** The Official OcUK Mechanical Keyboard Thread **

MK-50 is in stock now.

I noticed that the price of mechanical keyboards in the UK are comparatively very high. E.g. The Zowie Celeritas is RRP $100 in the US and yet it's selling for £110 on OCUK. You would think the value of sterling is lower than the dollar...
 
Yes but Zowie are a South Korean company with much better trade with America than the UK. My Zowie board came from their European offices which are in Denmark... which the British Pound definitely is not strong against. Everything in Denmark is ridiculously expensive compared to the UK. So perhaps that has something to do with it. (The Zowie is still an utterly superlative keyboard - I'm still completely satisfied with mine a year on from purchasing).
 
InKursion said:
Yes but Zowie are a South Korean company with much better trade with America than the UK. My Zowie board came from their European offices which are in Denmark... which the British Pound definitely is not strong against. Everything in Denmark is ridiculously expensive compared to the UK. So perhaps that has something to do with it. (The Zowie is still an utterly superlative keyboard - I'm still completely satisfied with mine a year on from purchasing).
Click to expand...

Also InKursion, as an owner of a Celeritas can you tell me if you can turn of the lights on the F9-12 keys if you want to? I'm thinking of buying a Celeritas but those lights could be annoying.
 
Just got a Zowie Celeritas today, to replace a G15 rev1. Initial impressions are not great:

-First keyboard I've ever owned with no feet, so the angle feels wrong (especially the spacebar). Lack of wrist-rest might be exacerbating the issue - might try propping up the back of it.
-Spacebar feels weird, kinda spongey and feels really inconsistent. Kinda like a really really old keyboard I had where the spacebar would fall off and have to be reset, behaving differently depending on whereabouts you push it
-Light under the F9-12 keys is REALLY bright and distracting, in fact it is probably the brightest red LED I've ever seen on consumer electronics, putting alarm clocks to shame.
-Typing doesn't feel that great

In hindsight maybe cherry browns were the wrong choice, I think perhaps the fact it does a keystroke even when you don't bottom-out the key is what is making it feel inconsistent to me, if I have my finger bang on the centre of a key and press down then it is fine, but if I'm sliding my fingers around between keys and only push down the edge (so it doesn't depress fully) then it does an almost silent keypress. This is what I'm finding strange, it almost feels more like a membrane keyboard than a membrane keyboard if that makes sense!

To be fair this is only day 1, so I'll give myself a bit of time to get used to it, especially on the typing front. But nowhere near the 'wow' effect I was expecting for £84.

On a more positive note I did a bit of gaming and it seemed fine for the most part.
 
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kissenger said:
Also InKursion, as an owner of a Celeritas can you tell me if you can turn of the lights on the F9-12 keys if you want to? I'm thinking of buying a Celeritas but those lights could be annoying.
Click to expand...

Hi... yes you can turn off all the light by pressing the Zowie key (replaces the right Windows key) and F8 at the same time.
 
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HangTime said:
Just got a Zowie Celeritas today, to replace a G15 rev1. Initial impressions are not great:

-First keyboard I've ever owned with no feet, so the angle feels wrong (especially the spacebar). Lack of wrist-rest might be exacerbating the issue - might try propping up the back of it.
-Spacebar feels weird, kinda spongey and feels really inconsistent. Kinda like a really really old keyboard I had where the spacebar would fall off and have to be reset, behaving differently depending on whereabouts you push it
-Light under the F9-12 keys is REALLY bright and distracting, in fact it is probably the brightest red LED I've ever seen on consumer electronics, putting alarm clocks to shame.
-Typing doesn't feel that great

In hindsight maybe cherry browns were the wrong choice, I think perhaps the fact it does a keystroke even when you don't bottom-out the key is what is making it feel inconsistent to me, if I have my finger bang on the centre of a key and press down then it is fine, but if I'm sliding my fingers around between keys and only push down the edge (so it doesn't depress fully) then it does an almost silent keypress. This is what I'm finding strange, it almost feels more like a membrane keyboard than a membrane keyboard if that makes sense!

To be fair this is only day 1, so I'll give myself a bit of time to get used to it, especially on the typing front. But nowhere near the 'wow' effect I was expecting for £84.

On a more positive note I did a bit of gaming and it seemed fine for the most part.
Click to expand...

You are doing and expecting something very wrong...

Firstly, I think the angle is the best angle possible for rapid touch-typing. On the same stroke, touch-typing normally employs a 'floating hand' technique which totally negates the need for a hand-rest (this goes for your gaming too - you'll benefit from the fast response of the mechanical switches better if your fingers hover and only lightly grace the keys, as opposed to having them permanently weighted as you would with a membrane keyboard).

Secondly, you can turn off the bright LED's altogether (see my previous post). It is rather unusual that someone would complain about the LED lights being a little too bright and good for their purpose...

Lastly, realise that you have made a rather large step from tacky gaming plastic to a mechanical keyboard. Your typing style and 'default' comfortable usage position will have to adjust over a few weeks. When you get used to the pressure of the keys for any mechanical keyboard (be they brown, blue, red, or black switches) you can definitely see the benefits as clear as day. I already had a 100WPM+ typing speed average on my previous gaming keyboards, but now with my Zowie my touch typing is always flawless and razor fast. Not to mention in games my micro and general responsiveness has finally reached a level where it is completely in-tune with my fingers, in real-time, on the 8x PS/2 setting. Try it out. You'll be very surprised.

The Zowie is a great board.
 
InKursion said:
Hi... yes you can turn off all the light by pressing the Zowie key (replaces the right Windows key) and F8 at the same time.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Can they be disabled separately from the Zowie light? I don't suppose so.

Anyway, looks like a great board. I think I'll get one when I see a good price on one.
 
InKursion said:
Firstly, I think the angle is the best angle possible
Click to expand...

The problem I mainly have is with the spacebar - the way this keyboard is angled, it feels like the front of the key is far too high, so when I press it my thumb only comes into contact with the front edge, rather than the whole key.

If I raise my elbows as you suggest (hovering) it isn't quite so bad but I can't see myself being able to sustain that position over an extended period. Might try rigging up some sort of makeshift wrist rest so that my thumbs are at a flatter angle.
 
InKursion said:
Hi... yes you can turn off all the light by pressing the Zowie key (replaces the right Windows key) and F8 at the same time.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the tip but it seems that it just turns itself back on again as soon as you press a key that lights up a different light, e.g. CAPSLOCK :(
 
HangTime said:
The problem I mainly have is with the spacebar - the way this keyboard is angled, it feels like the front of the key is far too high, so when I press it my thumb only comes into contact with the front edge, rather than the whole key.

If I raise my elbows as you suggest (hovering) it isn't quite so bad but I can't see myself being able to sustain that position over an extended period. Might try rigging up some sort of makeshift wrist rest so that my thumbs are at a flatter angle.
Click to expand...

Not that I have that keyboard myself (still quite happy with my Corsair K60) but raising your elbows is the correct posture for typing. I actually often don't do it but it's something you're meant to do to both improve typing accuracy and to reduce risk of RSI. Alllll of that said, I would also be pretty annoyed about a lack of feet on my keyboard as I always use them on mine.
 
HangTime said:
Thanks for the tip but it seems that it just turns itself back on again as soon as you press a key that lights up a different light, e.g. CAPSLOCK :(
Click to expand...

Wow, really? Can someone else with a Celeritas verify this so we can be sure it's a feature of all Celeritas keyboards.

If that's how it works then that's a definite deal breaker for me. I would want it so you can keep the Caps/Num lights working as usual, but turn of the potentially distracting Zowie and F9-12 lights if you want.
 
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