- Jun 3, 2011
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i'm gonna use stock photos since my camera suxx.
I just got my CODE keyboard from WASD keyboards. This is a tenkelyess mechanical kb with cherry mx clear switches.
The kb is quite heavy thanks to the soldered metal plate holding the cherry switches. The body is stiff and doesn't twist at all, and its very stable even when using the extender feet - which i did once for and plan to do no more, since the kb is quite thick and i like them flat.
The thickeness of the kb is imposing; i like them thinner, and i felt awkward having to change my hand position to type, but its nothing dramatic, a matter of a couple millimetres - adapting to it should be easy.
The switches are absolutely awesome. I have been told these are stiffer browns, but stiff is not the adjective i would use; they feel just perfect to me - the right resistance and a very light push-back force.
These are called quiet switches, but they do make a bit of .. well, i can only describe it as "clicking" noise. Not loud, not annoying, quite pleasant actually.
I would still take a IBM buckling spring keyboard for typing, but there is no comparison to a membrane switch, even more so an old membrane switch - while the keyboard i'm typing on now is like "punching" with my fingertips a concrete wall, the mx clears feel like a cushion that is willing to accept both slight and strong force.
I have previously had a mx sampler with red/black/brown/blue, and they all felt too soft(black included), with the reds feeling dangerously mushy. I can imagine that having a single switch to test doesnt give the same feeling as a full board, but no switch has felt as good as this one.
The spacebar key is somewhat stiffer and clunkeir than the other keys - the stiffer-ness is appreciated, but the creakiness is not; the long shift key is also slightly creaky, which is a known issue on CODE kbs and i would be infuriated if not for the fact that i have never used that key ever in my life (ever and more ever - its the stupidest key ever; add some more evers).
The rest of the keys are perfect. The keyboard is backlity, which means the letters etching are transparent, and the light shines through both the etchings and the bottom of the board.
As other mechanicals, there is quite a bit of spacing between the keys
this worries me, because i'm kinda dirty with my kbs and likely to get crumbs, ash and hair in it; however, you do get a keycap puller and this kb should be substantially easier to clean that a rubber-dome.
I can't speak for the quality of the keycaps - as i have read, they take the "shine" which is considered bad (every kb ever, so), but they feel good under my fingers.
The backlight has 7 levels of brightness, but the last 4 are unusable unless you are blind. 1 is dim, 2 is bright, 3 is "read the keys perfectly under complete darkness", 4 onwards the bleed from the plate (which is white and reflects quite a lot of light) becomes stronger than the light from the keys.
This kb has no fancy light patterns like some corsairs do.
There is a micro-USB to USB (and PS/2 converter attached) cable which hooks into one of three grooves underneat the kb for cable routing, but it has a quite feeble hold on the cable. the cable itself is quite short and i'm not crazy about the micro-USB interface either; imho, if you are so paranoid about breaking your keyboard cable, you should build a better keyboard cable, but whatever.
ALso, AFAIk (will investigate further soon) backlighting only works under USB,
****EDIT: backlight works perfectly fine under PS/2****
while the NKRO works under PS/2 (you still get 6KRO under USB, and the various function keys are not part of the 6, so basically the same deal). I was fiddling with the adapter before i started fiddling with the switches so im not 100% sure, but i will report later.
I have some issue with running USB since the poll rate is what it is while PS/2 has interrupts, and i'd rather have that than backlighting; but really i'd like both.
Speaking of, the back has a set of 6 "micro-switches" which allow you to select layouts, such as colemak or dvorak, allow you to have the windows
key disabled, change shift and ctrl, and so on. None of this is useful if you are a gamer (which is what a tenkeyless is made for, after all) since you will already have these disabled anyway.
The form factor is imho, perfect - im happy i can finally play without bumping my mouse into the kb all the time; the key size is excellent and doesnt feel like a "micro".
Time for the final score
******************************************************
Would i recommend this keyboard ?
First off, this was *way* expensive to get in europe; sixty bucks shipping, another sixty import charges (omfg), and $150 base price make this a very expensive keyboard at £155 / $270. Its also a US layout one but thats not a biggie for me.
They key switches feel superb;
The build quality is high but not perfect.
This kb lacks things which are superfulous, imho. And has the things i really need. For $150, you should buy one today.
For nearly $300, maybe not. Take a brown cherry kb and if it feels soft, mod it with $10 worth of springs.
If you are rich (like me, huehue) and want to try the cherry mx clear FOR SCIENCE!, then go ahead and buy this. The feeling of typing on this is nearly as good as the ol' buckling spring, and you get all the features and form factor of a modern gaming kb.
What concerns me the most is the ergonomics; i have to admit this was an oversight on my part, i didnt realise i rest my wrist on the bottom edge of the keyboard and it will take me a short while to adapt to having my hands free-floating instead. I'm not worried about accidental keypresses since the amazing mx clear won't do that anyway.
Jury's out; for now, i'll give this a 8/10, with the score going to 7 or raising to 9 in a month or so. The MX Clear need to replace Browns everywhere, in my opinion.
For the rest, the kb is good, but expensive and there isn't much choice.
ADDENDUM
have been using the kb for a while now, and here are my impressions.
1) the stability is great. i didn't notice quite as much at first but between the grip of the gummed feet and the weight, the kb doesn't move no matter how heavy handed you are - this is defo a +1
2) the keys will tire you after many hours of gaming. rather than tiring quicker, you will feel your hands more tired, like giving your fingers a workout.
I hesitate to say this is bad. They keys feel very responsive and there is a big difference between typing (downwards strokes require much less effort) and prolonged pressing.
Truth is that this is a coding keyboard - where a minute typo can kill lines of code, you want a stiff kb where each keypress is 100% accurate. Using this as a gaming kb is really for the hardcore-minded gamer.
I still have the occasional typo, but that is due to my being a horribad typist and not the kb's fault, such as accidental keypresses.
3) I am quickly getting used to the difference in ergonomics - the higher keys and the lack of a wristrest; not that i rest my wrist on it anyway, but i keep a part of my palm in contact w the wristrest and that gives me a measure of where the keys are proportional to that.
I am satisfied with my purchase and i'm convinced things will only get better and better.
I stand by the recommendation to get it at $150, but not at $270. If you are in europe, just get a friend to buy it and ship it over.
I just got my CODE keyboard from WASD keyboards. This is a tenkelyess mechanical kb with cherry mx clear switches.
The kb is quite heavy thanks to the soldered metal plate holding the cherry switches. The body is stiff and doesn't twist at all, and its very stable even when using the extender feet - which i did once for and plan to do no more, since the kb is quite thick and i like them flat.
The thickeness of the kb is imposing; i like them thinner, and i felt awkward having to change my hand position to type, but its nothing dramatic, a matter of a couple millimetres - adapting to it should be easy.
The switches are absolutely awesome. I have been told these are stiffer browns, but stiff is not the adjective i would use; they feel just perfect to me - the right resistance and a very light push-back force.
These are called quiet switches, but they do make a bit of .. well, i can only describe it as "clicking" noise. Not loud, not annoying, quite pleasant actually.
I would still take a IBM buckling spring keyboard for typing, but there is no comparison to a membrane switch, even more so an old membrane switch - while the keyboard i'm typing on now is like "punching" with my fingertips a concrete wall, the mx clears feel like a cushion that is willing to accept both slight and strong force.
I have previously had a mx sampler with red/black/brown/blue, and they all felt too soft(black included), with the reds feeling dangerously mushy. I can imagine that having a single switch to test doesnt give the same feeling as a full board, but no switch has felt as good as this one.
The spacebar key is somewhat stiffer and clunkeir than the other keys - the stiffer-ness is appreciated, but the creakiness is not; the long shift key is also slightly creaky, which is a known issue on CODE kbs and i would be infuriated if not for the fact that i have never used that key ever in my life (ever and more ever - its the stupidest key ever; add some more evers).
The rest of the keys are perfect. The keyboard is backlity, which means the letters etching are transparent, and the light shines through both the etchings and the bottom of the board.
As other mechanicals, there is quite a bit of spacing between the keys
this worries me, because i'm kinda dirty with my kbs and likely to get crumbs, ash and hair in it; however, you do get a keycap puller and this kb should be substantially easier to clean that a rubber-dome.
I can't speak for the quality of the keycaps - as i have read, they take the "shine" which is considered bad (every kb ever, so), but they feel good under my fingers.
The backlight has 7 levels of brightness, but the last 4 are unusable unless you are blind. 1 is dim, 2 is bright, 3 is "read the keys perfectly under complete darkness", 4 onwards the bleed from the plate (which is white and reflects quite a lot of light) becomes stronger than the light from the keys.
This kb has no fancy light patterns like some corsairs do.
There is a micro-USB to USB (and PS/2 converter attached) cable which hooks into one of three grooves underneat the kb for cable routing, but it has a quite feeble hold on the cable. the cable itself is quite short and i'm not crazy about the micro-USB interface either; imho, if you are so paranoid about breaking your keyboard cable, you should build a better keyboard cable, but whatever.
ALso, AFAIk (will investigate further soon) backlighting only works under USB,
****EDIT: backlight works perfectly fine under PS/2****
while the NKRO works under PS/2 (you still get 6KRO under USB, and the various function keys are not part of the 6, so basically the same deal). I was fiddling with the adapter before i started fiddling with the switches so im not 100% sure, but i will report later.
I have some issue with running USB since the poll rate is what it is while PS/2 has interrupts, and i'd rather have that than backlighting; but really i'd like both.
Speaking of, the back has a set of 6 "micro-switches" which allow you to select layouts, such as colemak or dvorak, allow you to have the windows
key disabled, change shift and ctrl, and so on. None of this is useful if you are a gamer (which is what a tenkeyless is made for, after all) since you will already have these disabled anyway.
The form factor is imho, perfect - im happy i can finally play without bumping my mouse into the kb all the time; the key size is excellent and doesnt feel like a "micro".
Time for the final score
******************************************************
Would i recommend this keyboard ?
First off, this was *way* expensive to get in europe; sixty bucks shipping, another sixty import charges (omfg), and $150 base price make this a very expensive keyboard at £155 / $270. Its also a US layout one but thats not a biggie for me.
They key switches feel superb;
The build quality is high but not perfect.
This kb lacks things which are superfulous, imho. And has the things i really need. For $150, you should buy one today.
For nearly $300, maybe not. Take a brown cherry kb and if it feels soft, mod it with $10 worth of springs.
If you are rich (like me, huehue) and want to try the cherry mx clear FOR SCIENCE!, then go ahead and buy this. The feeling of typing on this is nearly as good as the ol' buckling spring, and you get all the features and form factor of a modern gaming kb.
What concerns me the most is the ergonomics; i have to admit this was an oversight on my part, i didnt realise i rest my wrist on the bottom edge of the keyboard and it will take me a short while to adapt to having my hands free-floating instead. I'm not worried about accidental keypresses since the amazing mx clear won't do that anyway.
Jury's out; for now, i'll give this a 8/10, with the score going to 7 or raising to 9 in a month or so. The MX Clear need to replace Browns everywhere, in my opinion.
For the rest, the kb is good, but expensive and there isn't much choice.
ADDENDUM
have been using the kb for a while now, and here are my impressions.
1) the stability is great. i didn't notice quite as much at first but between the grip of the gummed feet and the weight, the kb doesn't move no matter how heavy handed you are - this is defo a +1
2) the keys will tire you after many hours of gaming. rather than tiring quicker, you will feel your hands more tired, like giving your fingers a workout.
I hesitate to say this is bad. They keys feel very responsive and there is a big difference between typing (downwards strokes require much less effort) and prolonged pressing.
Truth is that this is a coding keyboard - where a minute typo can kill lines of code, you want a stiff kb where each keypress is 100% accurate. Using this as a gaming kb is really for the hardcore-minded gamer.
I still have the occasional typo, but that is due to my being a horribad typist and not the kb's fault, such as accidental keypresses.
3) I am quickly getting used to the difference in ergonomics - the higher keys and the lack of a wristrest; not that i rest my wrist on it anyway, but i keep a part of my palm in contact w the wristrest and that gives me a measure of where the keys are proportional to that.
I am satisfied with my purchase and i'm convinced things will only get better and better.
I stand by the recommendation to get it at $150, but not at $270. If you are in europe, just get a friend to buy it and ship it over.
Last edited:
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