This AWFUL Typewriter Keyboard Raised $350K

so it used to be that if you wanted a retro styled like typewriter II keyboard the only real options were to convert an old typewriter which we have done or by custom keycaps and replace all the ones on your current keyboard but now there are actually a fair number of off-the-shelf options for these typewriter e keyboards so let's try something out today shall we and this whole endeavor is gonna be brought to you by Oh doesn't drop it memory Express memory expresses uber price beat guarantee will beat any authorized Canadian retailers price by 10% of the difference check out the link below to learn more [Music] so we actually don't quite have as many options today as it might at first appear because some of them are just different variants of the retro classic from SEO so they've got the artisan the posh the onyx and the Elwood and the first thing that comes to mind for me looking at this is are there really so many people out there that are looking for these style of keyboards that they need for different colors so let's go ahead and get these unpacked table feels nice so they're Oh how to impress Linus that is a type-c connector which I actually found out recently is only a cost difference of about 15 cents over a high-quality micro B connector but for some reason many new products still haven't switched over to it couple of things back here so there's bluetooth mode there's USB mode and you can switch between Mac and PC all right well part of the video today is definitely gonna be rolling through all the different color options here because if you're the kind of person who buys a stylish keyboard then surely you do care about the color scheme a fair whack so not only can you switch between Apple and Windows modes they've actually included a bunch of additional key cabs this must be the Mac version of the F keys all right now let's have a look at what the artisan has to show for itself this is actually a perfect example of a company leveraging what little tooling work they've done to turn that into as many models as possible so you can actually see here that the artisan is just a cross between the Onyx and the posh so it's got exactly the same kind of rose gold metal accents and then it's just using the faux leather backing and then they a matte black infill for the keycaps bringing us finally to the Elwood which is different from every other model that we have in much every way actually so for one this thing hat this has what appears to be a genuine wood backing is it really no way feels like it hey James James I think he's up for lunch that's okay there's another finishing touch on this one though that's pretty cool so you actually have the ability if you want to replace the plate here so you can undo the screws and I wonder if you could flip it around and grab it yourself either way they sent a custom one with their impressive established 2009 retro classic and they still screen blinds media on there that's cute I am in my last name Sebastian not media but alright these are really freaking heavy keyboards how much of these things these are not cheap I think they're gonna have to do a lot more than look cool but let's get to that in a minute first let's have a look at the Challenger this is the no K so is that like the opposite of okay like it's then this is the no K wryneck with blue switch gorgeous light effect retro style and Bluetooth / wired dual mode now the packaging isn't as good I don't know what the deal is with this like gradient Brown whenever I find tape on packaging I have to know what's under it well that's fine if cherry is OEM in your keyboard that's not embarrassing maybe some of our clever Chinese viewers can give me some idea of what that's about without the tape on it I actually would have had a lot more confidence going into looking not too bad to start so they've got a little aluminum something they've got a little more different alumina oh this is like your like your stopper thing for that okay it's not going to have much of a function on a keyboard but it might look kind of neat and then we've got the keyboard itself yeah I will say this the the feel of the plastics here doesn't hold a candle to the retro classic oh I was gonna say though what's good is that they've got these reinforcing ridges here so that when you slide them into the slot you can't put strain on the can and they don't do anything they just borrowed someone else's dueling for the USP character wait there's two why does it have to so this seems to go in here oops No does this come off it's like a little handle here but it doesn't seem to come off don't even get after me about ped kak because there's no manual that's it going this way and it what it just sits there oh that's it that's the whole mechanism why do we even have these holes on it okay [Music] that - it doesn't secure in any way it just sits there oh IndieGoGo to think that this thing is this thing that it holy crap this thing raised three hundred and sixty thousand dollars what Duff it's almost two hundred this costs almost as much as the a co 1u retro keyboard people not only are there more of you than I thought you guys are guys are nuts my switches are these they're covered by the backplane here I can't tell what they are also these lighting effects are really annoying there we go now they're breathing now they're just scattered around now they're breathing well they're not cherry you know how I know that you hear how different the sound is between those two okay so what the big oh you have got to be kidding me there's a pad look so there's a little rubberized pad here presumably to keep whatever you put on there safe but it doesn't touch it so I guess this is part of its jam is you can be sitting at your computer and you can have your phone I mean it says it has bluetooth but how do you even you know what forget it for now how great its bluetooth is is not important unless it's actually decent for a techie so let's find ourselves a typing test holy crap that does not bode well look at the wobble on these key caps I'm barely touching them you know what let's start with a baseline so this is a razer blackwidow something-or-other with their orange switches which are basically Chinese clones of Cherry MX browns okay 73 adjusted words per minute now it should be borne in mind that these ones get every advantage now because I'm more familiar with the text hmm oh boy I can't get a little mentum not the same score dang I'm consistent let's try it one more time okay this one is more representative of probably what I can do but we're gonna go back to the razor in a moment critiques of this guy these key caps are wobbly the shape of them is absolutely awful pardon my french because it's very easy to accidentally match two keys at a time this one on the other hand actually not a terrible amount of wobble a little bit more than I'd like but the spacing between the keys means I wasn't accidentally hitting multiple keys at once but I did have a hard time registering keystrokes from time to time because the switches they're using which I'm actually not sure what they are I'll have to find that out but the switches they're using are a little bit on the heavy side for me okay so they're kale some kind of kale blues let's go back to the first keyboard all right 97 actually let's try out the Bluetooth functionality first so I just flipped this over to Bluetooth mode and what I'm hoping is it's gonna be significantly simpler to pair okay I'm holding function and it starts flashing that's weird there we go that's intuitive so function and the Bluetooth key has it come up okay it's kind of a drag though that the switch is located in such an inconvenient spot what's cool though is apparently it has a six thousand milliamp hour battery so you can continue to use it in Bluetooth mode you don't want it's not plugged in so it's wireless to [Music] I'm backlit not bad that helps a lot with the cost now this guy on the other hand not impressed so I wouldn't go as far as to say that either of these as a replacement for a more standard keyboard for me but I was surprised and impressed by how close I was able to get on the Ezio retro classic especially in light of how apparently desperate the keyboard community is to get their hands on some kind of retro styled keyboard because this is how much this product managed to raise on IndieGoGo so I'm not strongly recommending either but I will say that if you need to buy one definitely go with this one something I can recommend without hesitation though is our sponsor skill share skill shares our online learning community with thousands of classes in design business technology and more and Premium Membership gives you unlimited access to high-quality classes on must know topics so you can improve your skills unlock new opportunities and do the work that you love so Tarin one of our editors has actually been using Skillshare a bunch he's done courses on logo design mastering Adobe Illustrator it's more affordable than most online learning platforms with an annual subscription being less than $10 a month and the first 500 people who sign up at the link below will get the first two months for free so go check out Skillshare today so thanks for watching guys if you disliked this video then maybe you work for what's their company call again maybe you work for UK but if you did like this video right you can hit that button but if you liked it hit like get subscribed maybe consider checking over to buy the stuff we featured at the link below also down there is our merch store which has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should definitely join

Channel: Linus Tech Tips

Views: 3,945,611

Rating: 4.8108468 out of 5

Keywords: keyboard, mechanical, typewriter, retro, azio, rymek, hipster, vintage, cherry, blue, kailh, gateron, razer, gaming, fortnite, writing, typing, dvorak, qwerty, bluetooth, wireless, tactile, classic

Id: APyS-vGpyp8

Length: 13min 26sec (806 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

I still don’t get the appeal of those typewriter boards. They always just seem excessively overpriced without the build quality or features to back it

[u/Exena]

IT'S TIME TO STOP!