has been a deal-breaker for me with most of the keyboards that I’ve seen in the “70%” range…losing that extra row means losing the Ins and Del keys on the primary layer. I know I looked at quite a few keyboard with a similar layout and thought “not quite what I want”.
I was thinking about this with something like the Dopokey just now, and it would be interesting… The bottom row would have to shift right by 1u in order to incorporate the arrow cluster properly, while the two columns would have to be mirrored. That would be an interesting layout, and I expect it would be really nice for users who are left handed and prefer to have navigation on the left. I’ve always thought it was surprising that we don’t see more keyboards offered in both left and right handed layouts.
Well, I’ll give you a hint: I’ve been using one as a daily driver for the past 2-3 months. However, I did get another one in that is very likely to challenge the one I’ve been using.
That is the biggest issue I see with it… It’d be great to use for audio or video work if I could put a mixer or the timeline on it. At other times it wouldn’t be bad for putting discord or matrix on it.
