Comment by al_borland
16 hours ago
> considering their quality
Has their finishing improved at all? A coworker bought one, maybe 15 years ago. He has to spend time with a file to remove all the remnants of the molding process. I'd expect a nearly $200 keyboard to feel finished and not have sharp pieces poking out all over the place.
I've long thought about getting a Unicomp, but seeing how poorly finished they were always gave me pause and made me question what other shortcuts they took.
Yes, they're way better now! The quality was poor because they were using decades-old original IBM tooling, and injection molds don't last forever D:. But, they made new molds in, I think, 2020? I bought a New Model M in 2021. Mine has a custom-printed layout, and it looks stock, not just some one-off. The plastic chassis is sturdy and doesn't need any sort of filing. It's been my daily driver ever since and is my favorite keyboard I've ever used, so I happily recommend them to any typing enthusiast. Sooo much better than Cherry switches (or, dog forbid, "office" keyboard rubber domes).
I have bought a Unicomp keyboard 7 years ago, had none of those problems, it works as well now as the day I bought it.