If you don't believe me, check out this quote from A.E.D.

Wada.

Because keyboards are accessories to PC makers, they focus on minimizing manufacturing costs.

But that's incorrect.

When America's cowboys were in the middle of a trip and their horse died, they would leave the horse there.

But even if they were in the middle of a desert, they would take their saddle with them.

The horse was a consumable good and the saddle was an interface that their bodies had become accustomed to.

In the same vein, PCs are consumable goods while keyboards are important interfaces.

As you may have guessed, this is a video about a keyboard, but not just any keyboard.

If you spend any amount of time perusing about mechanical keyboards online, you'll see one name come up time and time again, the happy hacking keyboard.

If you're anything like me, the first thing you felt upon doing a little bit of research into this keyboard is complete and utter shock at the more than $300 sticker price.

You'll probably think to yourself, there's no way that this keyboard can be worth it.

Or can it?

More on that later.

When you pause and think about Wada's quote, it actually does make a lot of sense, even if it is a bit out of pocket.

I mean, just think about the 2015 MacBook Pros for a second and the butterfly keyboard.

Exactly, you don't want to.

A keyboard can make or break your experience of using a computer.

Much like an improperly fitted saddle can leave you with saddle sores or a wedgie to beat the band, an improperly fitted keyboard can leave you with carpal tunnel or just frustration.

As an antidote to this, the first happy hacking keyboard was introduced to the world by A.D.

Wada in December of 1996. 27 years later and on its fourth iteration now, the happy hacking keyboard still stays true to its, at the time, diminutive 60 key layout and unique control settings.

And that's what we're gonna talk about today.

That fourth generation of the happy hacking keyboard in the Type S silent key configuration.

The Pro Hybrid Type S comes with a few firsts for the happy hacking keyboard.

Namely, USB-C connectivity, as well as the first time of having the silent tote brick keys.

It can connect to more than four different devices via Bluetooth with instant switching.

More on that later.

It's powered by two AA batteries, although it can also receive power via the USB-C connectivity.

It can sit at three different heights thanks to its adjustable kickstands on the back, as well as just its flat configuration.

It's fully compatible with both Windows and Mac, as well as any of the mobile operating systems.

You can also customize its layout via PFU's proprietary key mapping software, as well as the configuration switches on the backside of the keyboard, which we'll talk about a little bit later.

And there are some third party options for keyboard and key binding configurations as well.

As mentioned before, the keyboard is a diminutive 60 keys.

It comes in at just under a foot in length.

It's offered in three stock colors.

There is classic white, which is what I have, snow white, and a just straight black.

You can also get it with blank key caps or stamped key caps.

The reason I opted for the stamped key caps is because although the blank key caps are extremely visually appealing in that kind of minimalistic sort of way, because of the way that the function key bind works, not having access to a visual cue on the keyboard can actually be really confusing.

And for that reason, I'm really glad I chose the stamped key caps as well.

And that was a decision I made based on what I read online.

I'm really, really stoked on the classic white color.

It kind of has this like vintage 80s feel to it.

It feels like you're typing on an old Apple II or an IBM machine, which is actually what this is modeled after, the old IBM computers.

Talk about that here in a second too.

That said, as you can see, my setup is kind of dark.

I think it would have looked a little bit better with the black keyboard.

And if I could do it again, that's probably the option I would go with.

One of the core differentiating factors of the Happy Hacking Keyboard is its use of the Topra key switch.

Topra is a key switch manufactured by a Japanese company of the same name.

And while they are similar to mechanical key switches, there's a couple of key differences that are worth talking about.

It does still use a spring as a standard mechanical key switch does.

However, there's this kind of rubber dome that sits in between the key itself and the board where it registers.

The majority of the typing resistance that you feel on a Topra is actually provided more by this rubber dome than it would be by the switch or anything else in the keyboard.

How this works is that as a key switch is being pressed, that board actually measures the electrostatic capacitance, or basically the capacity or ability to generate or hold electricity occurring as a result of that keystroke.

And once that has passed a certain threshold, it registers the keystroke.

While that's kind of a technical explanation, what this ultimately results in is a really unique and really special kind of feeling as you type.

If you look around online, you'll see that a Topra switch is kind of most often compared to a Cherry Brown.

And having used both, there are definitely some similarities.

But what I will say is that the Topra switch does stand alone.

It's a very unique, different type of typing experience.

Having used it for a while now, and again, having tried both, I will say that I vastly prefer the Topra key switch to a Cherry Brown.

Honestly, it's really not even that close.

Subjectively, the level of satisfaction I get from typing on this keyboard is legitimately stupid.

While it is difficult to put a price tag on the surprise and delight factor of using anything, let alone a keyboard, I will say that in my opinion, that alone makes this keyboard worth at least its price tag.

It just makes me want to type.

And as a software engineer and content creator, a huge amount of my time is spent typing.

This is the important interface that I use to interact with my computer.

So being motivated to spend a little bit of extra time typing or working purely because of how good it feels is a huge win for me.

If you can believe it, actually the first thing I do when I sit down to work is turn off the noise canceling feature of my headphones.

That way, if I throw on some lo-fi beats or something else to work to, and the sound of the keyboard comes through, I kind of create my own ASMR channel in real time while I'm doing work.

And that's a really, really cool feeling.

When you first start typing on your Happy Hacking keyboard, especially if you've yet never used a 60% layout before, there is a little bit of a learning curve.

Again, much like there's kind of two key differences that we talked about as far as the toper switches, I think there's two key differences in layout that are also worth discussing about this keyboard.

The control key is actually where you would normally find the caps locks key.

And it's actually the original position from an IBM computer that was released in 1984.

After about a week of use, I actually came to vastly prefer this.

I'm no longer randomly screaming at people while I'm typing because the caps lock is kind of gated behind another key.

And the control key really does feel like it belongs there.

And then the function key located at the bottom right of the keyboard is how you're going to make up for the lack of the 44 keys that would be present on a standard 104 key layout.

If you look at the front side of several keys, you'll notice that there's not only something printed on the top of the key, but also there on the front.

And the way this works is that if you hold down the function key and then press that key as well, you'll access not the function listed on the top of the key, but on the front side of the key.

For certain more complex key bindings like Magnet, my personal favorite productivity app, kind of lets you shift where your windows are in a screen and on a 49 inch curve, that's helpful.

Some of those more complicated key bindings are a little bit hard to keep track of.

And they take some getting used to between the control key being placed where it is and the function key being placed where it is.

And whether you use a Windows or a Mac, you're actually set on this keyboard as well.

On the backside of the keyboard, there's a config panel that you can open with little micro switches that you can adjust with a screwdriver, or I actually use a Popsicle stick because I happen to have one.

And that lets you toggle the layout of the keyboard on the fly between a few different things.

You can switch between Mac mode or Windows mode, as well as alter the functionality of things like the function key or the option alt key.

Because I no longer have a gaming PC or really any Windows device for that matter, I just always leave it on the Mac setting.

And as I toggle between my iPad and my MacBook, which I'll show you a little bit later on, I just leave it on Mac and I've been extremely happy with it.

This is far and away the most impressive Bluetooth switching I've seen on any device, not just a keyboard.

It works simply enough.

If you hold down function and Q, you'll notice that the light will start flashing and you've entered Bluetooth connectivity mode.

And then at that point, if you hold down function, control, and the number one through four to signify which of the four available devices you'd like to pair to, you can then start the pairing process.

After you've connected to multiple devices, you simply hold down function, control, and one, two, three, or four, depending on which of your devices you're trying to access.

And it instantly, and I do mean instantly, toggles between devices that you've previously connected to.

I love this feature for swapping between my MacBook and my iPad.

Sometimes if I don't wanna work at my desk or I wanna take my iPad to a coffee shop or something like this and just be able to toggle on the fly or if I'm working on a script while I'm working because sometimes that happens and I wanna do that on my iPad maybe, you can toggle back and forth really easily and I'm continually floored by how impressive this feature actually is.

Frankly, I actually haven't had the keyboard long enough yet to have an accurate representation of the battery life.

What I can speak to though is its intelligent sleep mode, which I've really enjoyed.

If you don't use the keyboard for approximately 30 minutes, it will just automatically enter a sleep mode and to turn it back on, you simply hold the power button on the back of the keyboard again and you're off to the races.

This is super handy as someone who often walks away from my desk, completely forgetting to turn off all of my devices or things plugged into my computer.

It helps me not drain through the AA batteries quite so quickly.

And although I haven't personally had to replace the batteries yet, if you look around online, it seems like the hive mind generally agrees that you're looking at about one and a half to two months of battery life rather than the advertised three months.

Depending on how long you use the keyboard every day, that number will also fluctuate a bit.

Also do keep in mind that it does just have USB-C connectivity available as well and so if you have one of those kind of cool, quirky, coiled cables that you wanna use or if you're just not that worried about minimizing the appearance of cables on your desk, that is also an excellent option.

Ah yes, the piece de resistance.

You may have just skipped to this part because it is linked in the video but if you just wanna hear how this keyboard sounds, this is the part of the video where we're gonna do that.

I'll demo typing for 30 seconds to a minute and I really just want you to get a sense of how good this keyboard actually sounds.

So.

I could write a dissertation about Japanese manufacturing and craftsmanship and in fact, I'm going to at some point, stay tuned for that video and when I do, I would love to write it on this keyboard.

That is to say, the Happy Hacking Keyboard is without a doubt, the best keyboard I have ever used.

After seven years as a software engineer and a lifetime of being a gamer and kind of just a nerdy guy in general, I spent a lot of time interfacing with keyboards and I've used a lot of different ones and frankly, there is nothing even close.

When you combine the tight 60 key form factor, slick vintage aesthetics, the customizability of the layout, instant Bluetooth toggling and above all, the incredible typing experience, I really don't think you can get anywhere close to this keyboard.

While the more than $300 retail price is more than enough to scare away a few people and is just straight up prohibitive for even more, I really do think that if you have a career or passions that revolve around spending a lot of time typing, that this is worth every single penny and more.

So next time it's time to hop into the saddle and ride your hi-ho silver companion of a computer into the sunset, I highly recommend looking in to the Happy Hacking Keyboard is your saddle.

And don't forget, if your horse dies in the desert, take the saddle with you.

If you've made it this far and you liked this video, leave me a comment, leave me a like and hit that subscribe button.

I'd love to know what your thoughts on Happy Hacking Keyboard are.

Have you tried it before?

Did you like it?

Do you think it's worth it?

And more importantly maybe, is there a better option on the market that I don't know of?

I'd love to hear.

And with that, till next time folks.

Bye.