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Comment by gotoliao | Hacker News Reader

Any split keyboard out there for $50 or less?

One that’ll actually last? No. Even the Sculpt, which doesn’t have nice switches, is over $50.

These things are made in such small numbers that they’ll never get economies of scale. They’re typically 2x the cost of even the already high price of regular mechanical keyboards.

That makes me wonder why Logitech is not mass producing one already!

Logitech used to make a split keyboard -- it was the first split keyboard I owned. It had normal keys rather than the low-profile ones I dislike.

This year, they introduced a low-profile split keyboard [1], but wanting a normal-profile one is what led me to assemble a DIY kit myself.

[1] $130: https://www.logitech.com/en-us/products/keyboards/k860-split...

Uh. I blame Apple for making flat profile keyboards trendy on the desktop. I really dislike them as well and they're all over the place now.

Contrary viewpoint: I actually really enjoy Apple's chiclet keyswitches, and I think my dream keyboard is a wireless chiclet Ergodox.

Kailh has their Choc switches which are low profile. Not quite chicklet but fills the same role for the most part. Low-pro lovers seem to like them quite a bit.

An example of the costs if you're willing to do the soldering yourself.

https://keyhive.xyz/shop Corne PCB with through-hole soldering at $13. 2 Pro micros for $12. Diodes at $3. Plates at $16. Standoffs at $2.

Switches from AliExpress for $14. Keycaps for $15-30.

But, yeah, I think a more realistic budget would be $150.

Buy $25 keyboard twice or buy already owned keyboard again. (serious suggestion to try split)

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