Tag Archives: keyboards

Clevetura S Keyboard Review: Swipe Across the Keys Instead of Reaching for a Mouse

Posted on by

PROS:


  • Innovative combination of keyboard and touchpad in one

  • Compact, lightweight design

  • Customizable gestures and sensitivity

  • Supports 3 Bluetooth and 1 USB-C connections

CONS:


  • Has a bit of a learning curve for accuracy and speed

  • Premium price tag

RATINGS:

AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY

EDITOR'S QUOTE:

The Clevetura CLVX S brings typing and navigation together in a compact design that gives your mouse hand less traveling to do.

Keyboards and mice have shared our desks for decades, but our hands still have to travel between them whenever typing gives way to clicking. That familiar shuffle becomes especially noticeable when there’s barely enough room for a laptop, let alone another accessory. The Clevetura S offers an interesting solution by turning the keys themselves into a touchpad, giving your fingers another way to get around without leaving the keyboard.

Also known as the CLVX S, this compact, 78-key keyboard brings Clevetura’s TouchOnKeys technology to a more portable design. The Windows version reviewed here can handle familiar gestures without additional software, although there’s plenty to customize if you want to. More importantly, it makes an unusual interaction surprisingly useful, even if sliding across letters and keeping resting fingers from triggering gestures take a little getting used to.

Designer: Clevetura

Aesthetics

Upfront, the Clevetura S looks almost like someone forgot to leave space between the keys. The flat keycaps sit unusually close together, giving the 78-key layout a tidy, almost tiled appearance. There’s a practical reason for that, of course. Fingers need to travel across the surface as comfortably as they press down on it, and generous gaps would make that second job considerably less inviting.

An anodized aluminum base gives the keyboard its silver lower half, while polycarbonate covers the top and ABS plastic forms the keycaps. Both black and white versions retain that silver body, which is particularly noticeable against the darker finish. I would have preferred an entirely black option for a simpler look, though the contrast does make the thin profile a little more obvious when viewed from the side.

Otherwise, there isn’t much to distract from that continuous field of keys, save for the extra markings explaining their secondary functions. Two buttons below the spacebar provide physical left- and right-click controls, recalling the arrangement on older laptops. Then there’s the per-key RGB lighting, which can turn this relatively understated keyboard into something considerably more colorful. Fortunately, those lights also have practical roles beyond decorating your desk.

Ergonomics

At roughly 403g, the Clevetura S doesn’t ask for much commitment when you’re packing a laptop bag. Its body measures approximately 11.5 inches wide, 5.12 inches deep, and just 0.49 inches (12.4mm) thick, making it easy to accommodate on smaller desks, too. The closely fitted keycaps don’t leave many edges sticking out, although I’d still use the included fabric pouch rather than let them rub against everything else.

The scissor switches feel familiar if you’re coming from a decent laptop keyboard, with around 1.2mm of travel. Typing is perfectly serviceable, though it probably won’t steal the attention of someone devoted to mechanical switches. Folding feet let you raise the back, but there’s only one elevated position. That keeps setup simple, provided you’re comfortable with either the flat profile or the available incline.

The more interesting benefit shows up when you need to scroll through a reference or reposition the cursor between sentences. Instead of reaching sideways, you can make that movement right where you’ve been typing. Your chair and screen position still matter, of course. The Clevetura S simply reduces the back-and-forth, although its flat, closely fitted keys take some getting used to when finding your usual typing rhythm.

Performance

The central key area doubles as the touchpad, automatically switching between recognizing finger movements and registering keypresses. Sliding across letters feels a little peculiar at first, but my fingers didn’t catch on the edges, and pointer control worked well. Scrolling through a document becomes especially convenient when you’re jumping back into writing every few moments. A light tap handles clicking without requiring you to press a letter.

That automatic switching does have to contend with personal habits, however. Mine involves keeping fingers on the home row, which happens to sit inside the touchpad area. This frequently triggered three-finger gestures when I hadn’t intended anything of the sort. Sensitivity adjustments and the option to disable unwanted gestures provide useful flexibility, though finding the right balance is something to budget time for rather than expect immediately.

Clevetura’s Adaptive Intelligence, or AI, can help by selecting a sensitivity level after studying 10,000 typed characters. Training requires the TouchOnKeys app and a USB connection, with touch recognition disabled while it runs. A separate mouse is handy during that process, although you can pause training if necessary. Thankfully, this particular AI has a fairly modest assignment: learning when your fingers mean to type rather than swipe.

The lighting makes that second role easier to follow, and a little more entertaining, too. In my setup, a white trail followed my finger across the keys, almost like leaving a trace of magic behind. Checking the battery dims the surrounding lighting and uses illuminated number keys to show the remaining charge. Even the function row gets involved, with touch sliders for volume and backlight brightness.

Windows recognizes supported touchpad gestures without installing additional software, but TouchOnKeys opens up more settings, including profiles for different apps. Three Bluetooth slots and a USB-C connection let you select between up to four devices, one at a time. That’s useful if your desk serves more than one computer. The cable also handles charging and provides the wired connection required for firmware updates.

Clevetura advertises up to 44 hours of continuous use without backlighting, which is an important qualification for anyone drawn to those colorful effects. That’s the manufacturer’s estimate rather than a result measured here, so it shouldn’t become a promise of weeks between charges. Wired operation remains available at a desk, while wireless endurance deserves particular attention if you’re planning to travel with the lighting switched on.

Sustainability

The aluminum and plastic construction follows a fairly familiar recipe, and there’s no documented recycled content to give the CLVX S a particular advantage on materials. Clevetura rates its keys for 3 million presses, although that remains a manufacturer specification rather than a prediction of service life. The more useful question is how easily this unusual keyboard can be maintained once everyday use starts leaving its mark.

Here, the same integration that makes TouchOnKeys possible also limits what owners can replace. Clevetura warns against removing or swapping keycaps because doing so can damage the keyboard, and the battery isn’t easily user-replaceable either. Routine surface cleaning and manufacturer support therefore matter more than they would on a board designed for tinkering. It’s worth understanding that arrangement before expecting mechanical-keyboard levels of customization or straightforward repairs.

Value

At $199, discounted from $209, the Windows model sits well above the price of many conventional compact keyboards. The extra cost is easier to understand when you consider what you’re paying for: typing and pointer control in the same footprint. Separate devices offer more freedom to choose each component, but they also need more space. Clevetura’s appeal is having those everyday functions share one portable object.

That could be particularly attractive when you’re writing code, checking references, or moving between shortcuts and controls in creative software. Quick navigation stays close, even if detailed drawing or extended pointer work still calls for a separate mouse. The Clevetura S doesn’t have to handle every task equally well to be useful. Its value depends on how often you make those small trips away from the keys.

Verdict

Combining a keyboard and touchpad sounds simple enough until your fingers have to tell the two jobs apart. Clevetura gives that idea a thoughtful physical form, from the closely fitted keys to lighting that explains what’s happening beneath your hands. My habit of resting on the home row made gesture sensitivity especially important, but the pointer control itself worked well and gave the unusual surface a practical purpose.

The Clevetura CLVX S makes the strongest impression when space is limited and typing is regularly interrupted by a scroll or a click. Its price deserves consideration, and the flat surface won’t replace everyone’s favorite keyboard feel. Still, there’s something pleasing about editing a sentence, sliding across the letters to move the cursor, and carrying on without sending a hand off to find another device.

The post Clevetura S Keyboard Review: Swipe Across the Keys Instead of Reaching for a Mouse first appeared on Yanko Design.

TypAir’s Wearable Keyboard Prototype Lets You Type Without Speaking Aloud

Posted on by

Typing through smart glasses can mean speaking messages aloud or reaching for another device. MindRove’s TypAir offers a quieter option, attaching a gesture-based Bluetooth keyboard to your clothing so your fingers can enter text without a conventional set of keys. Still a working prototype, it puts the typing surface beside a pocket rather than asking you to find room on a table.

The device has a compact, roughly square body, with a strap that attaches magnetically to clothing, pockets, or other straps. That placement is central to the idea. Worn near your hip, TypAir could let you enter a short reply with your hand close to its natural resting position, although comfort will depend on the attachment point, the garment, and the hardware’s eventual proportions.

Designer: MindRove

Typing itself requires a different rhythm. There aren’t any lettered keys to press, because TypAir translates a predefined set of finger gestures into characters. Its browser guide assigns A to a tap in the bottom-left corner, for example. Other letters use different movements, so the small footprint comes with a clear compromise: you’ll need to learn an alphabet before typing becomes familiar.

MindRove also plans customizable gestures for letters, symbols, shortcuts, and commands. That could give the device a purpose beyond spelling out sentences. Someone entering the same instruction repeatedly might prefer a single learned movement, while occasional messages could use the standard alphabet. The interesting design question is how much you can simplify an everyday action without making its gesture harder to remember later.

There’s a visual decision here, too. A keyboard worn on clothing becomes part of an outfit, so the module and strap can be paired in different colors. Black-on-black offers a quieter presence, while brighter combinations make the attachment more noticeable. That flexibility acknowledges something wearable electronics sometimes overlook: people might accept the function but still dislike having another gadget attached to them.

The appeal is clearest in moments when speaking would be intrusive. A message composed while waiting for an appointment could stay unspoken, provided the connected glasses support Bluetooth keyboard input. Inside a headset, the same approach could offer somewhere physical to enter text. These are plausible conveniences, but their value depends on gesture recognition being dependable enough that corrections don’t interrupt every exchange.

Compatibility and power place more ordinary limits around that promise. MindRove lists Android and Windows support, while iOS and macOS remain under development; the connected app matters, too. The company also claims more than six hours of use per charge. That adds another battery to your routine, and the stated runtime doesn’t establish that it’ll stay available throughout a full working day.

MindRove says the wearable design, gesture recognition, and manufacturing preparation still need further work. Those unfinished details will determine how practical the idea becomes, particularly when your fingers have to locate the controls without looking down. Learning the alphabet is only part of the adjustment. Wearing TypAir also means finding a position you can return to comfortably, across the clothes you actually wear.

The post TypAir’s Wearable Keyboard Prototype Lets You Type Without Speaking Aloud first appeared on Yanko Design.

HP EliteBoard G2a Hides a Windows PC in an Ordinary-Looking Keyboard

Posted on by

Desktop computers have become smaller, but even a little box needs somewhere to sit and cables to connect it. HP’s EliteBoard G2a removes that separate enclosure by putting the computer inside a full-size keyboard. This Windows PC keeps the surface you already type on and gives it another job, making a compact workstation easier to carry between home and office.

The gray body measures 14.1 by 4.7 by 0.7 inches and weighs about 1.49 pounds, depending on configuration. Low-profile keys, a numeric keypad, and backlighting preserve the familiar business-keyboard layout rather than shrinking everything into a travel accessory. That makes the design’s restraint rather convincing: there’s no separate machine competing for attention, although you’re still setting aside space for a full keyboard.

Designer: HP

Of course, the missing piece is a screen. Connect the G2a to a compatible USB-C monitor and you can bring your computer to a desk where the display already lives. A single cable can carry video, data, and power, provided the monitor supplies the required 65W. Otherwise, the included power adapter is still needed. A USB-C socket alone doesn’t guarantee that tidy arrangement.

The cable itself comes in attached and detachable versions, a small choice with consequences when packing up. An attached lead stays with the machine, so there’s one less item to leave behind. A detachable cable separates from the keyboard for storage or replacement. The second USB-C connection handles accessories, but USB-A devices and wired Ethernet require adapters, adding clutter to the setup.

Underneath, AMD Ryzen AI 5 PRO 435 or Ryzen AI 7 PRO 450 processors distinguish this G2a from the older G1a. Both include a 50-TOPS neural processing unit for compatible local AI software. The listed configurations pair 16GB or 32GB of RAM with a 512GB SSD. These prove the existence of a powerful computer beneath the keys, not a keyboard controlling something hidden behind your monitor.

An optional 32Wh battery gives the arrangement another advantage when you’re changing desks: the computer can stay running while disconnected. That doesn’t turn it into a laptop, since you’ll still need a display when you arrive. Integrated speakers and microphones reduce the peripherals needed for audio calls, and a prepaired wireless mouse completes the controls. Video calls still need a separate camera, of course.

Putting everything beneath the keys could make a damaged keyboard an expensive problem, which is why serviceability matters here. HP makes the top-mounted keyboard replaceable, alongside the RAM, SSD, and optional battery. Two accessible memory slots support upgrades to 64GB. You don’t have to treat the computer as disposable because its most frequently touched part wears out, although repairs still require appropriate skills.

That said, the price is harder to hide than the computer. Listed US configurations start at $3,028, while the attached-cable version with 32GB of RAM is priced at $3,846. A compatible monitor remains a separate purchase. For someone moving between equipped workspaces, carrying a keyboard instead of a desktop makes sense. Paying that much to avoid a separate box, however, is a considerably bigger decision.

The post HP EliteBoard G2a Hides a Windows PC in an Ordinary-Looking Keyboard first appeared on Yanko Design.

Google’s Fix for One-Handed Typing Is a Rolling Belt of Letters

Posted on by

Typing with one hand usually means stretching a finger across a keyboard while the other hand holds a drink or works a mouse. Google’s Gboard team has a wonderfully impractical fix: put the keys on a conveyor belt and let them come to you. Its Rotating Keyboard stands upright on a desk, asking your finger to stay put while the letters keep moving.

Regular keyboards assume your hands will travel between stationary keys, a reasonable arrangement that has survived decades of typing. Google reverses that relationship by mounting rows of keycaps on loops that travel around rollers. The tall blue frame and angled stand make the moving assembly feel closer to a miniature factory machine than a computer peripheral, which is probably part of the joke.

Designer: Google Japan

Instead of looking down for a letter, you watch for the right key to arrive and press it as it passes. Google says each belt carries 29 keys and can input both uppercase and lowercase letters. That might let one hand stay near the same spot, though it also turns typing into a timing exercise, especially when the next letter takes its time coming around.

Imagine answering an email with a cup of tea in your free hand. On a conventional keyboard, you’d either put the cup down or hunt for letters one finger at a time. Here, the moving keys do the traveling while you wait at the front of the machine. Google also suggests using your free hand on a mouse, which sounds suspiciously like extra work.

There’s an oddly earnest design lesson underneath the silliness. Questions about ergonomics often begin with who a familiar object was made for, and Google has taken that thought to a ridiculous extreme. The upright arrangement might use less horizontal desk space than a full keyboard, but it trades that footprint for height, moving parts, and the need to watch every passing key.

Google plays along with its own premise, floating ideas for faster movement, longer belts with more characters, shorter versions for phones, and different colors. None of those variations is a promised product. Even the keyboard itself isn’t headed for stores; the team has released open-source plans for a similar device instead. That keeps the joke open to anyone curious enough to build one.

The date is part of the gag, too. Google chose October 1 as a nod to the familiar 101-key keyboard, rather than waiting for April Fools’ Day. It’s the team’s 15th keyboard proposal, continuing a habit of treating ordinary typing as a problem that needs an absurdly elaborate solution. A conveyor belt is hardly the first thing most people would try.

You’re unlikely to write a novel by chasing letters around this contraption, and that isn’t really the point. Google has built a physical answer to a question no keyboard maker was asking: what if the keys did all the moving? It’s a ridiculous way to type an email, but an effective way to notice how much we expect our fingers to do.

The post Google’s Fix for One-Handed Typing Is a Rolling Belt of Letters first appeared on Yanko Design.

Keychron Finally Made a Walnut Gaming Keyboard You’d Leave Out All Day

Posted on by

Gaming keyboards usually advertise themselves before you press a key, with glowing lights and cases that wouldn’t look out of place beside a spaceship. Keychron’s K8 HE All-Wood Special Edition goes in the opposite direction, with a walnut body that gives a fast, magnetic-switch keyboard the warmth of desk furniture. Your late-night gaming sessions no longer have to dictate how your workspace looks the rest of the day.

Of course, “all-wood” needs a little explaining. The frame and bottom case are walnut, but brown aluminum panels run along the sides, and there’s an aluminum plate inside. The dark brown keycaps are made from your typical PBT plastic. You get the grain and character where your eyes notice them without worrying about how long your keys will survive years of typing, let alone months of mashing.

Designer: Keychron

Even within one model, the grain gives each keyboard a slightly different personality. Against the dark brown keycaps, the wood keeps the rows of identical keys from looking quite so mechanical. Those keycaps don’t have shine-through legends, which suits a setup where you want your desk to feel calm during the workday, even if the same keyboard is ready for a game after dinner.

The tenkeyless layout helps with that balancing act. It drops the number pad, leaving more room for a mouse without pushing your hands far apart when you’re typing. If you spend the morning on documents and the evening playing games, you don’t need two keyboards taking turns on the desk. The missing keys might sting, though, if spreadsheets are part of your daily routine.

Under that comparatively quiet exterior are Gateron Double-Rail Magnetic Nebula switches. You can set how far each key travels before it registers, from 0.2 to 3.8 mm, and Rapid Trigger lets a key reset as you release it. That’s useful when quick, repeated inputs matter in a game, while a deeper actuation point could make ordinary typing less prone to accidental presses.

Keychron hasn’t made the wood case an excuse to forget modern conveniences. The K8 HE can connect over Bluetooth, a 2.4 GHz wireless link, or a cable, so it can follow you from a laptop to a gaming PC. Its browser-based customization lets you change key functions without installing an app. You can adjust the controls while keeping the appearance happily old-fashioned.

Still, an attractive case doesn’t make a keyboard suitable for everyone. At $199.99, this edition asks you to pay for walnut as well as its magnetic-switch hardware. The opaque keycaps also won’t put illuminated lettering at your fingertips in a dark room. And if you’re hoping for a completely wooden object, those aluminum sides make the name a little more ambitious than the construction.

That’s perhaps why the K8 HE is most interesting when it isn’t being used for gaming. During the day, the walnut and brown keys can sit among books, lamps, and other things that weren’t designed around glowing keyboard lights. Later, the same keyboard can handle faster inputs without changing your desk’s entire personality. It’s a gaming accessory that seems comfortable being noticed for its materials first.

The post Keychron Finally Made a Walnut Gaming Keyboard You’d Leave Out All Day first appeared on Yanko Design.

Cyberpunk 2077 Just Got a Commodore Collab That’s Absurd and Logical

Posted on by

The original Commodore 64 launched in 1982. Cyberpunk 2077, the game, is set in 2077. The gap between those two years is roughly the entire history of the personal computer, which makes the Commodore 77 either the most absurd collaboration in gaming hardware history or the most logical one, depending on how you look at it. At $377, it’s clearly betting on the latter.

The 77 is a special edition of the Commodore 64 Ultimate, the FPGA-based revival that earned a 10/10 from IGN when it launched in 2025. FPGA recreations matter because they reproduce the original hardware’s behavior at the circuit level rather than running it through conventional software emulation. The practical result is compatibility with 99.9% of the 10,000-plus game and peripheral library built up over four decades.

Designer: Commodore

Under the hood, this edition upgrades the processor from the AMD Artix XC7A50T to the more powerful XC7A100T, pushing the ceiling from the Commodore 64 Ultimate’s speed to 77MHz. That’s a long way from the original machine’s 1 MHz, though the number was clearly chosen as much for the name as for the engineering. It also connects to modern TVs via HDMI and supports Wi-Fi and USB, covering the practical bases without compromising what the platform does.

The design is where Cyberpunk 2077 fully takes over. The main body is a distressed, weathered yellow with graffiti tags, a brushed-metal plate, and a teal power indicator. The bottom of the shell is smoked-gray translucent, with multicolor LEDs glowing through from beneath. It boots into a custom BASIC 2.0 startup screen themed around Seocho Electronics, a fictional Night City manufacturer, which separates this from a sticker job.

The most compelling piece of the package is the demo. Called “The Shard,” it ships on an exclusive cartridge designed to look like the data chips from Cyberpunk 2077 and was created by Arise, a long-running Polish C64 demo group with a serious reputation in the scene. It’s a non-interactive 8-bit audiovisual experience, not a playable game, with a 24-channel stereo SID soundtrack by chiptune artist LukHash. For anyone who follows the C64 demo scene, Arise and LukHash together is a meaningful combination.

The spiral-bound user guide is another thing entirely. It comes packed with Cyberpunk 2077 lore alongside type-in BASIC programs that you can key into the machine yourself, which is about as 1982 as anything in the box. It’s the kind of detail that only makes sense if you understand what a Commodore 64 actually meant to the people who grew up with one, and it suggests whoever put this together understood the audience fairly well.

This is Commodore’s first franchise hardware collaboration in 68 years of existence. That’s worth pausing on. The Commodore 64 became a cultural landmark not through corporate restraint but through the things people built on it, the games, the demos, the music, the code. The Commodore 77 is a collector’s object, but the BASIC programs in that guide are an open invitation to do something with it rather than just admire it.

The post Cyberpunk 2077 Just Got a Commodore Collab That’s Absurd and Logical first appeared on Yanko Design.

8BitDo Made the N64’s 30th Anniversary Keyboard Every Millennial Wants

Posted on by

Nintendo’s “Funtastic” translucent plastic era tends to provoke a specific kind of nostalgia. The see-through consoles and controllers from the late 1990s made the hardware itself part of the aesthetic, and the ice blue variant of the N64 in particular developed a cult following that outlasted the console’s commercial run by several decades. The transparency wasn’t a gimmick then, and it still doesn’t feel like one now.

The 8BitDo Retro 87 Keyboard in Clear Blue arrives as part of the N64’s 30th anniversary and borrows that translucent blue finish directly. But the design doesn’t stop at the shell. Specific keys carry the actual color palette of the original N64 controller: yellow arrow keys for the C-buttons, blue and green A and B keys, and a red left Ctrl referencing the Start button. For anyone who logged enough hours with that particular controller, the color map reads immediately.

Designer: 8BitDo

The Clear Blue edition uses 8BitDo Cloud Gray Linear mechanical switches, co-developed with HUANO specifically for this version and distinct from the Kailh Box White switches in the Fami and N editions. The keycaps combine dye-sublimation PBT and ABS + PC double-shot construction with a matte UV coating, giving the legends both durability and a finish that suits the translucent shell better than a glossy alternative would.

Underneath, the hot-swappable PCB sits in a top mount configuration, which is a construction choice that tends to provide a softer, more cushioned typing feel compared to bottom mount builds. N-key rollover handles simultaneous inputs without dropping keystrokes. Per-key RGB backlighting runs through the whole board, visible through the translucent shell in a way that a standard opaque case would never allow. The 200-hour wireless battery life on a 2,000 mAh cell is rated for the 2.4 GHz wireless mode, with the adapter included in the box.

Connectivity covers three modes: Bluetooth, 2.4 GHz wireless, and wired USB, the standard trio for a modern keyboard that needs to move between devices and setups. A pair of programmable Super Buttons ships with the keyboard, matching the Clear Blue finish and assignable through 8BitDo Ultimate Software V2. They sit outside the main typing area and can take on whatever function is needed, from media controls to game inputs.

The 87-key tenkeyless layout drops the number pad but keeps the full navigation cluster, which is the practical choice for a keyboard meant to share desk space with other peripherals. The layout doesn’t commit to being purely a gaming board or purely a productivity tool, which suits a keyboard this visually distinctive rather well. Something that references a 30-year-old console doesn’t need to pretend it’s a neutral office accessory.

There’s a certain honesty to the approach here. The Clear Blue colorway isn’t a subtle nod or a distant reference; it’s an explicit callback to a specific era of hardware design that a generation of players grew up with. The translucent shell shows the PCB and internal components through the blue tint, carrying the same logic those original Funtastic consoles did: the inside of the hardware was worth looking at.

The post 8BitDo Made the N64’s 30th Anniversary Keyboard Every Millennial Wants first appeared on Yanko Design.

Most Macro Pads Top Out at 24 Keys, but This Keychron Has 100

Posted on by

Macro pads have always operated on the assumption that a handful of keys is enough. Most offer between six and 24 programmable buttons, which covers a tidy shortcut setup until it doesn’t, when a workflow shifts or a new application joins the rotation. Running out of keys usually means buying a second pad, stacking it beside the first, and accepting that the layout will never quite be what you originally wanted.

The Keychron C100 8K skips that problem entirely by starting with 100. Arranged in a 10-by-10 grid and taking up roughly the footprint of a full-size keyboard, it ships with every key completely unbound. There are no default shortcuts, no preset layouts, and nothing to undo. The entire surface is a blank canvas that users fill through Keychron Launcher, the brand’s browser-based configuration tool.

Designer: Keychron

That software handles everything from key assignments and macro sequences to per-key RGB lighting. Color-coding matters more here than it does on a conventional keyboard, because it’s one of the more practical ways to navigate 100 unmarked keys. A cluster in red for video editing, a row in blue for streaming controls, and a section in green for communication apps turns a uniform grid into something immediately legible.

The switches underneath are Keychron’s own Apex Red linears, which ship installed but aren’t the only option. Hot-swappable sockets mean any MX-style switch fits without soldering, which opens the C100 to the deeper enthusiast habit of collecting and testing different switches across different zones. The transparent ASA-profile keycaps, made from a combination of PBT and polycarbonate, let the per-key RGB glow through without muddying the colors.

An 8,000Hz polling rate sits at the competitive end of the spec sheet, which matters most for gaming where input latency becomes meaningful. That puts the C100 in a different position from most macro pads, which treat speed as secondary to programmability. Having both in the same device means the 100 keys can cover reactive gaming inputs and slower productivity shortcuts with the same responsiveness.

The scale of the grid also changes how the device can be organized in practice. A standard macro pad tends to cluster tightly around a single application, leaving little room for secondary controls. The C100 has enough room to dedicate zones to different software contexts without overlap, so switching between a video editor and a 3D modeling tool doesn’t require reprogramming or layer-switching in the middle of a session.

Connectivity is wired USB Type-C, which removes batteries and wireless latency from the equation. Adjustable feet let users dial in the typing angle, and the plastic body keeps the overall weight manageable for something this large. At 196.65mm x 196.65mm, the C100 forms a perfect square, which makes it geometrically distinctive at a glance and easy to position consistently on a desk.

The post Most Macro Pads Top Out at 24 Keys, but This Keychron Has 100 first appeared on Yanko Design.

Most Keyboards Pick Typing or Gaming, This One Swaps Its Physical Feel

Posted on by

The mechanical keyboard market has quietly split into two distinct camps. On one side, you’ve got premium enthusiast boards built around sound profiles, gasket mounts, and typing feel. On the other, gaming keyboards chasing faster actuation and competitive response. The trouble is that most people don’t belong exclusively to one camp, and keyboards that try to serve both rarely pull off either particularly well.

GlowHint designed the KT75 around exactly that frustration. It’s a 75% Hall Effect magnetic keyboard with 84 keys, built on the premise that you shouldn’t have to choose between a board that feels great on your desk and one that keeps up in a competitive game. That premise goes beyond marketing language; it’s woven into the keyboard’s physical structure.

Designer: GLowHint

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $610 (55% off). Hurry, only 88/100 left!

Traditional mechanical switches use metal contacts that only register two states: pressed or not. Hall Effect switches work differently, using magnetic sensors to continuously track a key stem’s exact position throughout its entire travel. The keyboard always knows how far each key has moved, and that continuous awareness is what enables adjustable actuation, a 0.01mm rapid trigger, and a more responsive experience overall.

Where the KT75 gets physically interesting is the Dual Mount Structure. With the gaskets installed, keystrokes feel more supple and forgiving, with a deeper sound character that suits long typing sessions well. Remove those gaskets and the whole feel sharpens, trading comfort for the firmer, more direct response that competitive gaming demands. It’s a physical configuration, not a menu setting.

That design care carries through the rest of the construction. The KT75 uses a CNC aluminum alloy chassis with an FR4 plate and a six-layer acoustic dampening structure that includes PORON foam, a PET sound pad, and bottom dampening. The switches actuate at just 30gf and bottom out at 50gf, keeping effort light without the mushy feel that lighter switches sometimes produce.

On the gaming side, the KT75 scans every key 16,000 times per second and communicates with the computer at 8,000Hz over a wired connection. Rapid Trigger removes the fixed reset point, so movements as small as 0.01mm register as fresh inputs, and Snap Tap handles conflicting directional inputs by prioritizing the most recent one. Both are especially noticeable in fast-paced shooters where every fraction of a second counts.

For everyday use, the compact 84-key layout trims hand travel without dropping essential keys, and the macro system lets you assign complex commands to a single keystroke. The more interesting layer is depth-based behavior, where a lighter press and a full press can each trigger different actions. It’s a quietly useful feature that makes the keyboard feel more thoughtful than its key count suggests.

GlowHint built a 1.47-inch OLED smart display into the board, capable of showing status information or custom content including GIFs, pixel art, and logos uploaded through the companion software. All of that, along with per-key RGB across 16.8 million colors, key remapping, switch tuning, and macro configuration, is handled through GlowHint Hub. The switches are also hot-swappable, so the board can grow with your preferences.

The KT75 supports three connection modes: 2.4 GHz wireless, Bluetooth, and USB-C wired. The wired connection unlocks the full 8,000Hz polling rate, while 2.4 GHz handles gaming without Bluetooth latency concerns. The dual 4,000mAh batteries are rated up to 95 hours wirelessly, though that drops to around 13 hours with default RGB on, which is the more realistic figure for most sessions.

The through line across all these choices is consistency. GlowHint didn’t try to make the KT75 do everything at once; each decision, from the swappable gasket layers to the magnetic switch technology to the configurable display, adds a specific kind of flexibility that serves a different part of the same day. It ends up as a keyboard that earns its complexity without making you feel it.

Click Here to Buy Now: $299 $610 (55% off). Hurry, only 88/100 left!

The post Most Keyboards Pick Typing or Gaming, This One Swaps Its Physical Feel first appeared on Yanko Design.

DIY Writing Devices Get Expensive Fast, So This One Costs Almost Nothing

Posted on by

The writerdeck movement has one recurring irony: devices built specifically to cut through digital distraction have a tendency to get expensive. Custom keyboards, purpose-built screens, and precision-machined enclosures can push a DIY writing build well past the cost of a regular laptop, which rather defeats the point. The more interesting entries in the space tend to be the ones that solve the accessibility problem, not just the distraction one.

The Whale Writer is an open-source, foldable, DIY writing device designed to be as cheap and portable as possible. It’s the second writerdeck design from its creator, after Bee Write Back, built specifically to address the two most common criticisms of the first: it didn’t fold, and it cost too much. Both problems are solved here through a combination of 3D-printed parts and off-the-shelf electronics.

Designer: Simon Shimel

Folding is what separates this from most of the writerdeck category, where non-folding chassis designs are common. When closed, the Whale Writer flattens into a form that can travel in a bag without a full keyboard and screen sticking out at different angles. A device that sits on a café table can fold up and slide into a jacket pocket for the commute.

Central to the hardware is an unusual display choice. Rather than a backlit LCD, the Whale Writer uses a Waveshare RLCD, a reflective liquid crystal display that reads using ambient light instead of a power-hungry internal backlight. The result is a screen that mimics paper readability and extends battery life considerably, with an ESP32-S3 microcontroller already built into the module so no separate computing board is required.

The keyboard is the most accessible component here: a standard cheap Bluetooth keyboard is fully disassembled, and its PCB, key matrix, and flex cable are repurposed inside a custom 3D-printed chassis. Four printed parts complete the build: a base plate with a print-in-place hinge, a locking plate that holds the keyboard in position, a battery cover, and a screen bezel with three button cutouts.

Power runs from an 18650 battery cell, and builders have two configurations to choose from. The simpler path keeps the keyboard’s original battery running independently from the main cell, requiring no soldering. The more involved route splices the keyboard’s power input directly to the RLCD board’s output, running everything off a single 18650, which means one battery to charge instead of two.

Software is deliberately left open. A basic word processor was built as a functionality test using an AI coding assistant, but the creator frames the Whale Writer as a hardware platform, not a finished product. The ESP32’s onboard Wi-Fi and Bluetooth leave the door open for everything from a minimal plain-text editor to a wireless draft-syncing terminal, depending on what firmware the community eventually writes.

None of what the Whale Writer does is entirely new, and it doesn’t try to suggest otherwise. The category already knows what it’s supposed to be: a device that only lets you write, without anything else competing for the same moment. What this build adds to that premise is a sincere attempt to make the experience available to people who want it but have been priced out of building one.

The post DIY Writing Devices Get Expensive Fast, So This One Costs Almost Nothing first appeared on Yanko Design.