More Bling! Bling!

Since I still had some additional orange keycaps, I decided to spice up the Realforce 86U. See which one you prefer. 

Also bought an extra red ESC key from some forumer in VR-Zone. Wanted to use it on the Leopold but didn't find it as nice. Decided to use it on the Realforce instead and it looks great.

My first attempt. This is as minimum as I wanted it to be.

My second attempt. Added to both the PAGEUP/PAGEDOWN keys. Nice.

My third attempt. This makes it too busy. Looks nice in the picture but in real life, not so great.

My fourth attempt. Still find something amiss. Can't put my fingers on it. It somehow feels unbalanced.

Finally decided to keep my second attempt. It looks great. A friend commented as much. And it has a nice balance to the colours without making it too busy.

So what do you think? Which one do you like best? Any other keys you would like me to change to the orange keycaps?

Bling! Bling!

So I decided to have some fun with the Leopold FC660C keyboard. Bought these keycaps second hand. It is really meant for the Topre Realforce keyboards and as you can see I did not replace all the keys. Primarily for aesthetic reasons and second, because not all the keys are an exact match.

It cost me a bomb but I really did not want to wait for shipping for a new one and it would have been slightly more expensive anyway. In any case these has never been used before and are practically brand new. So why orange? Because it's the only colour available. After putting them in, I actually liked the orange keycaps on the black chassis. My first preference was blue on black or white keycaps on black but those were not available.

Primary purpose is to replace the original black keycaps which was very hard for me to see with the black on black. Yes, yes. You are supposed to be touch typing and whether you see the keys are irrelevant but I wanted to spice things up a bit.

Now it's simply bright and colourful.

Not good for someone my age but then again who cares. I like it.

It also changes the feel while typing. I prefer the feel of the original keys. This one makes it feel more like the Topre Realforce. Actually it feels somewhere in between the original Leopold keycaps and the Topre Realforce. Still very good to type on though so it's not a deal breaker.

So there you have it.

UPDATE 1 : I think I'm slowly falling in love with this keyboard. The looks. The feel. Yes. Even the feel I'm slowly taken by. Somehow I type faster on these than on the original keys. Maybe because I can see the keys better with the orange keycaps lol. I'm starting to feel that this feels more like the original keycaps instead and not like the Realforce.

The Leopold has always been my favourite. This modification makes it even better.

Another Day Another Keyboard

Bought myself a second hand Realforce 86U Topre Based Keyboard today. I am typing this post with it. As per usual with some second hand items, this one seem to have a slight defect. Maybe not so slight. The spacebar unlike the rest of the keys is very clicky on the right hand side. Very loud. Louder than my Cherry MX Blues. Damn irritating. Anybody know how to rectify this?

First impressions are that this feels like a Topre keyboard (well...duh!) but I find myself liking the feel of the Leopold FC660C keys more. Maybe I have to give myself some more time with it.

Some of you may be asking why get this when I already have the Leopold FC660C. Well, first this has the usual standard layout that I am familiar with so my typing speed is faster. I don't miss the numpad. Also it is of a good size and don't feel as cramped as the Leopold. The keys on this are quite alright except for that damn spacebar.

Will give you more impressions later after I've spent more time with it.

P.S. That spacebar is damn irritating...

UPDATE 1 : This keyboard is about a year old. As a result the keys are not as stiff as the newly bought Leopold. In a way it's nicer to type on but the bottoming out is softer on the Leopold whereas here it is a little bit harder. So softer on the entry but harder on the landing.

UPDATE 2 : I was initially worried about the variable weighted keys but so far this has not been a deal breaker.

UPDATE 3 : Looking through the forums and googling for more information on "rattling spacebar" I find that this is a common problem on Topre keyboards. Other keyboards also have this problem but you don't seem to notice them as much because of their clicky nature. Mine seems to be more obvious because the "rattling" is not uniform throughout the length of the spacebar and seems to only occur on the right hand side. The middle and left hand side seems to be quite ok. I guess I just have to live with it. Funny thing is that the Leopold does not seem to have this problem. Its spacebar is consistent and does not stand out over the other keys.

Leopold FC660C Topre Keyboard

The Leopold FC660C Topre Keyboard is here. I'm typing this post with it.

First impressions are that the keys have a very nice feeling to them. Very unlike the Unicomp Classic 104 Buckling Springs or the Cherry MX keys. These are a lot quieter. I was very much afraid that these would feel like a rubber dome (a very expensive one at that) but I can say for sure that it is definitely not. It has a very soft feel when bottoming out. So unlike the Cherry MX keys which can get quite hard.

It's too early to say if these are better than the Buckling Springs. All I can say right now is that they are different. Delightfully so. And the sound when I'm typing and the feel on the fingers are very very nice. Its like your fingers are being massaged. I don't know how else to put it. One of the nicest keyboards to type on. I think I can get addicted to this just like I am with the Buckling Springs but I think I'm still more addicted to the Buckling Springs due to that clickety clack. This one is more understated. More finesse.

There are 2 things which I immediately notice when typing. First, the lettering on the keys are quite hard to see due to the gold(?) lettering on the black chassis. Second, this is a very small keyboard. I am surprised by how small it is although this has normal sized keys. Some of the common keys I'm used to like HOME/END are missing. They can be triggered with some combination of the FN key. This will definitely take some getting use to.

Wish me luck!

P.S. I was really afraid that this would be a waste of money especially after how smitten I was by the Unicomp Buckling Springs. Fortunately these are equally as nice.

Recommended! (but not for the price)

UPDATE 1 : I still type faster on the Buckling Springs. I guess this is partly due to my unfamiliarity with the keyboard arrangement here. It also feels more cramped due to its small size even though this has normal sized keys. Psychological maybe? This is compounded by that gold lettering on the keys which are quite light and which makes them even harder to see.

UPDATE 2 : I just realised something. I know why I type faster on the Buckling Springs (other than my familiarity with its standard layout). Due to the higher actuation required to type, I don't really bottom out because the high tactile point makes me release the keys earlier which makes for a much faster typing speed.

UPDATE 3 : I'm slowly adjusting to the Leopold FC660C. I'm still adjusting to the arrangement of the keys but I'm slowly getting use to it. I'm not making as many mistakes now. Actually I type slower than both the Unicomp Buckling Springs and the Armageddon Cherry MX Blues but not that much slower. I find it a lot more pleasurable to type on the Leopold.

UPDATE 4 : Am I allowed to change my mind? I'm beginning to prefer the Topre based Leopold now over the Unicomp Buckling Springs. Looks like the Unicomp will have to find itself a new home. I'm keeping the Armageddon because those have backlit keys which I need when gaming in the dark although typing-wise I prefer the Unicomp over it.

Actually I find all 3 keyboards a pleasure to use. All have their own unique take on the typing experience and I can't say that one is more worse off than the other, They are just different and I can live with any of them to be honest. Of course I still have my preference and right now it is firmly with the Leopold. Although I type fastest and most accurately on the Unicomp, the slower Leopold still suits me fine because I'm not a fast typist anyway.

Unicomp Classic 104 Buckling Spring

My current keyboard is a Cherry MX Blue keyboard from a local company called Armageddon. It has been serving me well and I love its clickiness. However I was told that nothing beats the original IBM Model M keyboard when it comes to tactile and clicky keyboards. These keyboards last very long and are rated to last way longer than the average PC.

So thus began my hunt for one. However they are very hard to find as they are no longer manufactured. Those that do sell are asking for high prices that I'm just not willing to pay. I find out that the original design was bought by a group of ex-IBM engineers who set up a company called Unicomp. They currently manufacture the design as the Unicomp Classic 104 Buckling Spring. I've managed to grab one such keyboard from a forumer in VR-Zone. Instead of the traditional beige, this comes in a black chassis with grey keys. The grey keys makes it harder to see but boy do I love the colour scheme. I think it looks fantastic. Better than the beige or the white keys on black chassis that I saw on the Unicomp website.

I thought these would be harder to type on as I heard that they go deeper and has a higher actuation. I guess I'm just a heavy typist because this suits me perfectly. I'm actually typing this post with it. Great tactile feedback. Initial impressions seems to be that I type on this better than on the Cherry MX Blues. Never thought that would be possible as I'm so used to the Blues. Like a duck takes to water. Strangely I thought this would be louder than the Cherry MX Blues but because the tone is deeper I find the Blues to be louder as they have a higher pitch.

So the hype over these keyboards is justified as far as I'm concerned. One of my better purchases.

UPDATE 1 : Hmm...maybe I spoke too soon. This do sound louder when typed hard and fast.

UPDATE 2 : I wish this keyboard is backlit like the Armageddon. I like typing and playing games in the dark. But then again the original IBM Model M never had a backlit option (I think) and I don't think this ever will too. Looks like the Armageddon Stealth Raptor is here to stay.

Day 2 on the Chromebook

I like the convenience of just grabbing hold of the HP and start doing work almost immediately. It starts up within literally seconds. Love that.

Almost as immediately I begin to miss the back lighting on my other keyboards. Really wish this HP had one. I also miss terribly the dedicated HOME/END/DELETE/PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN keys. I never realise that I depend on them so much that I miss them on the HP. At the rate I'm going I suspect I might be Chromiuing (is that a word?) away on my other notebook with its more conventional keyboard arrangement. Am I too old to adapt?

Never thought I'd say this. But I usually have a strong threshold for cheap devices with their cheap ass screen and poor keyboards. What I couldn't tolerate is their poor performance and usually that is related to their poor storage speeds. Usually I would just put in an SSD in them and watch them fly.

I'm very comfortable around the Chrome browser so my problems seems to be mostly hardware-related. I'm beginning to see the rationale for better hardware for Chromebooks. You can only build something so cheap. The Chromebook Pixel would too be expensive. Maybe something more in the middle? I've yet to see one. Right now it seems to be 2 extremes. One is too expensive and the other is too hardware crippled (I'm not talking of performance here which is fine). But I guess it would be a harder sell since cheap always wins and the middle of the line would be more for those who are already familiar with Chromebooks and can live with them but just want something better hardware-wise.

But are there many of us? I guess when the cheap Chromebooks start flooding the low-end and people begin to get comfortable with them, there will be some (like me) who will start clamoring for better hardware. I wonder if we have reached that mass yet. Hopefully there will be 1 or 2 manufacturers who will build such a device to test the viability of that market.

Is it there yet?

It's here! It's here! The HP Chromebook 14 in Snow White is here!

The HP Chromebook 14 is finally here! I'm typing this post with it right now.

Shipping from BHPhotoVideo in the US to Singapore took less than 4 days! I'm impressed. I can really recommend them although shipping is incredibly expensive and I got hit by VAT which makes it a double whammy!

Out of the box the down cursor key came loose and I'm trying very hard to get it back into place. Not very successful though. Still trying.

First impressions are the build quality is ok. Feels plasticky on the inside but I've no complaints about the outside. The feel of the top lid is silky and smooth. I like it.

The screen quality not so much but I guess for the price it's forgivable. It's actually kinda blurry but I guess I've been spoiled by the sharp FULL HD screen on my Thinkpad T530 even though that is also not an IPS panel. The HP is also not very bright.

The keyboard also hardly impress. Once again I think I've been spoiled by the excellent Thinkpad T530 keyboard. The screen I can live with but the keyboard is really a......meh

I immediately got confused by the keys arrangement. While typing this post I immediately miss the HOME and END keys and especially the DELETE key. I never thought I'm going to miss them this much. Still early times though and I hope I can adjust.

Did I mention that the keys sucks? Still can't get over that. Currently that has been the biggest disappointment so far.

Performance-wise it is plenty fast enough. Not as fast as my Desktop with its Core i7-3770 or the Thinkpad T530 but for what I will use it for I have no complaints. The sound volume is also plenty loud enough unlike my Thinkpad T530 which has pathetic tiny sound. The sound quality is not fantastic but for the price I'm not complaining.

Geez....I can't get over this damn keyboard.

MUST....REALLY...GET...USE...TO...IT....I....JUST....MUST.....

Still working on that down cursor key.

I will post more impressions once I get to play with it some more. It is really too early to form any lasting impressions (except that damn keyboard).

UPDATE 1 : Finally managed to get the down cursor key fixed. What a major pain in the arse. Here's the funny thing. Although I hated the keyboard, I could still type relatively well with it. I did after all typed this post on the keyboard. Take that as you will.

UPDATE 2 : The screen is beginning to grate on me. There is this milky haze all over it especially at lower brightness. It's contributing to that blurriness that I mentioned before. Another pet peeve is that I would always put it to full brightness but every time I rebooted it will go back down 2-3 notches. Why can't it remember where I left it before the reboot? But to be perfectly honest its a relatively small issue.

UPDATE 3 : I forgot to say anything about the track pad. It's not terrible but it's not exactly fantastic either. It's tolerable. Usable at least and the relatively big surface area helps quite a bit.

UPDATE 4 : The battery life has been decent so far but not anywhere near the advertised 9.5 hours so in a way I'm kind of disappointed. I expected better. A lot better. I don't think this will last all day. Maybe half or two-thirds of the way if you are lucky. I guess this is due to me putting this to maximum brightness all the time. Anything lower and my eyes suffer. I heard that it has a maximum brightness of only 200 nits or so. That might explain it. Maybe the battery needs to condition some more before I can make a final judgement. I'll update if there are any improvements.

UPDATE 5 : I tested the 4G Mobile on the Chromebook with a 1GB 3G data plan that I got free with my home fibre broadband. It works straight out the box!

LG VU 2 Initial Impressions!

So my second hand LG VU 2 F200 arrived today. This is the Korean version which comes with the TV antenna. 2GB RAM with Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8960 Dual-core 1.5 Ghz Krait CPU. Guess that 2GB RAM really does make a difference cause this thing flies even though it is using a much older processor. It is just a bit slower than my current Nexus 4 with Jelly Bean 4.3.

Out of the box (well actually no box since it only came with the phone and nothing else. No charger. Nothing. Nada. Zilch) it comes with ICS 4.04. Updated it to LG's latest Jelly Bean 4.1.2. Funnily enough I find it smoother when it was on ICS 4.04.

At any one time it seems to really use up RAM and constantly hitting 1GB and beyond but due to the 2GB headroom, it never seems to slow down. I'm very very impressed. Thank God I never got the Singapore version (P895) which comes with Tegra 3 and 1GB RAM.

I know its form factor gets a lot of grief from the West but there is a reason why I got this. Hear me out.

Like most people I have always been wanting to get that 1 device that will do away with 2 or more other devices. A smartphone plus tablet all rolled into one. A phablet? But current phablets like the Samsung Galaxy Note 3 or even the Nokia 1520 with its 6 inch screen are too big to fit in pockets. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 is able to fit into normal pants or jeans but it gets really uncomfortable when you start to move your legs or worse still sitting down. When I think about it, the issue is really not about the width but really about the height of the device. The LG VU series solves this problem by being the height of a normal smartphone and yet has the width of a device like the aforementioned Samsung Galaxy Note 3 and Nokia 1520. It makes a whole world of difference. For browsing the web and reading your email, the width is more important than the height.

I think the Koreans are onto something here and that they are way ahead the rest of us. The LG VU series is very popular in their home country and is already into its 3rd iteration with the LG VU 3.

The real problem with the LG VU series is that it's UGLY. But looking at the newest LG VU 3, the lines are now a lot smoother and it looks quite a bit better. Really looking forward to it.

UPDATE 1 : The looks are growing on me. I mean I don't love it but I don't hate it as much as I thought I would. Did not elicit any comments (well maybe 1) when I brought it to office. The one who commented says he loves the wide screen and the form factor makes sense to him. Quite taken aback that it was a positive response. I would have thought that people would ridicule me due to the short and chubby form factor. That was a pleasant surprise. So I guess all is not lost for this form factor. On an another note, I heard rumours that LG will not be bringing in the LG VU 3 to Singapore (maybe due to the unpopularity of the other 2 previous models). That is a bummer cause I really liked this previous model. Maybe have to look at those exotic handphone importers like SGKEITAI.com for the LG VU 3.

UPDATE 2 : The battery does not seem to hold a charge very well. It drains pretty fast especially when browsing. It's idle time is also quite bad. I easily lose 10% percent when it's left overnight. However on a positive note, it recharges quite fast. Maybe it's time to get a new set of battery.

UPDATE 3 : Two more colleagues have handled this and they seem to like it. It makes sense to them too. Or maybe they are just being polite. Or maybe it's just a West thing. Either that or people just parrot what they read and are judging a book by its cover.

Mechanical Keyboards

Looks like I'm on a spending spree. Bought my most expensive keyboard ever. And it's not even a full keyboard!

Leopold FC660C. A Topre based keyboard.

Watched way too many YouTube videos on mechanical keyboards and this is what it got me. This is more like a hybrid between a mechanical and a rubber dome.

Hope it will not take too long to reach me...

HP Chromebook 14 Snow White

So I ordered a HP Chromebook 14 Show White with 4G today. I have always lived in the Cloud via the Chrome Browser but today I cut the OS cord loose.

We'll see how I like it when it gets here.