this may be the most expensive keyboard
we've ever tested individually addressable RGB keys
no cherry mx switches with custom keycaps
no Thunderbolt free pass-through with
triple OLED displays no it no it's got none of those things
it's the completely wooden hand-crafted
in japan keyboard from hakoa priced at
nearly 1400
us dollars but is it at all worth it
or does it get chopped by this 40 dollar chinese
keyboard that we bought on amazon
speaking of things that are worth it by the way tunnelbear tunnelbear thinks the
internet is better when everyone can openly access the same content so try
tunnelbear for free over at tunnelbear.com
LTT
available in either maple or walnut from responsibly managed forests we're going
to start with a look at the illustrious hakoa keyboard ki meaning both wood and
tree in japanese see what they did there simply put it's a work of art the 89
gently concaved keycaps are cut from a single panel of wood with their relative
position preserved such that the natural wood grain pattern is visible on the
finished board the keys contrast subtly with the
chassis which is one solid piece even on the back where they cared enough to
carve a recessed bevel so that the board is easy to pick up off the desk turning
now to the poop end of the stick we've got the 40
cooler tron other than the fact that this board is indeed made of wood its
appearance is not that similar to the hakoa key
okay hand carved sustainable bamboo
sure i guess but there's no cohesive color scheme and
the keys chassis pieces and the media keys have no consistency in the
direction of the wood grain then making matters worse at the top of
the board the wood motif is disrupted by an obnoxious cooler tron sticker and a
nearly useless power indicator led that
i would gladly trade in for caps and or
num lock lights something hakoa managed to include and in a way that actually
enhances the look of the board let's go back to the hakoa and look a
little closer the laser etched letters on the tree
board have amazingly sharp corners like they are they are perfect to the eye the
tactile guides are both elegant and functional and the keycaps are aligned
in perfectly straight rows one of the weakest points of the cheaper boards
looks on top of that poor key stabilization makes the spacing between
letters uneven assaulting your eyes and that impression is only made worse upon
closer inspection excusing even the corrugated look of the bamboo wood grain
the keycaps legend is etched with a degree of precision that i could
charitably describe as serviceable except for this internet explorer
looking key that won't be servicing me at all
when it comes to general build quality from a more keyboardy standpoint honestly neither of
them is the best we've seen i mean look at that flex hakoa
though at least to their credit all the keycaps are aligned and sit at the same
height by comparison check out coolertron's ragged afro and low rider
style question mark while we're at it
the edges are pretty rough the f9 key is randomly darker and the key guides
subjectively mind you are a little too subtle to be really useful
now some have complained that the legend on this one can be difficult to see
particularly in the dark but cooler tron claims that the symbols become easier to
read after two weeks of use presumably thanks to finger crud filling up the
grooves yummy so for build quality and style points
i'm giving it to hakoa it it even feels and smells way more
woody than the cooler tron which might sound inconsequential but it's actually
kind of the whole point here it's wood
all right then what about the practical aspects of this showdown the bamboo
board believe it or not is actually surprisingly decent to type on since
it's one of those memcanical keyboards meaning that the switches are membrane
but a small lip on the keycap gives the stroke a more tactile feel it's not as
loud as a set of cherry mx blues but it is louder than your typical membrane
board it's got a bit of a weird layout since it's a full 104 keyboard with a
numpad but then with compact navigation keys
but i might even go as far as to say that i like typing on it at least i
would if it weren't for that astonishingly heavy space bar
like this stupid thing takes the force of thor's hammer to press down
it's shorter than normal and it sits
left of center leading some typists to
accidentally hit the alt key instead alright then
but what about typing on a keyboard that is 35 times the price well to put it
plainly this membrane is mush
city people who aren't accustomed to mechanical boards might not notice but
those who are and who might be considering the hikoi
ki are barking up the wrong tree so to speak and this one's got a weird layout
too it's like japanese but with an english legend
which is great if you're japanese and you want to type in english but if
you're used to a north american keyboard like i am you will be annoyed by the
shortened enter and backspace keys you will have no use at all for the keys
that japanese speakers use to switch between their various alphabets and you
probably won't be a fan of the even stumpier space bar
though it should be noted that this one was actually easier to use because at
least it's centered so which one's better
well truthfully in spite of the awful space
bar the bambooler tron is probably the better typer so while you can get a real
mechanical keyboard at this price point the novelty makes it maybe a decent buy
especially since unlike the hakoa key
it's wireless then again we couldn't even slide the little door shut without
it breaking as for the keyboard i believe them when
they say that each individual unit is made by a japanese master craftsman in a
labor-intensive process at a rate of just
one per day unfortunately that craftsman
didn't spend any of that time on things that keyboard enthusiasts
actually care about to be clear no one here hated it i'm just a little
disappointed that someone could spend so much time making such a beautiful object
then charge a sizeable chunk of cash for it without even doing the requisite
market research to realize that for one thousand three hundred and eighty six
dollars we expect a braided cable
so then which one would i rather have in
my home office
honestly neither of them they're both kind of novelty items
though at least one of them is priced accordingly
i can't believe that we paid for this thing i feel like a total sap
that was awful but what's not awful is ting the mobile
carrier that's focused on customer service and customer satisfaction first
when you call ting you do not speak to a robot you get put through directly to a
person and you don't have to pay extra for that kind of service you pay only
for the air time that you use with the average ting bill only 23 bucks a month
per device and if you're stuck in a contract and switch to ting they'll even
cover 25 of your cancellation fee up to 75 bucks they've got new lower mobile
data rates data's now just 10 a gig beyond the first gig and every single
ting customer will be able to reap the benefits of this new change so head over
to Linus.ting.com and try out their savings
calculator it'll tell you how much you'll save then sign up at our link to
get 25 bucks in service credit or towards a new device we're going to have
that linked below so thanks for watching guys if this
video sucked you know what to do if it was awesome though get subscribed hit
that like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured
in the video description also linked in the description is our
merch door which has cool shirts like this one our community forum which you
should totally join and if you're still hanging around the video for this long
because you really think the hakoa key is that amazing maybe we'll have an ebay
link below too because i gotta get rid of this thing
fourteen hundred dollar keyboard