I’d like to start off by saying that I love ALL of the keyboards in my collection, but I find myself, more times than not, with a 65% board on my desk. With today being June 5th (6/5) I figured I’d make this post to see how many others out there feel the same about them.
Easily my favorite form-factor, and probably well over 90% of my collection - 65s are just right for me and my use-cases. I happen to be moving-in some new housemates today so I won’t really have a moment to take any new photos, but here’s a few:
I took a whack at listing all of them off the dome - I think I managed not to miss any! In no particular order, my collection of 65s - not all of them built:
Durgod Hades 68 [x2 - both dead, and why I now own a Hakko FR-301 - very much outmoded these days being cast-aluminum tray-mounts with warped cases, but these blazed the trail for affordable 65s, and even had software that I’d call very good. Too bad they’re a subsidiary of HKGaming. ]
KBD67 Lite x? [I literally lost count of how many of these I have, at least four complete ones and some extra cases - I sold one of the completes a couple years ago]
KBD67 v3
NK65EE [x2]
Protozoa P.02 [has been in its case for years waiting until I don’t suck at stabs anymore, or until I find sufficiently idiot-proof ones]
Grid 650
CIY TES68 [sold - not that I planned on it but someone asked and needed a testbed]
CIY GAS67 [sold - not that I planned on it but someone had to have it when they saw it]
NuPhy Halo65 [sold - actually gifted to one of my best friends; made him into a 65% and heavy spring convert]
TKC Portico [honestly my favorite keeb to come out of the “entry” cloud of keebs from around 2020, was a little sad to see it go out of production so quickly, if only because I want a source for spare parts! I put almost as many miles on this keeb as I have my 67L: thanks to it being super easy to take apart, this was my daily switch-testing platform for years until I just about wore-out the sockets and FR4 plate.]
TKC Portico68 BL [x2 - simple, solid, flirts with perfection - when a generic design gets pretty much everything right you get something like this. If “65% keyboard” was in the dictionary, a photo of this keeb would be appropriate.]
MelGeek Mojo68 [x2 - versatile, convenient, looks so darn cool… but ill-suited for dusty environments with their glossy transparent cases. One colorway of this series had such a cool design that people are still copying it - irony is it’s a design that hardly takes itself seriously and outwardly pokes fun at keeb trends]
Bakeneko65
Mode Envoy
Neo65 [might be my actual favorite 65 at the moment - never mind that it cost less than most of the rest of this list. I’d change a thing or two about it, sure - but for that price? Genuinely next level.]
IC NightFox [A colorway variant of the OG 65, how could I not? I bought a handful of these to turn into terminal boards for machines at work]
I loaded DCS Alchemy on my Portal - this is my first and only DCS set, and I like it! 65s are a great size for me; maybe the only downside is that I don’t get to show off as many keycaps in a set (to myself?)!
]
