today we're going to check out a keyboard that is definitely deep within
the mechanical keyboard community it's such a prominent keyboard and is owned
by quite a lot of people it's distinctive in its look and design and
this is of course the happy hacking keyboard which is a great name by the
way or h h kb with this one being a professional too from p fu the huge
thanks to Danny for learning this keyboard to me and giving me the
opportunity to review it and we also have a wrist rest and a cover which are
from bird electron from Japan opening up the box we have the mini USB cable the
keyboard itself some paperwork and two stickers with a twentieth anniversary
one as well and here it is and this thing is light but it doesn't feel
necessarily cheap and it has minimal flex because of that quite bulky design
of the enclosure it only comes out just over 500 grams because of its complete
plastic construction and for the price it comes out many for sure we'll be left
feeling short especially if you didn't do your research and that's an
absolutely fair point even though it is light it's not too far off standard
seats to present boards with steel plates but the fact that it's just all
plastic may not make sense from a price standpoint but funnily enough it's also
one of the big features of the keyboard the HH KB is a 60% keyboard meaning that
it's approximately 60% of a full-sized keyboard so it's like the polka
keyboards and is the same size as this and pro however we have some open spaces
on the two bottom corners which for sure will perplex many people as to why that
is and this is what gives the HH QB its iconic look which is finished off by the
classic branding usually I dislike clear branding but when is expensive it just
seems to be more acceptable and that's just how it is and that's what makes it
beautiful it's a very simple rectangular design with the slim chin and a thicker
header the key caps are an elegant white and grey with perfectly clean black
legends however this is also available in a stealthy black version if we look
at the side profile we can see it has quite a bit of nut
celebration with a slightly curved top edge and it's just a solid flat slide
which I like on the rear we have two USB a ports and our mini USB port to connect
the keyboards with the device and while you may be happy to see a USB hub these
are low powered so I can't use my USB 3 drives as Windows will say it doesn't
have enough power the only use I've got and added them is plugging in my
wireless dongle for my mouse this is especially useful for me since I do work
with my tablet sometimes for testing and since the keyboard does populate the
only USB output I can't normally use my mouse so it's somewhat useful for me but
by others completely not this is one of the reasons amongst others that people
get an alternative controller from hasu which can allow for full program
building and bluetooth capabilities and then next to those we have our dip
switch door we have six dip switches that change a few things on the keyboard
if we look at the bottom of the keyboard there's actually a table that tells you
what each switch does I only changed one switch which is the third one and that
allows backspace to be the Delete key so by default the backspace is on a
function layer meaning that you have to press function and delete so that was
just an automatic change for me and on the bottom we have two rubber feet which
is again disappointing at this price point as it does slide around and there
are two flip up bit on each side for different angles but again they're not
rubber tips this is my first extended period with their hatch hkb so while I
have used 60% keyboards in the past this layout is a new experience for me and
this layout is absolutely adored by many but for what I do and how I use my
keyboard it's not really for me and by moving the control key to wear caps lock
was it's been a nice change having it much more easy to reach with my pinky by
default the backspace key is on a secondary layer which is impossible so I
said before I flicked the third dip switch to have it on the Delete key this
is also in a different position being one row lower than normal but I got used
to it within minutes and this is something I actually really liked
because when I went back to a normal layout when testing other keyboards I
constantly hit the slash key because naturally the
backspace is that touch too far to reach without moving your hand and wrist and
with it being lower I can actually reach it with my pinky other than that it's
just typical 60% keyboard use we have the arrow keys on a secondary layer but
are in a diamond shape personally I do prefer my dedicated arrow keys because I
use them a lot the function row is at the top on the secondary layer as per
usual and we have the nav Kostis scattered around the right side of the
keyboard which is also in close proximity to the function key because of
the smaller bottom row our function key is on the right creating a shorter shift
key I do like this setup and I have no issues with it and there's no doubt that
it's not the most space efficient bottom row because why not just have whatever
keys there like anything but once the control key is moved
I just forgot about those spaces it just didn't matter anymore and sure there can
be something else there but it would just be like your specialized key that
you may not even use and finally we have some MIDI control keys on asdf and it's
good to see that they included the option and command symbols for Apple
users so for work it's not my thing I like dedicated caps lock I like my
dedicated arrow keys and even some of their nav keys but it's still absolutely
usable but for casual use like just typing and browsing the internet I found
it easy to use and quickly got used to its little quirks people often say that
after using this layout for a while they can't go back to normal and perhaps if I
gave this more of a chance that could be the case for a casual use but for many
of you out there this is quite foreign and will require that bit of time and
effort to get used to it I know people already struggle with the
idea of going less than a 10 kilos so it may be daunting for some the other big
feature and part of the high price is that it uses terrific key switches I've
gone in depth about these switches in previous videos but basically these are
not mechanical but are using rubber domes or cups however these are much
better than the regular run-of-the-mill membrane keyboard so we have the key cap
which is on top of the plunger which we push down just like a normal switch and
that depresses the rubber Cup which has a conical spring inside and then that
interacts with a capacitive sensor on PCB which creates the actuation this
creates a different experience in comparison to a typical mechanical
switch it's much like a rubber dome where the tactile bump isn't sharp and
distinct and is towards the top instead of the middle these ones in particular
are 45 gram domes so they're not overly heavy and have
this in tactile feedback a normal rubber dome keyboard that you find anywhere
tend to be heavier at like 50 60 70 and higher but will be mushiya and as these
have tourist stems normal MX style key caps cannot be put on there unless you
replace the sliders and this is where the plastic construction more
specifically the plastic plate comes into play the other tougher boards like
the real forces and the Leopold FCC 60 C have steel mounting plates and this
impacts on the typing experience on how it feels and sounds without thinking I
let my real force while I had his hedge hashkee B so I can't do a direct
comparison but basically the plastic case kind of softens the experience in a
way however my experience out of the box wasn't great most of my experience has
been with a real force which I felt was very smooth and worked perfectly but
this did not feel that smooth however this may change over time as you were
din and then there was also this weird issue with some keys having some odd
sharpish sound and was something to do with the spring and that's just
unacceptable
and then the spacebar was just readily
my real force spacebar is just the most perfect spacebar I have ever used
but this rattled and was loud which was disappointing but to be clear this is
for this specific unit I tried others that are fine but I guess
there's potential for this to happen so let's just open it up and have a look
it's super easy with just a couple of exposed Phillips head screws
here's the plastic bottom shell and this also houses the controller and other
bits including those very limited USB ports the great thing about this as said
before is that you can purchase an alternative hustler controller which
will give you full program ability and Bluetooth capabilities and other than
that it's very simple there's no ribbing or reinforcement anywhere and because of
this it of course flexes on its own here's the top bit and everything is
held together because the sliders are on one side and the key caps on the other
and as you can see basically all these black bits do is push down on the rubber
domes and then here is what makes this being expensive we have the PCB and the
domes these rubber don't can be taken off and replaced with ease they aren't
fixed to anything but just stay in place when everything is put together and then
under the domes are the conical springs and these do not determine the weight of
the key switch like on the MX the switches rather it's the dome itself
that does that and here's the issue I was having with that annoying sound and
I really wasn't sure what to do and I'll just move stuff around and put it back
together and it helps someone
and let's also quickly open the other things we have this wooden wrist rest
and then a clear acrylic cover specifically made for this keyboard the
wrist rest comes with two sets of flat rubber feet which are of differing
Heights since it's not mine I didn't stick them on without the rubber feet
the wrist rest is dead flat with no angle of elevation I think this is the
walnut color and it looks quite nice it's pretty standard with a smooth satin
finish but you can fill the grains on the bottom we do have their branding and
also this scoop and yet it does what it's supposed to do in reducing the
angle in your wrists now to the keyboard cover or roof as they call it this comes
with some self-adhesive fern to both protect the keyboard and also prevents
it from sliding I don't know how exactly this is supposed to be there's four
strips but for now I just put one on each side and that does the job and this
thing is just stunning I've made my own acrylic covers before but they were just
bent and I closed like this on this one we have there clear acrylic but then the
black pieces on the ends to close it off the acrylic is about three millimeters
thick but when I opened it one corner had a slight crack in it which is
disappointing but this looks absolutely amazing but most importantly it keeps
all the dust out so overall it's a mixed bag the keyboard has such a stigma that
even though I haven't had much time with it before what people value is already
in my head and that's a good thing because I probably wouldn't have
realized a few things and not value certain aspects as much as others do but
on the other side it's daunting to criticize and get something wrong
objectively the bill doesn't really match the price it has a completely
plastic enclosure and that goes for the plate as
well with 99% of mechanical keyboards having a metal plate it's also very
light but the plastic construction gives it a unique characteristic in how it
feels and sounds when typing that many people do desire these are using four to
five Grand Tour pre-k switches in my opinion it's an acquired taste Turpin
didn't amaze me at first but over time I started to value it more especially when
using other keyboards with MX valve switches there were also a few issues
with mine that I had to fix myself the randomly spacebar on its overboard just
shouldn't exist and then some Keys had the weird sharp something going on and
even though I was able to fix it to a degree
you shouldn't have to open up your keyboard to do that there's definitely a
protective feeling from the community for the hatch hatch can be it's
definitely not for everyone for some it's the perfect board and I bet there's
a fair few who just forced themselves to like it because of the emotional and
financial investment but what we can say is that the happy hacking keyboard is an
important part of the community and is a clear representation of it as well to
start off with this perhaps may be a bit steep but you can try thanks again to
Dani for loaning this to me and I greatly appreciated