The Greatest Keyboard of All Time.. Reborn

if you've been a viewer for long enough you may remember that one time that I had a little moment reminiscing about my old model M keyboard so far out of all the keyboards I've used in my life this is the best most solid overall feeling one other than I did have an IBM model M and nothing can compare and I'm not alone not only did someone else care enough to re-upload that clip as it's very own video but there is a healthy second-hand market for these things and you can even buy near-identical brand new recreations today but in the age of Bluetooth RGB and macros should you care let's find out speaking of random a semicolon LSD cave a good book our sponsor humble bundle you can save money on games and help support charity with Humble Bundle learn more through our partner links in the video description [Music] now you darn kids today might think that the model M looks like a basic old-school keyboard but that is exactly why it's special the layout that nearly every keyboard uses today is standard because of this keyboard from over 30 years ago not to be clear the QWERTY layout has been around since the 1800s but by the time IBM was releasing personal computers in the 1980s keyboards needed a lot more keys than just letters and numbers and prior to the model M these keys could be found in all sorts of stupid and seemingly arbitrary places the reason that this board is different is that IBM put a lot of effort even developing a 10-person task force into developing a friendlier keyboard letting focus groups rearrange and large or even duplicate commonly used keys the result was this board that looks totally normal except it's missing windows keys and a couple of other things you see this isn't actually a model M per se this is the zeroeth generation IBM enhanced keyboard that launched in 1985 as part of the IBM 31 61 terminal that's why it doesn't have any lights for caps num or scroll lock those settings would be displayed on the terminal screen instead you'll also notice that it has a five-pin din connector instead of a ps/2 connector like other model ends this is significant because the model M launched with IBM's personal system 2 or ps2 computer that is where the connector gets its name this is a second-generation model M the most popular it was manufactured back in 1987 just one year after I was born and we know this because every model M has a little birth certificate on its back but why do people still like these things so much after all these years well it comes down to feel sound and build quality model M's use switches that are very different to the Cherry MX is that keyboard enthusiasts today might be used to in the patent these switches are actually called catastrophic ly buckling compression column switch and actuator but most normal people just call them buckling spring switches and that's because under each key cap there really is a little tiny spring so in the starting position the spring puts pressure on a rocker preventing it from closing the circuit but when you press the key down the spring eventually buckles tilting the rocker to contact a layer of membrane and registering your stroke at the precise instant that you feel the tactile feedback wait hold on did that say membrane yes model Em's are often erroneously called mechanical keyboards but they are in fact membrane boards which is why they only have two key rollover just remember that this does not mean that they use rubber domes that is different or well okay actually some model M's do use rubber domes but more on that later anyway the result is a very balanced feel with a nice tactile bump and a 70 gram waiting for pure typists there's very little on the market even all these decades later that feels this good but while the buckling spring switches create auditory feedback that some people find very satisfying at least the ones doing the typing anyway they also take a long time to register repeated strokes making them unsuitable for competitive gaming though you could always just bludgeon your opponents over the head when you lose because the model ends are heavy boards the plastic shell and the key caps are made from hard PVC and PBT plastics that aren't painted and don't yellow with age and inside there's a heat treated metal backplate that's responsible for the ends negligible deck flex and it's five-pound heft at least they were five pounds thing is not all model ends are created equal in 1990 IBM sold part of its keyboard manufacturing division to what would become Lexmark Lexmark continued to make these keyboards for IBM but more cheaper this model M from 1995 demonstrates some of the changes including one good one drainage holes to protect it from its arch-nemesis water along with several less good ones like a lighter backplate and plastic shell a fixed instead of removable cable a monochrome legend on the key caps and rubber dome switches to be clear they're good rubber domes but still anyway the keyboard gods work in mysterious ways and the growing popularity of rubber domes led to the collapse of the mechanical keyboard business with Lexmark dropping their keyboard division outright in 1996 and here is where our story gets interesting a group of former IBM and Lexmark employees began slowly purchasing the model ends intellectual property rights except for the logo and the physical manufacturing equipment that was used to make it the company they formed is called unit comp and that's where this came from it's a Unicom classic and it was manufactured on January 15th 2018 because of this heritage Unicom model ends aren't really clones but they're more like descendants so how do they compare to the original well if you didn't spend the 80s and 90s typing on model M's when they were new it's kind of hard to judge the feel of a brand-new Unicom classic against an IBM board whose spring switches are 30 years older but even if you ask the people who have been using model M's for decades you will still get some who claim that the unit comps feel identical and others who claim that they feel very different and from a certain point of view they're both right the eunich on boards are modeled after the last model that Lexmark made so while they have the exact same switches as the early boards they are lighter weight and interestingly they can have imperfections on the case and less sharp lettering due to the aging mold and tooling equipment so our final take the eunich on boards are as close as you can get to brand new anyway to the original model M while also offering new color interface and key options all for less money than most keyboards of a similar quality so as a well-priced typing board I can see the appeal but my money would go to either a more versatile Cherry MX or an older generation model M off eBay even though I know that I'd be paying a pretty penny and I would probably need an adapter speaking of adapting fresh books is the small business accounting software built for how you want to work to be more adaptive to the pace of the modern world anyway it's a simple way to be more productive more organized and get paid faster you can create and send professional-looking invoices in less than 30 seconds you can set up online payments with just a couple of clicks and get paid up to four days faster and you can see when your client Senor invoice to put an end to the guessing games so for an unrestricted 30-day free trial go to FreshBooks dot-com slash tech tips and enter Linus tech tips in the how did you hear about us section but my seems super credible sitting here in this lake jacket like this leaving no alright well thanks for watching guys and a massive shadow to LTT forum user ultimate mythbuster for loaning us his three precious model ends for this video if this video sucked you guys know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also link down there's our merch store which has cool shirts like the one item oh I actually I'm still wearing it hold on like this one and our community forum which you should totally join how about now do I look credible now yeah how about now yeah oh sorry not suitable for twitch

Channel: Linus Tech Tips

Views: 4,470,085

Rating: 4.9179134 out of 5

Keywords: model m, keyboard, vintage, ibm, lexmark, mechanical, buckling, spring, 80's, 90's, old school, rubber dome, ps/2, din, abs, backplate, best, greatest, goat, model f, ergonomic

Id: D7wmMZmMinM

Length: 10min 35sec (635 seconds)

Published: Tue May 01 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Rhoogar]

I'm guessing he should have reviewed these instead: www.modelfkeyboards.com

[u/DasGnome]

Makes me sad that both of my Model Ms got rekt from a fall during a move recently. :(

[u/thr3ddy]

I was kind of hoping he'd announce or review a new buckling spring product that's not Unicomp with that title. I love buckling springs, but I am too used to my HHKBs to switch back to my Model M.

[u/I_cant_help]

I threw away so many of these when I worked in IT.

I didn’t know any better at the time.

[u/Sonarsup1934]

Just finished watching on YouTube, and came here to post the video. You beat me to it lol.

[u/MiToRMK]

It was a great watch, good to see such a classic keyboard being featured!

[u/Chef_Chantier]

quick question: why did the "zeroth" version have a semi cut out over the numpad if it didn't have any keys there?

[u/[deleted]]

I love my new Unicomp Model M and my Older Model Ms equally. I have a USB cord that I can use with my older M so I don't have to use an adapter, but my new M has a windows key.

To each their own but I'd say it's worth up to $100 for a new builds.

[u/rodrigogirao]

I thought the Model F was supposed to be the greatest.