The HHKB Studio Snow Edition makes a great keyboard prettier

After weeks of incredibly obvious teasers, PFU America has revealed the HHKB Studio Snow Edition, a achromatic mentation of 1 of the champion and strangest keyboards I’ve used. A caller colour mightiness look similar a insignificant thing, and it is. But it does reply 1 of the communal complaints astir the HHKB Studio, which until present was lone disposable successful achromatic with achromatic legends. The Snow Edition is disposable contiguous for $329 astatine PFU’s website and mechanicalkeyboards.com.

The HHKB Studio, which I reviewed past year, takes the layout from the cult classical Happy Hacking Keyboard, adds a ThinkPad-style trackpoint and rodent buttons, swaps the Topre electrocapacitive dome switches that are successful the Professional bid for modular Cherry MX-compatible mechanical ones, and adds 4 reprogrammable “gesture pads” to the sides of the keyboard. It besides has Bluetooth.

It sounds similar an unholy mess, but it’s great. The trackpoint is bully capable that you don’t person to bring a rodent with you erstwhile you travel, the motion pads are... fine, and the customized MX switches someway consciousness close for a Happy Hacking Keyboard contempt being linear.

(Switch nerd broadside note: the switches successful the Studio are akin to Kailh Silent Islets, with a agelong outpouring that frontloads the actuation force; this gives it a feeling weirdly similar the all-top tactility of a Topre dome. Since investigating the HHKB Studio, I’ve swapped the switches successful 1 of my idiosyncratic boards to Islets. You tin get the Studio’s switches connected the HHKB web store, but they’re $2.50 each; Islets are nether $.70 each.)

It mightiness dependable silly, but adjacent 1 much colour broadens the entreaty of the HHKB Studio. The Studio launched past twelvemonth successful charcoal lone and successful that colour it’s not precisely arsenic beauteous arsenic the HHKB Professional (the Topre version), which comes successful charcoal, the classical grey-beige, and snow. The HHKB Studio Snow Edition’s achromatic and metallic chassis and achromatic keycaps with airy grey legends are a measurement successful the close direction. (No connection connected a beige version; I asked.)

Blank keycaps, arsenic good arsenic those with achromatic legends for amended visibility, volition beryllium disposable for $70 each successful aboriginal November. It’s excessively atrocious you can’t bargain the Snow Edition with either of those alternate keycap sets disconnected the bat, due to the fact that the authoritative caps are fundamentally your lone options.

The HHKB Studio doesn’t enactment with astir keycap sets due to the fact that the G, H, and B keys are molded to acceptable astir the trackpoint, and the spacebar uses non-standard stabilizer spacing. Keyreative has immoderate compatibility kits coming for their KAT illustration keycaps, but that’s astir it for third-party options. For $329, it’d beryllium bully if you could prime your keycaps erstwhile you buy.

Keycap limitations aside, the HHKB Studio is simply a large keyboard and I’m gladsome to spot different colour enactment for it. You inactive bash person to privation the trackpoint, though.