ADE-KBW100... Oh. Yes.

Ahh, Those Fond Memories

It should come as literally no surprise to anyone reading THIS blog, that I had a bit of a facination with my old, and while still somwhat functional, now clearly showing its age and with a few minor faults Advent KBW100 model keyboard.

It served me for years, and I came to really hate using pretty much any other keyboard, the spacing was wrong, the keycaps horrid, the keystroke too clunky or needing the wrong pressure per key-stroke.

And so, when I finally gave up my old KBW100, it was with hesitance and a tiny amount of regret. My VERY loving wife had spent a long timesearching to find me the very closest possible match, the AKBWLBL15. And, to be honest, it was okay. I grew to adjust to the different keysize, and the other features while lacklustre didn't make me hate it. Good Job bluetooth keyboard - you weren't awful!

But... After years of looking, and finally having given up on a product line which has long since been discontinued, having found that there was for a brief time a knock-off version built to the same specs, but that too dissappeared or could not be found. I was left in a world in which I had to move on.

Until;

The scene, March 2021 - COVID lockdown has driven everyone on earth insane, the last few humans struggle through a broken world. Among them, one hunter known only as 'that guys wife' remains vigilant, ever ready to take advantage of the world, sholders haunched against the harshness of life around her... she returns to the safety of the dwelling under her arm a precious bundle. Is it food? Is it toilet roll?

No. It's two brand new in box KBW100 keyboards.

By the horn of the invisible pink unicorn, she'd found a replacement! and not just one... TWO of them... BRAND NEW AND SEALED. - a big shout out to "some office supplies warehouse guy" that sold these to my ever thoughtful wifey, you are a hero to me.

And so, in 2021, I sit here typeing away on a nice shiney NEW advent keyboard, with aluminum frame, shallow key-caps, media keys. MMmhhhmmm it's good to be home!

Let's hope this can last as long as the previous one did, with a tail wind and some luck, these two lovely silvery techno-thingies should last me the rest of my days.

BEHOLD some pictures!

The Front of the box:

The back of the box:

The unsullied seal...

Some oddly erotic box seal breaking footage:

And, finally - There it is! Mmmm that smell of new (old) tech:

And yes... I have TWO of them!!

Huge respect to my wife who, for years has had to put up with this old geek whining and moaning about keyboards. I'm so stuck in my ways I could be a pot plant. But, I thank her eternally for her patience, and her perserverance in having been able to find one after I don't know how mush searching. 2021 was a good birthday!

Uh-Oh It's Happening Again...

So, many years have passed, I've now conceded to never owning a laptop on which I feel comfortable typing with any ease...

But now, My long suffering PC keyboard is finally croaking. My KDE-ABW100 is suffering with some keys no longer responding.

What does this mean? well... For one I posted the following to Reddit:

Hey,

I hope this is the right place that can help me, a little upfront info on this request;

• I'm a VERY picky douch-bag, but I like what I like.
• my wife has been driven to desperation by my insanity about keyboard preference.
• What I want seems to no longer be produced...

With that in mind I'm looking for a replacement of my ADVENT ADE-KBW100 I know, I know ...

"But it's not RGB!?" - "It hasn't got X, Y ir Z feature" - "It looks like shit" - "Do you even CherryMX bruh?!"

... I get it, it's not a 'great' keyboard... But for me, to-date it has given one of the best typing (and gaming?) experiences, I have grown to love it. But, it's failing me. And after just a decade of constant use (I mean really, PAH!!!) I note that some keys are entering retirement ... aka, it's broken.

I note that the company 'Speedlink' appear to also have the same design with model numbers such as 'SL-6465 Ultra FLAT Metal' but even that appears to be gone the way of the dodo.

My very courteous wife bought me an Advent AKBWLBL15 by way of 'approximate' replacement, but honestly, it really is a different league, in not a good way :(

The keys miss keystrokes and have apparent problems with ghosting, it appears to have a latency issue i'm still trying to figure out and most keys have enough travel and are stiff enough that an actual adult gorilla using it's full weight pushing down, might just might just register.

I'm not overly excited about having to battery power a thing which has absolutely no reason to be battery powered.

THE QUESTION:

Is there a keyboard I can find with ultra low profile, short travel and hopefully "silent" (or near silent) keys, I really just want another KBW100, but it appears that I have the only one in the entire UK.

Is there a mythical keyboard out there that I might like?

Pest edit:

Some must have details:

• Bevel key edges...
• Dedicated multimedia keys
• Good number pad ( I do a lot of data driven work, and this is a must)

And so, here I am, typing on a keyboard that only just suits my whimsy needs. My greatest PC using fear is come manifest, no longer can I even find second hand keyboards that I would like, the days of comfortable gaming and typing are at an end.

I have, at this point, literally spent hours, possibly devoting days of effort at attempting to find a suitable replacement. But I don't have infinite time, and i'm growing tired of searching and finding nothing.

Once again frustrated that the "industry standard" is, to me... utter bollocks.

Incidental update

While I have purchased a new bit of tech, it's not for myself... I decided to treat my better half to an Asus Transformer - complete with chicklet keys (she can keep 'em...)

I've accurately measured there is enough room for 4 lanes of traffic between the keys.

It was a relative bargain in the pre-christmas sales and being that I'm not using it I have no problem in purchasing something which has the keyboard equivalent to a bag of walkers crisps...

Sadly I've come into 2015 still lacking a new laptop for myself and believe me, my little Toshiba is thrashing it's death throws, the hdd had all but packed up, was promptly removed and a linux drive rammed in as a measure to just keep the damn thing going.

And it's certainly not looking like I'm going to find a laptop (in my budget) that meets my demands for non-idiotic keys.

Every time I've looked recently the Toshiba models are once again proving to be the only modestly priced hardware that has 'normal' keyboards...

Currently - if I could make up an excuse to make a purchase and not have to contemplate things like having to buy food, Id probably vote for one of these:

Toshiba Satellite PRO C50-A-1KJ

image yoinked from: expertreviews.co.uk

Basically no change from my previous target ... hmm I'm seeing a trend emerge here... Anyways:
It runs a not completely pointless intel i5 4200M and regardless of what's under the hood... just look at those keys, begging to be typed on (or more likely have the W,A,S,D thrashed to an inch of their little buttony lives)

Sadly it currently ships for about £600 give or take the price of a bag of chips ... and right now that's not the kind of cash I have to spare (sad panda mode engaged) strangely this price has also risen by some notable amount since I last was 'looking' (see my previous post).

I'm really struggling to find anything made by any other manufacturer that retains 'classic' scissor keys, but if you've spotted one, or even own a 'modern' laptop that has non-scrabble-tile keyboard drop me a line!

The Key(s) to Success ...

I mentioned before I use a Toshiba currently, and while I'm VERY happy with the keyboard, the laptop is falling behind in capability, now only really any use for internet browsing, word processing and the occasional movie (even the woefully low powered AMD E-350 can spit out fluid 1080p on an external monitor - aka my 42" telly...)

The Toshiba in question is the Satellite Pro C660d which was released more than a few moons ago, And it seems that though all my searching I've come full circle as I'm now looking at the:

- Toshiba Satellite Pro C50-A-1K9
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Toshiba_Satellite_Pro_C50-A-1K9_Core_i5_6GB_500GB_Windows_7_Pro_Laptop_with_PSCGBE-00U029EN/version.asp

as the image below shows, it sports the same 'flat-bevelled' keys as the one I currently have.

I've found these keys to be comfortable fast and easy to type on, and for what little time I was using my laptop for gaming the keys are responsive with a small amount of travel but tactile enough to type by touch alone.

Every other manufacturer that I've looked at seems not to supply any such 'normal' style keys any more, excluding one model from Dell, in their highly overpriced gaming line - Alienware

So far in the months I've been searching the Toshiba is possibly my only option, but I noted that other than the Satellite range (aimed more at business use) their other laptops all feature the grand-canyon-esque chicklet keys.

Soon, I fear there may simply be no option for me but to forgo use of a laptop and stick with a desktop for my needs, hardly a good solution should I need to be on the move.

The search continues...