I’ve been eyeing the UHK 80 for a while now but I have questions concerning the getting used to it.
At home I’m on a tenkeyless and at work I’m on my latop’s keyboard (I don’t know if those layout have a name). I’m worried about the keys on the right side of the keyboard (the “enter” key to name one, but a few others too).
(you can skip this) I had bought the UHK 60 (2nd version) and loved the small size but I couldn’t get used to having to do combinations to access to everything. With more research I discovered tenkeyless keyboards and bought one (a Royal Kludge M75 for anyone wondering). Nothing fancy. A basic keyboard but it fit all my criteria at the time: multiple choices of wireless connection (wired available too), tenkeyless, AZERTY option (I know UHK doesn’t offer an AZERTY layout, but I’m planning on making custom keycaps later. Nice ones are SO hard to find in AZERTY…) and hot-swappable (I’ve fallen in love with the Kailh Summer Clicky switches…). I heard about the UHK 80 and it fit my bill ! (I loved the modules, I was sad not to have them anymore, although i do use a mouse for gaming).
For people who got the UHK 80, how hard was it to getting used to the right side of the keyboard ?
And to people who didn’t use a palm rest before this keyboard, do you find it usefull or not ? (I know we can’t remove it). I can’t find any reviews and would really love to know people’s thoughts on this keyboard as it is quite expensive
Probably not the exact type of user you are looking for as I came from a UHK60v2 that I loved to the UHK80.
What I struggled a little with on the right side of the UHK80 was the smaller Shift than the UHK60. My solution was to map the << key to also be shift so have, in effect, a larger shift.
I had gotten very used to the layers on the UHK60 so I tend to use the MOD layer for a lot of the keys on the right hand side that have been added to the UHK80.
If I lost my UHK80 I would get a new one.
(likewise my UHK60s)
I’m a horrible typist to begin with, but it only took me a week or so to get reasonably comfortable with the UHK80.
To help train my muscle memory on the right-side navigation keys, I used some rubber textured caps and super-heavy linear switches (Kailh Ancient Greys) for a while. I use heavy clicky switches on the rest of the board, and the tactile contrast helped me get used to it pretty quick.
When it comes to keycaps, I’d go with a flat, uniform profile (XDA or KAM). That way you can shift around some of the caps until you find a layout you like, without worrying about height differences.
If you haven’t seen them before, check out YUZU and FK Custom keycaps. I have a few sets, and I’m working on designing another soon.
Palm rests and risers are a must for me, on both the UHK60 and 80. The palm rests on the UHK80 are a tad short for large hands, but good enough.
Overall, David’s statement pretty much sums up how I feel as well-
@Tunney Oh I thought about that and wondered if it would work (as in, would my brain accept this haha). Glad to know it does !
@pcooke9 that’s a good idea for the different switches and keycaps to help you get used it. Might need to do that too !
I know of Yuzu because of UHK and was thinking of ordering a set !
Honest personal opinion from someone who appreciates the UHK 80.
I’m coming from a TKL keyboard (KBDfans Tiger Lite).
Regarding the right side of the keyboard, it took months, but it is still not 100% compared to where I was with a TKL keyboard. But I’m terrible with changing muscle memory.
What I did to help with getting used to:
Use the original keys for backspace, enter, ins, del and have a different set of keycaps (cherry profile) on the rest of the keyboard
Most of the pain (not too much and getting better) with the right side for me still:
Small enter (used to ISO enter)
Small backspace (sometimes accidentally hitting ins)
Small shift (removing the keys mentioned above helped a lot)
Regarding the wrist rest.
As I have small hands I’m able to rest my full hand on them, so this is not an issue, but people on this forum complained that the wrist rest tends to be too small for them.
I honestly would love to try the keyboard without wrist rest as I like my hands sitting on the table and the UHK 80 is low enough to enable comfortable typing without a wrist rest when not tented. What could be an issue here is the thumb cluster.
If I switch to my TKL keyboard my impression is that I have a more free hand movement (without a wrist rest, my hands sitting on the table) compared to when they are sitting on the wrist rests of the UHK 80. It is just a more natural feel. When my hands are sitting on the wrist rests I tend to feel that they are less relaxed, I feel more tension.
But all in all I do not think there is a better keyboard out there, especially talking about row staggered split keyboards with a full 80% layout and this level of configuration capabilities.
@vpal Oh I love the covers, I might print some to try on my keyboard right now (realized btw i called it a tenkeyless keyboard but it’s a 75%, i mispoke. Anyway…).
The smaller enter key is also what’s bothering me cuz I know I don’t have the best muscle memory either… So thanks for your honest opinion on that.
