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Mechanical Keyboards @lemmy.ml
ExtremeDullard @lemmy.sdf.org

Why are keyboards getting smaller?

I'm not a true mechanical keyboard enthusiast. I mean I like a good keyboard for typing code, so I rolled with model-Ms in the 80s and 90s, then some expensive Cherry keyboard I only recently retired because it was utterly spent (and it was PS/2), and now I happily use a Wooting Two HE.

I'm so glad the mechanical gaming keyboard scene has developed so much: it means there's a plethora of really excellent keyboards for the rest of us who don't play games.

But something utterly baffles me: why are high-quality keyboards getting smaller?

There's a lot more keyboards without the numpad and the block of middle keys - whatever they're called - or with the middle keys reduced or squashed up awkwardly on the side, than full-size plain old 102- or 104-key layout keyboards. What's wrong with the numpad? Isn't more keys generally better?

Back in the days, I bought the original Happy Hacking keyboard because it kind of made sense to maneuver around in our server room with a small keyboard that took up less space. Typing on it drove me up the wall but it was convenient to carry. And I guess it was also good option for going to LAN parties with a smaller backpack. But other than that, for a keyboard that never leaves your desk, I don't get it.

Are there other advantages to smaller keyboards? Genuine question! I'm not dumping on smaller keyboards: to each his own and if you're happy with yours, more power to you. I'd just like to know why you prefer smaller.

97 comments

  • I'm one of those weirdos who actually really likes using a smaller keyboard so I'll give you a few reasons I like smaller keyboard and a few why I don't like larger ones.

    First of all, desk space. I have a very small desk so not having the numpad makes for a lot more space for my mouse.

    I also find when gaming that my arms fall at a weird and uncomfortable angle when I have the keyboard and mouse at a comfortable distance apart.

    I don't tend to use the numpad, or 9 key cluster above the arrow keys very often so the ones I do use (delete, Pg up and Pg down) are just mapped to a new layer. My board is ortholinear so I've also got the numpad mapped to a layer if I ever want to use it.

    The function row is also re-mapped over the number row with the - and + acting as 11 and 12 because I very rarely need to use a function key and a number key at the same time or in quick succession so theres no need for the seperate keys.

    I don't program much but when I do, I've got all the relevant symbols labelled with their layers on the front of the cap so they're not hard to find when I need them.

    I'm also very much not a tidy desk person and I do a lot of my hobby work at my desk so having a nice small keyboard I can cram wherever I can when I need it and just move out of the way when I don't means I'm not always shuffling stuff around my desk to make space for this huge keyboard.

    Overall however, I just really like the look of a nice, small, compact keyboard with everything I need just there. It's visually nice to have a uniform block of keys with no gaps, no larger or differently shaped keys, and that's just not something a larger keyboard offers me.

    I can absolutely see how this sort of thing doesn't work for most people because there is an element of having to re-learn muscle memory and such, but for most people that have tried it, they seem to find that when it works, it works very well!

  • I have a 40% ortholinear kb because it's more ergonomic. My fingers are never have to travel more than 2 keys away from home row. There are enough built in layers that I never feel like I'm missing a key. All keys are remappable. Beyond that I think it looks neat - folks always ask about it when they see it. When using a mouse and keyboard, my arms are kept at a reasonable distance apart (overall hands are closer together), so I can work or game longer without feeling like my shoulders or back are strained.

  • I switched to a TKL (tenkeyless) to reduce the distance between my hands when my right hand is on the mouse, and it feels so much better.

    I got a programmable keyboard, so I remapped the keys around where my right hand rests to be the numpad keys when I hold the capslock key. That way I can still have the convenience of the numpad without having an actual dedicated numpad, although I'm still getting used to using it this way.

    • QMK (rather, "easily" accessible keyboard firmware creator) makes keyboard less and less reliant on having a dedicated button for all of the functionalities provided by full size.
    • No need to move out of homerow is super nice, especially if you dont need to use your mouse frequetly.
    • its nice

  • Gamers generally want more room on the desk so their mice can travel further without needing to be repositioned.

    I love having a numpad for extra keybinds in MMOs and for number inputs for work, but I've since switched to a TKL and never looked back.

    I still miss the numpad but that thing can be bought separately, and not smashing my mouse into my keyboard is a big plus.

    Looking into upgrading to a Wooting 80HE once that launches; it's like a TKL that wants to be questionably special, but given Wooting's reputation I'd wager it'd still be better than anything else on the market.

  • I use a 64 key keyboard. Barely have to move any of my fingers which is great for reducing my RSI. I hate how standard keyboards just have this one giant key for your thumb. Your thumb is your strongest digit and it's just used to slap this slab. On the ortho keyboards I've become more used to recently often have a thumb cluster so you can have all of your modifiers and whatnot there. Less stretching with your pinky for ctrl, fn whatever (which is how I got my RSI). Having enter, shift, backspace and delete at my ... Thumbtips ... Is a game changer.

  • I liked having less space between my hands (left hand on the keyboard, right hand on the mouse). I also rarely use the numpad and other keys, so the negligible sacrifice was worth it for better ergonomics.

  • I like the ability to remove or add the numb pad depending on the work or play.

    • Okay that makes sense: it means you have a full-size keyboard for work, a mini keyboard for gaming and you use whichever works best for you for the task at hand.

      But that implies there are a lot more gamers with a preference for smaller keyboards than general-purpose typists with a preference for the full-size traditional layout, because the majority of the quality mechanical keyboards offering is smaller keyboards. I have a hard time believing the gaming market is larger than the general computing market.

      Or maybe gamers pay more attention to the quality of their keyboards and spend more money on them, making them a more attractive demographic.

  • I was team numpad all the way, but then I received a 60% as a gift and I have to say, I'm quite impressed with it.

    It's pretty decent for gaming, you get more desktop real-estate for your mouse which is a huge plus. I'd also hazard a guess and say that the smaller size is more attractive for the average computer user.

    Now that everything seems to take USB-C it's really easy to swap out your board for something more suitable for your task. So if you really need a numpad, you can just swap your full size board back in.

    Depending on your use case, you might be surprised how far you can get with a 60%. I thought the lack of arrow keys and F1-12 was really going to bite me, but I can use them easily enough for most cases - but not always. For instance, I wish I could still select text with Ctrl + Shift + arrow/home/end, but that's out of reach now. But for 99% of my usage, it gets the job done.

    • tbh it sounds like what you need is better firmware configuration if these things are out of reach. a common approach is to make the spacebar a tap-hold key that outputs space on tap and switches to another layer on hold. on that layer you could bind arrow keys on ijkl, for example, and still have shift, alt, ctrl in easy reach.

      • Yeah, there's probably some way to fix it if you have the motivation to dig into it. But it's also not just a matter of reach, it seems the key combination doesn't get interpreted the way I expect it to, probably because it's using the Fn key.

        But if I really need arrow keys, it only takes about thirty seconds to plug in a new board, so it works for me for now.

  • I use a keyboard with 64 keys (Keyboardio Model 100), with a layout that would likely drive any normal person mad: there are no numbers on the base layer, and all modifiers are on the thumb cluster. My top row is shifted symbols like @*$^%!&. I love it. I can reach every key without moving my hand, which helped tremendously with my RSI. With clever use of layers, one-shot modifiers & layers (where one-shot means that you press and release a modifier, and it remains active for the next keypress only), I have access to every symbol available on a traditional layout and more, without having to move my hand or do weird finger gymnastics.

    It's not a keyboard I'd normally carry (it's heavy, split, and takes up more space than a traditional full-size one), that's not why I like it small. I like it small because I don't need to move my hand to reach all the keys, and that increases my typing comfort a lot. I have no use for a dedicated numpad: I can just press my right palm key and turn that half of my keyboard into a numpad. If I'm typing a single digit, I don't even need to hold the palm key. If I'm typing a longer number, I can double tap the palm key to toggle the numpad layer on, and tap it a third time once I'm done. I don't need cursor keys, because I can tap the left palm key to turn the keyboard into navigation mode: the right side controls the text cursor (ie, arrow keys, page up/down, home/end), and the left side controls the mouse. Most of the time, I don't even need a mouse, because I can control the pointer from the comfort of my keyboard. I do have a trackball placed inbetween the two halves for the rare cases where I require more mousing than what is comfortable with keys, but... that's not used all that often.

    So, in short, the reason I prefer small and split is because they let me type without moving my hand, or stretching my fingers uncomfortably, and I still have convenient access to every symbol I need. I might need to do a bit more "work" to type certain things, but that's a small price to pay for the comfort I gain by not having to move my hands.

    I can write at ~120WPM with this setup (but I normally don't need to, my normal typing speed is closer to ~60WPM, because my speed is limited by thinking speed, not my typing speed), I write code with this, I write prose in both English and Hungarian, and I even play some games with it! (Most games I play with a controller though, because I can do that from the couch.)

    Just because it is small doesn't mean it can't do everything a full-sized keyboard can. I just do the same things in a different way, with different compromises. With a full-sized one, if you want to type numbers, you either have to move your hand to the numpad, or use two hands to type something like 1994. I can type that number with one hand, without moving my hand: instead of moving hands, I switch layers. With a full-sized keyboard, if you need Home, End, PageUp, PageDown or the like, you either need to move your hand, or you need whatever program you're using to have different bindings for the same functionality. I can just press a key to go into navigation mode, and move the cursor whatever way I like, without moving my hands, or finding an alternative binding - works in every program, anywhere - instead of moving hands, I press an extra key. I found that pressing an extra key (especially if I don't need to hold it) is more comfortable than moving hands. I also found that not moving my hands increased my accuracy, because I don't need to find the home position when moving my hand back: it never moved in the first place.

  • There’s a lot more keyboards without the numpad and the block of middle keys - whatever they’re called - or with the middle keys reduced or squashed up awkwardly on the side, than full-size plain old 102- or 104-key layout keyboards.

    I don't like reduced-size keys or reshaping the block of six keys. My guess is that reshaping the block of six keys (Insert, Home, etc) is to mirror laptop layouts, so one doesn't have to switch between different layouts mentally. No real need on a desktop, but on a laptop, space is often at a premium.

    But getting rid of the numpad is something that I am definitely enthusiastic about.

    There aren't that many uses for the numpad. In my experience:

    • You actually do a bunch of numeric entry. I think that very few people do this, but for those people, sure, it's useful.
    • A few games use it, largely because it happened to be there for numeric entry. Because laptops don't generally have a numpad, shifting to keybinding schemes that use it have become far less common.

    However, the numpad sits right where the mouse would ideally be if the keyboard is reasonably centered.

    In general, I'd rather have my hands stay on the home row. If you have to use keys off in neverland, like arrow keys or F-keys or the like, you need to relocate your hands. Preferable to use modifier keys and chord them with regular keys in the "main block" of keys. If you're a vi or emacs user, you likely don't use the arrow keys for cursor movement.

    There was also a trend back around, oh, early 2000s to have a bunch of extra keys added to the keyboard, stuff like Play, Pause, etc. That seemed to kinda fall out of favor.

  • Less keys = less finger movements. Also for travel. And finally it’s like camber on cars it’s just a flex.

  • As a small keyboard user myself, I made the switch because I wasn't using those keys anyways and the few that I were could easily be handled with layers. I have one of those desks with the sliding tray where the keyboard sits, so being able to free up space so the keyboard fits comfortably is nice.

  • I type on a Cooler Master Masterkeys Pro M. It's very slightly reduced from a standard 104 key ANSI layout. It has a numpad but is missing the three arrow key columns (what I've taken to calling the nav group as most of those keys are for navigating a document) All that functionality is in the numpad, like it always was, except on this keyboard it's not laid out like an old Model M, they transferred the arrow keys, home-end-page up/down-ins-del keys and such into the numpad in a way that makes sense if you're used to them. Takes a second to get used to, and I actually ever use the numlock key on this keyboard, but it works. The alphanumeric key section is more or less perfectly normal ANSI layout (there's a fn key between right Super and Ctrl) so it's perfectly ordinary to type on.

    Narrowing the keyboard a bit like this does two things for me:

    1. Moving my hand from the home row to the mouse is ~4 inches shorter. A full 104 key is so wide that either the mouse ends up way off to the right, or to reach the home row I have to reach my right hand to my right. My right wrist spends less time at extreme angles.
    2. It frees up room for my space mouse to the left of the keyboard on my tiny little keyboard tray.

    I really don't get the folks who not only did away with the F row but also the number row and have to deal with layers to get to stuff like that.

  • When I used full size keyboard it knocked down my microphone so many times that it became anoying. Moving the keyboard away from microphone wasn't an option because it wasn't comfortable for my hands. Moving microphone itself also wasn't an option because of the cabels and also there is no better position for it on my desk. Combine all of that with the fact that I didn't even use numpad. Smaller keyboard is so much better for me but I see why some people like full size ones.

  • Isn't more keys generally better?

    No. It's not. 101 keyboards have a lot of redundancy and that's just wasted space on the desk.

97 comments