🏭 🚣🏼 🏨 Overview of the mechanical keyboard Vortex Core RGB 🐹 🤞🏼 ↪️

I don’t understand anything in keyboards, in my life there was only Genius, Logitech and the poppy keyboard. I want to love keyboards, but they piss me off. I can’t learn to print blindly, I don’t get to the buttons, I don’t reach some, I need to remember different layouts in which the same buttons can be in different places. On top of this, it infuriates that standard layouts are inconvenient for programming: all the brackets and signs near the little finger of the right hand, it is overloaded, there is no pleasure. The arrows are made for the right hand, and there is also a mouse nearby, you often have to move your hand.

My dissatisfaction finally finished off Nikita's post about keyboard design. I realized that this is not the only one and you can look for some options. I went to the showroom and chose the most unusual: a compact keyboard at 40%, two spaces, arrows at hand, brackets in the center. I could not resist, and after a couple of months of use I’m ready to review it.

How much is? Expensive

The keyboard is a fairly simple electronics: dozens of buttons, a board, a controller for signal recognition and caps.

In a regular keyboard, instead of the buttons, there is a membrane, the button bounces due to the springy properties of rubber. This lowers the price of the keyboard, but it cannot be repaired and it is difficult to give any special printing experience.

Otherwise: put a separate spring mechanism in each button. Then it turns out to control the nature of pressing the button, the response time and the sound of the key. The mechanism for such keys was invented for a long time, you can read about it on Wikipedia .

Membrane keyboards cost very little, prices start at 100 rubles. Mechanical keyboards are more expensive because making dozens of mechanisms is more difficult. Because of this, prices quickly rise to 10,000 rubles, it is easy to find and more expensive. Along with the price, the quality of the keyboard and the feeling of using it are growing.

Of all the keyboards in the showroom, I liked the Vortex Core RGB, it was the most unusual: compact, arrows directly in letters. It cost 10,000 rubles, but I convinced myself to buy it, because this is the main tool for work. By the way, the Apple Magic Keyboard costs the same.

Mechanics features

What is special about a mechanical keyboard? Each button has a separate mechanism, they come in different types.

Roughly they can be combined into three types:

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These types have dozens of variations: tighter, lighter, quieter and plus many different manufacturers. The Cherry MX website talks about the sound and the actions of the buttons, sticky.

Gif: cherrymx

It was important for me that I could type in the room where the baby was sleeping, so I bought my keyboard with linear quiet switches. It turned out really quietly, but the linear buttons did not suit me: sometimes I touch the neighboring buttons and I can’t understand if the button was pressed or not. But clicking is very nice.

Five layer and load redistribution

Even the most ordinary keyboard has at least 2 layers: the normal one and after pressing Shift. It is also often possible to hold Alt and gain access to rare characters.
The Vortex Core has noticeably fewer keys, but their functions have not disappeared anywhere, but have moved to additional layers (on the keyboard they are signed on the side in red, green and blue). They are activated by clamping function keys:

Fn will give access to arrows and multimedia.
Fn1 - to numbers and F-keys.
Fn1 + Shift - to special signs.

You can get used to this layout in a month. Learning is much easier than switching to DVORAK or COLEMAK, in which letters change their places. Here, a new arrangement is only for additional keys and a few Russian letters.

Buying this keyboard, I expected:

Arrows in a convenient location.
The brackets in the center of the keyboard to be pressed with different fingers, not just the little finger.
Numbers and signs that you do not need to reach.

In fact, something became more convenient, but unexpected minuses also appeared, so I will tell you the details.

Arrows

In a regular keyboard, the arrows are located on the right, which is far from the base position of the arm. Because of this, the hand must be moved not only to the mouse, but also to the arrows. But the less movements, the easier it is to work. You can solve this problem by moving the arrows on the IJKL keys. In this keyboard, the arrows stand as they should:

To the right of the space is the Fn button , if you hold it down, all blue signatures on the keyboard will become available . I only needed the arrows and volume keys. Conveniently, Fn is located directly under the thumb of the right hand and is pressed in one motion. I got used to it in literally half an hour.

Numbers and F1-F12

There is another modifier button - Fn1 . It replaces the buttons with red captions : the numbers appear on the base line, and the F-keys in place of qwerty. I also did not have to get used to this for a long time. It seemed strange to me that the numbers are shifted to the left by one button - 1 was in place of the Tab.

Brackets and signs

With blue and red buttons sorted out, remained green . Here the main disappointment overtook me - I expected that they would be switched on with the Pn button, but it turned out that they would be turned on with the Fn1 + Shift key combination .

And this is the most important keyboard error! To press both buttons you have to shift your hand to the right, but then it’s hard to reach the center keys. The tension of the whole hand is visible on the thumb, although it is not involved in the process:

As a result, the whole hand shifts, and the convenience of the small keyboard is lost. It’s good that you can reflash the keyboard. The first thing I did was move Fn1 to the right space, and the problem was gone.

All the brackets were under the index and middle fingers, and this is very convenient. I had to get used to it for about a week.

Pn Button

If Pn does not include green buttons, then what does it do? It turned out that Pn only controls the backlight. You can choose the color, blinking mode, after pressing the keys, the light may diverge in waves, but it all seems superfluous. The button is too important and too rarely used. But in the New Year +1 garland.

Russian letters

And then the pain begins. But to understand it, you need the background of crutches in the world of keyboards.

Klava consists of a physical part and software. The software has settled down, we connect any keyboard to any computer, and usually it starts working right away. Keycodes have remained since ancient times, and with them their modifiers. Therefore, Russian X will be on the English key {, so it is entered into the system. You can change the layout in the computer, but then you can’t just connect the keyboard and start working, you will need to install the layout. Due to the complexity of this, few people bother.

There are more Russian letters than English, so they are placed on all sorts of special signs. If the brackets are moved closer to the center (convenient), then the Russian buttons will leave with them (inconvenient). So the letters E, E, X, Kommersant were in the center of the red layer. The new location had to learn the longest, because these buttons are not signed and had to be found by exhaustive search. As a result, I’m used to it, but it’s physically difficult to type:: you have to pull the fingers of any hand to Fn1, Shift and the letters

. It turned out to be a little more convenient by flashing the keyboard, but the standard layout looks like this:

Extra keys

In a small keyboard, each button should be useful. But I immediately found a few extra keys. There are enough nonsense:

The second space. By default, it does nothing useful.
The Pn button controls the backlight, but it would be better if it included a green layer.
The Fn1 button is inconvenient. You can move it to the right space.
Del button, although Backspace is next to it. If you really wanted to, you could do it through Fn + Backspace.
Right Alt and Win. Does anyone use them at all?

Shortcuts have become different

I use a lot of shortcuts when I program. Some of them are connected with brackets. Since now the brackets are in a new place, then the gestures for shortcuts have become different. To change this habit was the most difficult, for each shortcut you have to go through 3 stages:

remember which buttons I pressed before
understand where to click now,
to memorize this gesture.

As a result, I even forgot some of the shortcuts, because it was lazy to teach so much. And some of them became so long that it was impossible to press them even with two hands, and I stopped using them.

Layers and Macros

We have already dealt with four layers: regular, red, blue and green. But that's not all! Additionally, you can record 4 more layers and switch to them if necessary using Fn. But that’s not all: the keyboard can store macros, and you don’t even need programs to record them, everything is done right on the keyboard.

Perhaps this is very important to someone, but I have not found applications. When changing the layer, the LED turns on and lights up all the time, and this interferes.

Ergonomics

The keyboard is small. It is smaller than the compact Apple Magic Keyboard, and compared to the rest, it seems tiny at all. For comparison, the photo shows 120% Optimus Maximus.

I work on a laptop, with an additional keyboard it became uncomfortable at first: the depth of the table is not enough for both the keyboard and the laptop. The stand not only solved this problem, but also corrected the position of the head, you no longer need to look down.

The keyboard is high. I used to print on a laptop, its keys are in the plane of the table, and this one is three centimeters higher. Brush holders made printing more comfortable.
The keyboard is rectangular as a brick: neither the case nor the keys are tilted. At first, it was uncomfortable for me to reach the top row, and then I realized that in general I was holding my hand incorrectly. My brush was almost straightened, but I had to squeeze my fingers so that they were placed vertically on the main row.

Micro-USB is located on top. If you use a standard wire, it will stick out of the keyboard and interfere with putting it close to the monitor. A-shaped wire from Auchan completely copes with the problem.

Mobile, but vulnerable.Due to the size of the keyboard, it is convenient to carry, but the corner keys are too close to the edge, so they fly off easily. Each time I took it out of my briefcase, I had to look for one of the buttons and put it in place. Most likely, the key holder is worn out, and over time the problem will become more acute. It is solved with a rag bag, but it is not included.

The keyboard is heavy, despite its size. At its base is metal. My portfolio was just hers, but if you wear something else, then an extra weight of 400 grams can interfere. For comparison: the Vortex Core RGB is twice as heavy as the Magic keyboard, but slightly lighter than the iPad.

Flashing

The layout can (and should) be changed. The keyboard supports the main layer and up to four additional ones, you can switch between them with a shortcut. You can record macros directly from the keyboard (I did not use this), or you can rewrite the layout from a computer (I used this a lot).

You can download firmware from the manufacturer, which on the same site will allow you to configure the keyboard . Installing firmware is only possible with Windows, so I had to go on a visit. The new firmware makes the keyboard disgusting: the Russian buttons leave for a new place, and from Caps Lock the LED starts to glow right in the eye. You cannot still change the standard layer.

It is fortunate that Freddie Wang has already encountered this problem . He made a website and firmware, which allow you to change the main layer.

My layout modifications

I set Fn1 to the right space to turn on the red buttons. It became easier to press it together with Shift for a set of characters, but it turned out that I pressed the spacebar a lot with my right hand, I had to unlearn it. In the place of the manufacturer, I would go further and break the space into smaller buttons.

Moved the buttons' and / from the additional layers to the main one, they are too necessary for programming and Xcode shortcuts. They were in the center, pushed them to a more familiar position. Russian letters also moved with them: E turned out to be in the upper right, and E to the right to Shift on the Fn1 layer. X and Kommersant remained on the red layer.

I liked the format of the forty percent keyboard. Retraining for a different button layout is not difficult, but there may be problems with the Russian language and shortcuts. I got used to it in about a month, but the keyboard lost accessibility for other users of my computer.

The Vortex Core RGB keyboard left a mixed impression. On the one hand, she made my work more comfortable: the set itself became more pleasant, the buttons for programming were in the right places. On the other hand, I can’t recommend it to everyone: I’ll have to finish my Russian language, but I need to get used to the layout of the buttons.

Alas, I did not calm down. Having trained on the keyboard simulator, I realized that the horizontal shift of the keys bothers me. Fingers don’t move like that, but I can’t get used to shifting the buttons. The simulator corrected the position of my hands to a more correct one, but the wrist joint became tired of this.

In the end, I went looking for an ortho-linear split keyboard. About what it is and whether it helped me - next time. In the meantime, photos of the new keyboard can be found in the DodoMobile channel .

Overview of the mechanical keyboard Vortex Core RGB