At Truly Ergonomic, they call it Columnar Key placement. Basically, this means the keys are placed in non-staggered columns. In theory, your fingers have to travel less far to reach keys that are not on the home row.

In other reviews I’ve read this key placement has a steep learning curve, but I did not expect this layout would be a big issue.

I was wrong…

The first week I did type lots of errors. I really had to learn to touch type over again (my colleagues laughed at me). But I took advantage of this, because before I nearly ever used my pinkies while touch typing. So while learning to type on the TECK I tuned my touch typing skills. Now I type fast on the TECK, even faster than before and with less errors.

Only so far I didn’t get used to the position of the number keys. It feels like they are farther away than on a regular keyboard. But this just might a feeling because I often use the keypad or remove my hand from the home row when typing numbers on a regular keyboard.

This is one of the main reasons why I bought the TECK. To get a more ergonomic keyboard.

And, it helps…. It doesn’t look like the angle between the two halfs is large, but I think it is good enough to have ergonomic benefit.

My TECK is equiped with the Cherry MX Brown switches. And I love them. They are really comfortable to type on. They do not require much force and really give a tactile response, without being too clicky. After using mechanical keys for some time, you really hate typing on those cheap rubber dome keyboards.

The keyboard is really compact. And that is awesome.

All modifier keys are placed symmetrically. So the Ctrl, Alt & Shift are placed on the same position on both sides. This makes it really easy to use your opposite hand to press a modifier keys, e.g. Right Ctrl + C, Left Shift + U This has a large ergonomic advantage. You never have to reach for keys when having your pinky placed on a modifier key.

It took me some time to learn their location, but you’ll get used to it. Too bad the Backspace is placed right above the ENTER, because you can accidentally press ENTER, while you wanted to erase text. Which can be a problem inside a chat window.

I do not really like the default placement of all keys. By default the Shift is located at the home row and Ctrl below it. I’ve tried this for a short time, but I did not like it for two reasons:

• On a regular keyboard Shift is placed below the home row.
• On a regular keyboard I did remap Ctrl to Caps Lock (above Shift)

So for me it makes more sense to swap Ctrl & Shift. Luckely for me, Truly Ergonomic provides a firmware version with these to keys swapped. Also the keycaps are easily swapped, because their shape is the same.

The position of the Alt is something I was afraid for. The default location is all the way at the bottom corners. For an emacs user this is a disaster. So people suggested me to remap the left Space to Alt. This places Alt at a similar location as on a regular keyboard. Unfortunately this means Alt is only on the left side of the keyboard and Space is only at the right side of the keyboard

In the beginning it was hard to type Space with the right hand (only). Until now I still use this placement.

But I am thinking about remapping the middle Delete key to Alt (maybe more on that in a next post).

To change the keymapping, I used KeyTweak on Windows.

I work on 3 different operating systems: Mac (at home), Windows and Linux (at work). I’m already used to switching, and I like the Ctrl on the same location for all systems. Because of that, when working with the TECK on Mac I do not set toggle DIP switch #2. But this means the SuperKey, at the center of the keyboard, is the only ⌘ key. This key is located between the 5 and 6. And this does not feel right.

So I’ve used KeyRemap4MacBook to remap the left Space to ⌘. Again this gives a very similar feel as regular keyboard. Because I use the ⌘ as Meta key in Emacs, this makes switching systems even easier.

I like the TECK, a lot. I’ve been looking on the internet for lot of other keyboards. And in my opinion the TECK is the best on the market (in its price range). Too bad I’ve had trouble with missing/double keypresses.

Do I recommend the TECK? Actually, I do!

The layout is really great, also is the quality of the mechanical keys. The only big downside, Truly Ergonomic sucks at support. And to be honest, this also might be a showstopper for me. On the other hand, I am also considering to buy a second one for use at home.

I wrote this post on my Apple keyboard, and now my left pinky hurts.