In the circle of mechanical keyboards, there has always been a magical legend that the static capacitance will be the last keyboard for your fever. The static capacitance keyboard has always been a noble and long-standing existence. The basic price is about 1500 yuan, which is not acceptable even to keyboard enthusiasts. Is the static capacitance keyboard as wonderful as the legend?

HHKB Professional 2 was jointly developed by Hetian Yingyi and PFU Research. It was launched in December 1996 and has a history of about 17 years. In the world of mechanical keyboards, except Cherry, it is also a rare keyboard model that continues to sell.

There are specific models on the side of the package. HHKB Professional 2 has two colors. According to whether the characters on the key cap are engraved or not, this experience is white and engraved.

HHKB is quite simple in terms of accessories and instructions. There is only one mini USB interface data cable without gold plating, dust plug or cable tie. However, as a 96 year old product, it is acceptable.

HHKB should be regarded as a 60% keyboard. Apart from the shift and fn keys on the right, it is symmetrical from left to right, which is very similar to my obsessive-compulsive disorder. Of course, carefully, we can see that the key position design of HHKB has a lot of changes compared with the common keyboard. You should adapt to it for the first time.

HHKB is more interesting in setting the key cap color. The functional area and input area are styled with colors, which is quite retro in general. This is also a favorite color scheme for many keycap players. At the same time, HHKB has a large number of function shortcut keys, and can also be adjusted to a certain extent through the dip switch.

There is not much to say about the back of HHKB. HHKB only sets two black anti slip pads, and the top uses two bumps. If the foot rest is not opened for use, the overall anti slip effect is ordinary.

HHKB's tripod is more interesting. The double tripod has two angles. At the same time, HHKB's tripod is the most solid and powerful keyboard I have ever played with, and the overall process is quite good.

The back nameplate introduces the combined functions of dip switch, which can be adjusted according to your habits and usage.

What surprised me most about HHKB was the key wire separation and HUB design. These two designs were also adopted by the middle and high end in recent years. HHKB considered the design at the beginning, and the idea was quite advanced. Although HUB is USB 2.0 and the wire interface is mini USB, the hardware is slightly inferior, but it is enough for current use.

HHKB's dip switch.

The key cap of HHKB is made of PBT, and the character technology is thermal sublimation technology. In the last mechanical keyboard experience, we talked about the problem of keycap material and character technology. PBT material and thermal sublimation technology are relatively expensive in terms of cost and process control. At the same time, there is a certain technical threshold to do well. HHKB has a very good touch of keys. It is high-quality PBT material, and its thermal sublimation technology is the best I have ever seen. The PBT key cap with good workmanship and thermal sublimation technology are enough to support the price of HHKB at 1000 yuan.

Speaking of the key point, HHKB is a static capacitor, which is totally different from the common mechanical keyboard. At present, the widely recognized static capacitance keyboards are HHKB and RF. Both of them use the same static capacitance technology, both from Topre, so the hand feel is the same.

The figure above shows the structure of static capacitance. The static capacitance uses a contactless capacitive switch. The static capacitance uses the change of capacitance to judge the opening and closing of the key. After the key is pressed, the capacitance capacity in the switch changes to trigger. The whole process does not require the switch to be closed, and there is no physical contact point to achieve the knocking operation, so the wear is less and the service life is longer. As for the feel, let's talk about it slowly.

As a keyboard enthusiast, he first entered the circle a few years ago, and the most popular artifact is the static capacitance, that is, HHKB and RF. Many people said that when their fever subsided one day, it must be because they started the static capacitance. After reading many evaluations, most of them appreciated the touch of static capacitors. Having a static capacitance keyboard has become my dream for a long time, not because its price is very expensive, which means that I have to start it recently.

It should be noted that although the static capacitance keyboard and the mechanical keyboard can be replaced, due to the structure and other reasons, they are not compatible with the key cap daisy, and the static capacitance keyboard currently sold on the market can not replace the mechanical keyboard key cap. However, according to the information I learned, this year there will be a surge of static capacitance in China. One of the selling points is that the static capacitance keyboard will be transformed to enable the use of mechanical keyboard caps.

Hand feeling is a subjective expression. Maybe what I said is different from what you imagine or experience. Please treat it rationally. There may be many factors that affect the hand feel, such as key cap material, key cap touch, shaft experience, keyboard integrity, steel plate, etc., all of which may lead to good or bad hand feel.

Personally, I feel that the handle of the static capacitance is not different from that of the film, which is caused by the similar structure of the two. Although the service life of the static capacitor is even better than that of the mechanical keyboard, I still feel that the touch of the static capacitor destroys all good feelings. The static capacitance has no sense of paragraph. Compared with the mechanical keyboard, it will be similar to the red axis and light overall. Due to the structure, the static capacitance can be triggered only when it touches the bottom, which is easy to fatigue.

It said that the hand feel is average, so is HHKB disappointing? No, I personally think HHKB has two biggest selling points, one is excellent workmanship and key cap technology, the other is the key position design. Most people must be surprised and unfamiliar when using this key for the first time and seeing it. There will be a lot of misoperations when using it. But for UNIX programmers, this key position design can reduce many finger movements and further reduce fatigue. Because of the special key position design of HHKB, it is inevitable that HHKB is praised as a programmer's artifact, because Hideyoshi Heda, who created HHKB, is a programmer.

Although the handle of the static capacitor is not as good as the legend, I also think it is far from the so-called antipyretic artifact. However, its advanced design concept, quite good key cap and hot sublimation technology, and key position design for program development can be understood and accepted at a high price.

Of course, for ordinary people, I don't recommend this keyboard, because you can't use its selling point, and it will only be a special keyboard. Of course, this year, there will be some static capacitance keyboards in China, including both Topre technology licensing and domestic research and development, which means that the price of static capacitance will eventually be at the price of 500 yuan, which will become a more acceptable product. Whether it can withstand the majority of consumers will be known.