Vortex's Wireless Take On the Model M Keyboard: Cover Band Or New Legend? (ofb.biz)
- Reference: 0178555134
- News link: https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/25/08/03/1953207/vortexs-wireless-take-on-the-model-m-keyboard-cover-band-or-new-legend
- Source link: https://reviews.ofb.biz/sa1337
> The result is a unique keyboard with one foot in two different decades... Let's call it the Vortex M for simplicity's sake.
>
> I first became aware of it on a Facebook ad and was immediately fascinated. It looked so close to the original Model M, I wondered if someone else had gotten access to an original mold and was trying [3]Unicomp's game . No, they've just managed to copy the aesthetic to a nearly uncanny level... The Vortex M eschews the normal eye candy we expect on modern keyboards and attempts the closest duplication of IBM's staid early PC design sensibility I can imagine. Off-white, rugged and absolutely no frills of lighting. If you're looking for cutesy, forget it.
>
> The keyboard's casing has the same highly textured plastic that looks and feels instantly familiar to anyone who spent too many hours interacting with early PCs. Model M to a tee. The keycaps likewise look the part... The Vortex M looks like a Model M. Its build quality feels like a Model M. But one key press and it becomes clear this is a different beast. Underneath the Model M-styled skin, Vortex's keyboard is a very modern design — everything the Unicomp is not. For our test, Vortex provided a keyboard with Cherry MX Blues, the classic clicky option the company and I both thought would best match up against Model M's buckling springs...
>
> Vortex's product configurator offers a variety of common and less common Cherry and Gateron options, if you want to get a different sort of feel in lieu of the clicky I tested. This is possible with an MX switch-style keyboard and impossible with buckling springs with their one option of bold clicky . Not only can this be done when ordering, but also later on, thanks to hot swap switches that allow changes without soldering. Following the modern premium board theme, Vortex paired high end switches with a gasket mount and foam padding. The combination provides a solid feeling, sound dampened typing experience. Ironically, though, for a keyboard that apes the design of perhaps the loudest keyboard on the market today, the Vortex M is (relatively) quiet even with the clicky Blues on tap...
The review's highlights:
"The keyboard is exquisitely crafted to look like the IBM original... "
"The Vortex M supports connecting to three different devices via Bluetooth, along with a 2.4 GHz receiver and a USB Type-C wired connection. "
There's a full complement of media hot keys — "including an emoji key ala recent Macs. "
"For repetitive tasks, the keyboard is programmable with macros... And unlike Unicomp's boards, Vortex's can switch between PC and Mac layouts with the press of a hotkey."
The keyboard uses AA batteries rather than having a built-in rechargeable battery
The keyboard ultimately gave the reviewer some cognitive dissonance. "How am I typing on a Model M and not making a racket...?"
"Pricing varies based on options, but as tested, it clocked in at $154. That's the low end of the 'premium' market and this is an exceptional board for that price."
[1] https://reviews.ofb.biz/sa1337
[2] https://www.slashdot.org/~uninet
[3] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/08/05/29/1334258/review-of-the-model-m-inspired-unicomp-customizer-keyboard
Microsoft Natural for me (Score:1)
My favourite keyboard is the Microsoft Natural 4000.
It has wonderful feeling keys, and it's a split keyboard to give your wrists a break over straight keyboards.
And there are several do-nothing keys across the top that can be easily programmed to do whatever you want with a short script that calls xdotool (or ydotool if you're using wayland).
Nicest keyboard ever, in my opinion. Unfortunately, also no longer available.
I don't know what I'll do if my current keyboard quits. Does anyone still make a good alt
Re: (Score:1)
Did you look at the price on that?
$399.99 plus $271 shipping charge.
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I recommend this one, too. I just wrote a longing comment why I like it and what the drawbacks are compared to the MS 4000.
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$271 shipping charge.
Thanks Trump.
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I'm getting $389.99 w/free shipping though. Might be your location?
Re: Microsoft Natural for me (Score:2)
Where are you? My quoted shipping price was $8.94, and a used (not refurbished) price of about $120.
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Yeah it's quite the wasteland out there, sadly. PC Mag did a recent rreview of ergonomic keyboards on the market now, and none of the ones they reviewed looked any good to me. Chiclet key caps and hardly any key travel. Sigh.
There's a split keyboard from a company called Meetion. They want a pretty penny for it. A few reviews say it's favorable to the MS Natural. Wireless only unfortunately.
My father also loves the MS natural keyboard and he has two or three spares in boxes that he bought a few years
Re: (Score:2)
I was a big fan of the 4000 and even stocked up on used replacements.
I also still have a shrink wrapped original MS Natural keyboard in storage.
Last year I switched to the mechanical Perixx Periboard 835 / 535 and am not
looking back:
[1]https://de.perixx.com/collecti... [perixx.com]
It has one major "flaw" - the position of the F6 key is on the left compared to the 4000's right,
which took a while to get used to. (Good luck trying to find an exact replacement for the 4000)
The other flaw is that in the backlit one, the F-Key n
[1] https://de.perixx.com/collections/ergonomic-keyboards/products/periboard-835
Neither. (Score:4, Insightful)
There isn't even a word for a band that dresses up to look like KISS but only plays classical music.
The defining attribute of the Model M was the switches. This looking like a Model M is completely missing the point. The moment you put in different switches, you've got a keyboard that is just like every other keyboard that has Cherry switches: not a Model M.
Verdict: not a cover band. Not a legend. JAMK. Just Another Mechanical Keyboard.
Real Model M are being made (Score:3)
Vortex has been around for a while, so I think it unlikely that they wouldn't know that real Model M keyboards -- with real buckling springs -- are still being made.
[1]Unicomp Mini M [pckeyboard.com] is a relatively new remake of the classic IBM Model M SSK ("Space Saving Keyboard").
Unicomp is the company that took over Lexmarks old tooling, which the latter had been using to build Model M keyboards for IBM.
So the switches are the same as they have always been. Larger 101-key and 122-key keyboards also exist.
[1] https://www.pckeyboard.com/page/product/MINI_M
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The article does mention Unicomp.
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i concur, i bought 2 of them and the buckling springs where great and the build was rock solid, but the circuit started to act funny pretty soon on both units, generating random inputs or simply not working.
they were still in warranty but sending them back to the us was too much of a hassle, specially considering that this seemed a systemic failure and any replacement units would probably do the same a couple of months down the line. so i trashed them, realizing that the era of model-m keyboards was definit
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I had the same issue with one of their keyboards. It died within warranty but when they got the keyboard they said a spill caused the damage, which was completely untrue. But they insisted and sent it back to me without repairing it. So I decided to stick with only old stock Model Ms from now on. They are actually fun to refurbish and retrobrite.
Re: Real Model M are being made (Score:2)
Me too. After fifteen years of use, the outermost trace (left line of the keyboard) broke, rendering the Unicomp M junk. I had to switch to the chiclet keyboards they issue at work. Three days later I came down with tendonitis. So now I have a base Cherry Brown KC MX.
And? (Score:2)
A retro-inspired keyboard with Cherry MX Blue.
That's nice. Been done to death.
Nothing new to see here.
Then it's not the same (Score:3)
If it doesn't have the original style of guts then it isn't the same thing.
The feel is what's important, not the look. And, BTW "The Vortex M eschews the normal eye candy we expect on modern keyboards" is bullshit. I expect that I can buy a modern (in production, recently designed) keyboard as plain or as fancy as I want, and in fact I can.
No buckling spring, = not model M / NT (Score:2)
No buckling spring, = not model M / NT
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And no number pad...
Re: No buckling spring, = not model M / NT (Score:3)
I wouldn't pay $20 for a keyboard without a numeric pad. Much less what these cost.
I won't TYPE on a keyboard with no numpad.
I'll stay with my machine gun Unicomp 104 key and suffer the cord.
Another M clone... Just a few years too late. (Score:1)
Better alternatives already in the market. Split, Columnar keyboards are the way to go. Kyria, Ergodox, Glove 80 to start, the list is long.
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I'm sure those keyboards are great for some crowd, but it's not the Model M crowd and trolling by pretending the model m crowd's preferences are obsolete and your preferences are better is unwelcome. Grow up.
Batteries? (Score:2)
Anyone know if it needs batteries while plugged into USB-C?
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No, it does not -- if it is plugged in with USB-C, it works just like a regular wired keyboard.
That is *NOT* where Caps Lock goes! (Score:3)
Caps Lock is the Least Frequently Used key on any planet unless you're a certain politician with a X account. The key to the left of "A" (above "Shift") needs to be CTRL. The key below "Shift" is "Alt". I am old and stuck in my ways and my wrists can't do 90 degree angles, so I will not accept anything else. Thank you for your vote.
Re: That is *NOT* where Caps Lock goes! (Score:2)
Then isn't it great for you that customizable keyboards exist? That said, this is indeed the traditional position for caps lock on a keyboard.
Different strokes . . .
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That was Shift-lock. Caps-lock is more modern.
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The model F AT, which immediately preceded the model M, had control next to A. So did the model F XT before it. I think the case can be made that the traditional position for control on a computer keyboard was on the home row and capslock was on the bottom.
While key codes can be remapped, it's pretty much impossible to get the correct keycaps to swap control and capslock. The ellipse model F is one of the only ones I know of.
FFS, have we abandoned actual summaries? (Score:2)
I can't understand why the "editor" accepted a submission that was (apparently) the entire body of the review of this keyboard?
Great idea but (Score:2)
I don’t care to live in the past. Yes, that was a great keyboard but having switched to keyboards with ergonomic layouts (e.g. the Microsoft Natural), there is no way I’d go back to a linear keyboard. I wish manufacturers would build ergonomic versions of that IBM keyboard. That would be something. I’ve seen a few attempts but none of them felt as “natural” as the MS one, or even the one from Logitech
I have over 100 Model M keyboards (Score:2)
I have over 100 Model M keyboards in my collection - I have been collecting them since my early teens. Yeah, I posted about this on some other R site as well, so pics and it did happen. This Vortex keyboard it’s not a Model M. It looks like one, but is more of a nod to stripped down modern creations that look like our old favorites but in reality are just some copy wishing it could be as good as the original.
Cherry Blue key switches get points, barely, because they are precisely what the model M is
Model F (Score:3)
Was even better. Probably the best keyboard to ever be paired with a computer.
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I had an original Model M many years ago. However, I don't get this line from the article: "My desk isn't large enough to easily accommodate the original Model M".
What sort of tiny ass desk do you have? The M is solid and heavy but it's not significantly bigger than today's shit keyboards.
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IDK how that can be. It's literally the "AT-sized" (standard) keyboard.
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> I had an original Model M many years ago. However, I don't get this line from the article: "My desk isn't large enough to easily accommodate the original Model M".
> What sort of tiny ass desk do you have? The M is solid and heavy but it's not significantly bigger than today's shit keyboards.
Obviously someone who hasn't seen the shrinkflation that modern mechanical keyboards have gone through. I mean, you can easily find keyboards that are anywhere from 50%-90% of a full size keyboard, with ones in the 60-70%
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> Finding a full size mechanical keyboard is actually a surprisingly difficult challenge these days. Sure you can get them, but they're nowhere near as many options for them and many product lines simply don't have them.
It's not even slightly difficult. Just search for 101-key or 104-key keyboards.
> People seem to love the strange key layouts caused when you try to mask the function keys and navigation keys into just the number and letter key areas.
I just bought a 75% keyboard on purpose. It drops the number pad and does shove the remaining keys together. However, it has fkeys. Unless you actually need the number pad, it's much better for gaming because it allows you to use that space for mousing. I also have multiple 104 key keyboards.
What's relatively hard to find now is wired keyboards with nifty features, at least without finding lots of wireless ones. Everyone seems to
Re: (Score:2)
> It's not even slightly difficult. Just search for 101-key or 104-key keyboards.
While it's not hard to find a 100% somewhere, they've become much less common for mechanical keyboards. I just checked the most recent two dozen keyboard releases on drop. Not a single 100 (or larger) in the lot. Mostly TKL, with some 60s, a couple 75s, and a plank kit.
If you don't want just any 100%, and instead want certain less common key switches or a specific theme or other less common features, it can be hard to find a 100% that has them.
Re: Model F (Score:2)
10-keyless are all the rage these days. Kids donâ(TM)t like numpads apparently. Looking at the article this remake looks to be one.
Re: Model F (Score:2)
I hate numeric keypads on laptops, because it pushes the home keys off-center by a couple inches... I tend to buy smaller (12.1-13") laptops because of that preference.
Re: Model F (Score:2)
Then why did you buy a big imitation model M USB keyboard ?
Re: (Score:3)
Slashdot ran [1]a story about new Model F models back in 2023 [slashdot.org]...
[1] https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/23/04/05/2039244/new-models-of-ibm-model-f-keyboard-mark-ii-incoming
Re: (Score:2)
Are they any good? Certainly not cheap. I would have got a Unicomp one if they still did Japanese layout. These new Model F ones do have JIS layout, but I've never actually used a Model F keyboard or these, so it's a fair chunk of change for an unknown quantity.
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I have two refurbished Model Fs in service in my house right now. Sweet, sweet, clickety clack.
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Yeah, control key in the right place, a key design for modifiers that made it harder to push them accidentally, numeric keypad merged with the directional (hence NumLk), it was a thing of beauty before you even got to the feel.
Meanwhile, this is... spam. Seriously. the garbage keyboard they're promoting is not even based on the standard Model M - while IBM did make a version without the numeric keypad, it wasn't very popular. And virtually every modern keyboard is based on the actual Model M layout using "
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> What the ever loving fuck persuaded Slashdot's editors obvious spam should be on the front page?
This has been going on since they bought the site.
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If you've spent any time on the Chyrosran22 Youtube channel you'll find IBM's beamspring switch keyboards have better feel than Model Fs. The Model Fs were a cost-reduced version of the beamspring, like the Model Ms were a cost-reduced version of the Model F.
Aside from the higher pitch sound of the Model F over the M, a benefit of Fs is their capacitance design allows true n-key rollover whereas Ms only have 2-key rollover. But Model Fs are more finicky of electrical ground connections.
Model M2 (Score:2)
> Was even better. Probably the best keyboard to ever be paired with a computer.
I was partial to the M2 which was lighter and quieter than the M whilst maintaining a good feel. I still have my Model M but it takes up so much desk real estate there isn't much room for anything else.
Still I think if a tank ran over my Model M there wouldn't be much damage to the tank, with the added bonus of if anyone has a problem with the keyboard being so loud, a good bang on their head with the M silences any complaints. That's why the M is the choice of keyboard worriers everywhere.