we got a little piece of History here we got the model f keyboard uh they used to
make these back in the 80s and
oh my God they've got a bit of a reputation uh along with the model M IBM
made these keyboards for quite a while and they've been out of production for I
think over 25 years now and one company
oh so heavy
one company is now recreating them
it's using die cast aluminum so there's no CNC going on and frankly I believe it
look at how big and thick this thing is I gotta weigh it I want to weigh it
first thing it's over five pounds for sure this thing's awesome
have you ever seen one this large before right like we've done a bunch of
full-size boards this is nothing new in terms of that
um oh yeah it's like 3.2 kilos that's what
that's that's like 10 pounds no no no it's like eight pounds seven six it's
over six yeah seven pounds so not quite
10 but oh man this thing is chunky can I have a tape measure yeah that'd be good
uh let's measure this bad boy it's almost 19 18 and a half inches long it's
pretty long and then we got just over seven like seven and a quarters wide and
then how thick is it I need to know the thickness so up near the front here at
the max height it's about an inch and a quarter thick it comes in a lot of
colors we've got the red but it also comes in gray beige black silver gray
light blue and dark blue I love what we've got the old school numblock caps
lock scroll lock LEDs it's this really takes me back I don't know if I was old
enough to actually type on one of the OG Model F or model M's in school I am old
enough where we had like ibms and model twos or apple twos in school and they
must use something similar
that's right there's something incredibly distinct
and interesting about buckling spring switches and you know what I'll be frank
I don't like them there's something comforting about this sound but there's
also something terrible about it you know like it's
is this like high-pitched shrill kind of pingy noise sounds super
rattly everywhere
however I'm an uncultured Heathen um a
lot of people absolutely love these things they grew up typing on them and
they have got such crazy fond memories for me that's really not the case but
there is something really satisfying about the feel at least
up until now I'd only typed on really old model M's we've got a couple
floating around the office from the model M video that we did years back if
you want some more information definitely go check that out and I haven't enjoyed them too much and I
think that's just because they're old while I don't like the way this sounds
all that much I really actually do like the way it feels and I didn't on the
older switches they just felt bad they just felt kind of gunked up and
old I don't really know how to explain it but I wasn't a fan these though
they feel nice and crisp the big difference between a traditional switch
that we know of today and uh buckling spring that we've got here is that
instead of the spring being on a Center Post it's kind of just hanging out and
when you press down the spring buckles and then connects on the side of the
switch it's a super cool design and you know it's got a really unique both feel
and sound but I'm a bigger fan of kind of where we've come to rather than where
we come from while the typing experience is great
I can't get over the sound and how pingy it is it might be a little better if you
were to open this thing and mod it a little bit maybe add some foam maybe add
a couple layers of tape but alas we've got the classic Model M Model F
experience right now I can't say if it's
perfectly replicating the original but
it does feel very similar and sound very similar to model M's that I've
personally typed on uh we're gonna give it you know a classic typing test plug
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your dreams at the link below we got a really long cable actually unless I'm
mistaken it's all coiled up here so I don't know the exact length oh yeah this
is longer than six feet I'll tell you that much so this has got to be like an
eight or nine foot cable which is great uh nice and sleeved most I don't think
I've ever gotten a keyboard that's got a cable this long I know that I keep repeating that but it's like I don't
know what to tell you every keyboard usually comes with like a six foot cable anyway this is cool we've got this like
huge socket here for the USBC and it's
actually way deep inside there but luckily it should be easy enough to plug
in sure a wrist rest I think is going to
have to be necessary for just about anyone else who wants to buy this
keyboard all right we're going to try a buckling spring see if I'm any less
accurate you know less speedy
106 96 you know it's not great it's not
awful though it's okay for me man
I get it I I hate it and love it at the
same time uh I think that if you are in an office or if you have people around
you this is like the worst thing to have and they're gonna hate you I I would
like be more annoyed by this than I think like a set of actual clicky
switches there's something about the high-pitched spring ping
okay that kind of just Trails after every
single key switch I think that honestly if you want to use this anywhere other
than your own desk or your own office with no one around you really should try
to figure out a way to foam it or tape it or something however that might
really detract from just the uniqueness
of this keyboard there's something incredibly special about this I still am
not
super crazy about the feeling it doesn't feel like a linear it doesn't feel like
a tactile and that's because they're just it's so different actually let me
put some feed on real quick and see if that makes me like this anymore you know
I'll get just a little stick on feet these are great these are fine oh yeah
with this you're definitely gonna need a wrist rest oh that's not going anywhere
those are some nice stable feet let me do another
man oh
thanks Glenn uh that being said they actually come with a number of different
options or at least hours did it's got these little smaller uh flat guys here
and then it's got these little four square
um guys right here oh this is actually really cool they've given you
replacement switches as well so what we've got they're just Springs sitting
on these platforms here this something you know we're both kind of learning
today this is something I don't know a ton about because I as much as I kind of
grew up with these I also didn't really yeah so it's just kind of hanging out in
there that's so wild and then this guy goes down and as you push down it Kinks
the spring and then it makes contact really cool design I don't like it all
that much but I think it's a really cool design at the very least and anyone you
know there's one thing that's got to be said is anyone who rocks one of these
it's definitely a conversation starter one thing I forgot to mention is the
color I personally wouldn't have chosen red but that being said I do like it
it's a really nice metallic kind of red um they're calling it true red I believe
which is a little weird uh what is a true red I don't know all of those other
colors I mentioned before come in a paint or powder coat finish and at least
on the website they all look pretty good as they look as good as this red does
right here then they're probably all beautiful honestly this looks a lot like
it does on the website so I don't think you have to worry about ordering A
Certain Shade and getting something completely different that's that's
probably not going to happen here as for the keycaps what they've done is they've
tried to replicate old school keycaps as well they feel really bumpy and gritty
on top on the sides it's actually nice and smooth but as soon as you get to the
top there's that textured feeling and I actually kind of like it honestly I
would really like to buy a set of keycaps that are basically like this
except you know they fit across or box
stem so that you're not stuck trying to jam them onto a buckling
spring that you don't own the other really great thing about the keycaps is
I just love this colorway it's really simple you've got like a beige and then
a slightly less beige or gray kind of style and then you've got just a little
hint of blue and it's a really nice blue that I think goes really well with this
uh true red that they're calling my only other issue I guess with the kind of fit
and finish of everything is I don't like how recessed all of the keycaps are
um into the keyboard the row up here like the like row zero or Row one is
actually pretty high up compared to everything else and this might feel a
bit better if I had a wrist rest and I changed the typing angle a bit but I
don't know there's something visually about it as well that I don't find as appealing as like this afro I just love
how high all of these sculpted almost sa
if not actually sa profile keycaps are
they look great but then as soon as you've got them almost like level with
the edge of the the case I'm just not crazy about that look the keycaps do
come in a number of colors and languages but I think that they're all the same
profile so if you don't like something super sculpted like this if you want
something really flat um you're probably not going to find that here and this probably isn't the
keyboard for you at that point but yeah just stuff like the numpad like I love
the zero and I just don't like how close the seven and the 4 are
to the rest of the case it's a really minor thing same with the delete home
insert all those guys I really wish that they were just a bit more pronounced but
it's really not the end of the world just kind of weird and you may or may
not be a fan of it one kind of neat piece of history is the original model
f-122 key layout cost
295 dollars back in 1984. uh adjusted
for inflation that's like over 800 bucks almost 900 today so this is a bit more
uh premium and it comes at a higher price tag it's still nowhere close to if
you had bought one of these and then adjusted for inflation which is actually
pretty nice if you head to Model F keyboards.com and want to pick one of
these up for yourself whether it's this guy the f-104 or one of the different
layouts this one specifically is going to run you a bit of a higher price tag
of four hundred dollars the other guys come in a little lower more like 350 I
think the least expensive one is about 300 or 330 which is still a decent chunk
of change for any one and I gotta say you are getting what you pay for this is
an incredibly unique product and on top of that it's not plastic uh you're
paying for die cast aluminum you're paying for a neat little LED screen
you're paying for these unique buckling spring switches that you can't find all
that easily you're paying for these unique keycaps that feel like you're
typing on a keyboard from 25 30 years ago man it's really
like rose tinted glasses like I don't know if everyone just remembers these
fondly and if they were to type on it today they wouldn't actually like it all
that much um I know that for myself
to make this a lot more enjoyable I'd have to open it up go in and mod it a
little bit just to become a little bit more modern I guess but overall it's
pretty sick if you want to kind of break the bank a little bit and go extra you
can get yours custom serialized it'll cost you though single digit is upwards
of 200 and below that you're looking at
a hundred and and then for just thirty dollars you get something standard I
don't know what exactly they mean I'm guessing that by single digit all you're
paying for is a lower number so that you
could say oh I've got I've got number eight I've got number nine I've got
number one you know so you're paying 200 bucks for basically bragging rights if
that's worth it to you hey you know feel free get number three or four whatever
one you want there's one other really cool add-on though that I actually
highly recommend everyone and it's their repair kit one of my problems with a lot
of Boutique keyboards these days is They Don't Really ever come with extras or at
least not anything in terms of like screws or Hardware you might get extra
feet you might get some extra gaskets um but that's typically about it so I
would be totally okay with paying an extra these are like 20 to 50 bucks if
it just comes with an extra set of screws this is a statement piece if you
buy one of these you know if you want to daily drive it good for you I'm glad you
like it however personally I would probably get this try to mod it a little
bit there are a bunch of screws on the bottom here that you can take out and
open it up and do whatever you want to it but
I think I'd just leave it and I would put it on a wall somewhere so that
people could walk up and try typing on a Model F
because it's an experience that kind of sticks with you I remember as soon as I
came here one of the first things I did was seek out the model Amber Model F
that we have in stock and I tried typing on it because I needed to see what all the fuss was about
I wasn't crazy about it then I'm still not crazy about it now four hundred
dollars just for like materials and uniqueness alone I think that's a fair
price if you want to take a look at another modern very unique but similarly
priced keyboard you can check out the cyberboard video I did a couple years
ago that thing is also sick and it
sounds a little better but you know that's always subjective