Briefly: Mechanical keyboard producers have spent years making an attempt to recapture the texture and sound of traditional keyboards like IBM’s iconic Mannequin M. In 2017, a revival mission reproduced the Mannequin M’s predecessor – the 1981 Mannequin F. The mission not too long ago launched a number of new fashions with intensive customization choices.
For a number of hundred {dollars}, keyboard fans can now order a variety of trustworthy reproductions of IBM’s 1981 Mannequin F keyboard. The brand new choice lets connoisseurs get pleasure from some great benefits of top-tier traditional keyboards with out Eighties design constraints.
Refurbished and reproduced Mannequin M or Mannequin F keyboards have been out there for some time for round a pair hundred {dollars}. Nonetheless, the refurbished fashions weren’t designed for contemporary gadgets. The revival initiative from Mannequin F Labs maintains IBM’s authentic excessive industrial requirements in a wide selection of type elements for contemporary use instances.
The keyboards are based mostly on IBM’s expired bucking spring change patents, which mission founder Joe Strandberg considers superior to fashionable cherry mechanical switches for typing (the jury is out on how they evaluate for gaming). Additionally they use case designs of zinc, aluminum, and metal to take care of that authentic IBM heft, ranging between 3.2 and eight.3 lbs.
Previous designs and requirements mixed with fashionable USB-C interfaces permit for max compatibility. Moreover, the keyboards work with Android and iOS. Open-source firmware lets customers customise the keys for various languages, layouts, and different wants.
Clients can order from over a dozen type elements. Some hew near the unique Mannequin F design, whereas others mix the Mannequin M design with Mannequin F-based internals. Compact and break up keyboard designs are additionally out there. Customers can select between keyboards with 77, 62, 50, 104, or 122 keys. All fashions let prospects select between numerous colours and keycap types.
Expectedly, the foremost disadvantage right here is price. After IBM stopped making the legendary keyboards within the Nineteen Nineties, producers transitioned to membrane and cherry keys to supply shoppers cheaper choices. Mannequin F Labs as an alternative seems to be to supply uncompromising construct high quality.
Though the brand new Mannequin Fs run between $350 and $580, Strandberg claims they price simply half the inflation-adjusted value of IBM’s originals. In trade for paying $200 greater than most fashionable mechanical keyboards, you get sturdiness. Mannequin F Labs claims it designs its merchandise to final many years like most of the 80s fashions folks nonetheless use at present.