Wednesday, June 5th 2019

Ducky Brings a Flock of New Mechanical Keyboards to Computex

Ducky Channel is one of the oldest mechanical keyboard OEMs and whitebox manufacturers in Taiwan, and brought a vast selection of new mechanical keyboards to Computex 2019, with a focus on space-saving TKL (tenkeyless) and sub-TKL form-factors without compromising on the size of the keycaps. A running design theme at the Ducky booth has been a fusion of the Chinese Year of the Pig in a rendition by Formosan artists (indigenous people of the island of Taiwan). We begin our tour with the Shine, a lineup of full-size 108-key units that now come in the new Gunmetal Grey color option. These keyboards feature a zinc-alloy top, with PBT double-shot seamless keycaps, and another in hot-rod red+black color scheme. You can have the Shine in a number of Cherry MX switch options. The 2019 edition also comes with USB type-C cabling in addition to type-A.
The Freedom is a slight variation of the Shine with a slightly refreshed 2-tone body, which is purported as the company's first "tri-mode" keyboard. You can plug it in directly to USB (type-A or type-C), or run it wireless over Bluetooth 4.2 (no dongle required if your PC has a Bluetooth adapter), or 2.4 GHz RF (using the included dongle). You get RGB LED illumination when the keyboard is plugged in. It runs without lighting when in either of the two wireless modes. The One 2 is a 2019 refresh of Ducky One, the company's "most mainstream" product, featuring a no-nonsense conventional 104-keyset, Cherry MX switches, and a handful advancements such as USB-C support, PBT double-shot keycaps, and support for Razer Chroma for controlling the lighting, in addition to Ducky's own RGB Software. The One 2 SF is a sawed-off sub-TKL variant with a 67-keyset.
Next up, is the Miya Pro, co-designed by Varmilo, one of Ducky's OEM clients. This sub-TKL keyboard comes in five 2-tone color schemes with motifs printed on the keycaps. The color-schemes include "Panda," "Forest Fairy," "Sakura," "Sea Melody," and "Rainbow." The Miya Pro is a sub-TKL keyboard in which the arrow cluster has been moved closer to the main cluster, cursor-position keys condensed from 6 to 4, and Function keys dissolved into the main cluster, accessible by holding down the Fn key. The result is a keyboard that's 68 keys strong, and about 65% the size of of a TKL keyboard.
The Mecha Mini dials is down a notch further than the Miya Pro, by completely getting rid of everything but the main cluster, with 62 keys, and more functions, actions, and cursor movements set as macros. The body is made of a zinc-alloy, with an acrylic crown that puts out some lighting, and an aluminium underbody. Ducky designed the keyboard in two color options, black and white. Lastly, Ducky unveiled a commemorative Formosan Year of the Pig keyboard that's a rendition of the the One 2 SF with special body cladding and tribal art.
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7 Comments on Ducky Brings a Flock of New Mechanical Keyboards to Computex

#1
s3thra
Does it only bug me when keyboards don't have this key?:

Posted on Reply
#2
jeremyshaw
s3thraDoes it only bug me when keyboards don't have this key?:

You're not the only one. For me, it's a near fatal flaw of my Lavonne laptops. On the Thinkpads, they replace it completely with a near useless Print Screen key that alternates to a dedicated snipping tool key, On the Dells, it's a little less bad, since they still hide it as an alternate function for the right Control key. The last laptop I had with a proper menu key is my Sony Vaio. Looking at the successor company, Vaio still actually puts a proper menu key there.

Laughably, the recommendation on Lenovo's forum is to use "shift+f10," which doesn't strictly work in all cases, is a wildly cumbersome combination, and is basically Windows-only.
Posted on Reply
#3
btarunr
Editor & Senior Moderator
s3thraDoes it only bug me when keyboards don't have this key?:

Me too. Also keyboards that don't have a calculator button.
Posted on Reply
#4
SL2
That's funny, I've only pressed that key by accident. On the other hand, it's not like it can't be fixed in the keyboard file (if you have a key to spare).

The Pause key is the one that I'd miss, looking at you Lenovo, especially when installing Windows.
Posted on Reply
#5
jeremyshaw
MatsThat's funny, I've only pressed that key by accident. On the other hand, it's not like it can't be fixed in the keyboard file (if you have a key to spare).

The Pause key is the one that I'd miss, looking at you Lenovo, especially when installing Windows.
On the thinkpads, Pause is fn+p (works on mine). Though you mentioned installing Windows, and Lenovo is backwards enough they might actually require the KB parser to be installed first, lol.

I suppose if you're used to using the mouse, then right click does nearly everything the Menu key does. For me, it's inconvinient to take my hand off the KB, index the cursor, right click, index, left click, then find my position again on the KB, when I could just hit the menu key and the appropriate shortcut key. In some programs, it's more useful than others.
Posted on Reply
#6
ArchStupid
btarunrMe too. Also keyboards that don't have a calculator button.
i find it ridiculous that you can say that about a calculator button lol
Posted on Reply
#7
robot zombie
I like the menu key... I use it all of the time with Adobe software, which I struggle to keep up with all of the hotkeys for. I barely use the mouse this way, since I'm mostly making adjustments. I also like it for audio software, handy for setting up tracks via the menu. Between this and the tab key, I can stay on the keyboard as I quickly run through sequences of toggles. The mouse is ridiculously tedious by comparison.

I am the reason for your hate :pimp:
Posted on Reply
Apr 24th, 2024 15:35 EDT change timezone

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