Here’s my partial review of the Vintage Cherry G80-1295 HAU Cherry mx black, double shot keys and with NKRO.
Article No: G80-1295 HAU / 00 Serial No: 000159 E47Made in Germany
Key print type: Double shots
Ok it has 101 beige/white double shot keys. very good contrast, no yellowing.
Switch: Cherry mx black
Ok the first thing i thought when pressing/typing on the keys was “geez these are stiff, ouch!” I get the impression that when pressing the spring is fighting hard against you pushing back right up as your pressing down. It’s not too bad when your pushing down all the way in short bursts. But when i try press holding down longer it gets very tiring indeed.
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Whenever typing on my Ducky DK-9008 cherry mx browns, i can leisurely actuate keys without any sense of urgency letting go; the blacks it feels uncomfortable pressing down on a key too long. So those switch graphs weren’t kidding when they said finger nazi style typing. Anyway i really do feel it needs to be cherry mx ghetto red modded :X
Casing:
Very good build quality. However it isn’t plate mounting, as it’s pcb mounted switches. So it doesn’t have a metal plate weight holding it down. It depends on it’s thick large plastic casing to do so. I get the impression that it slides more than my Ducky Dk-9008 when pushing hard with a finger. But if your just typing, it doesn’t slide.
Opening the case there is 4 screw at the bottom of the casing at the top half. The bottom half there is some clip ons. I unscrewed the top, but didn’t pry open the bottom half because i was afraid i would accidentally break it. The bottom of the casing has a dip switch which i am unsure which to set it as.
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The casing stands are very stiff when trying to open them. Closing the stands is easier though. I don’t want to open close them too often, as it feels like it can easily break that way. When inclined with the stands opened up, the inclination seems slightly more steeper than the Ducky.
I tested typing leaving it inclined using the ducky leather palm rest and without. Both ways were comfortable to type especially with the palm rest. When i say comfortable typing, i mean that my hand feels comfortable resting on the keyboard. But when it comes to actuating keys, that falls under cherry switches, which the browns to me beats the black.
The function row is higher up compared to the Ducky. I have to reach out more to press a function row key. The cable management is better than the Ducky as in it also has the same principle that you can press the wire into the casing to make it come out top right, left or straight out the middle. But on the Cherry the wire actually fits snugly and securely in the wire canals. The Cherry also has a nice keyboard cable that is compressed like a spring which is nice.
NKRO
Mike’s already tested it’s NKRO, also it has the diodes in the switches. I can’t test it right now because i’m waiting for Ascii’s AT to PS2 adapter to arrive :X
Condition:
No yellowing, looks clean most part. There is some slight dirt marks on the bottom edge of keys and when i pulled a keycap, but it’s rather minor. No cracks or anything of that sort.
Comparison between vintage G80 versus Modern Ducky keyboard:
The Cherry came with better key caps definitely. But using my other review, you can just as easily get the double shots and transplant them onto the Ducky. The Ducky wins in terms of features as it has a function key to disable windows keys. Whereas the Cherry doesn’t have the windows keys at all as part of it’s design. The Ducky also has the useful F1-F7 media keys for my music player :}
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Ducky has a smaller casing foot print, especially in regards to width. Ducky is aluminium plate mounted, whereas the Cherry is pcb mounted. Dirt may get trapped on pcb which is more fragile than if it was to get onto the plate instead.
The old cherry’s are rare, and choice of switches are few as they mostly came in cherry mx blacks. I don’t really like blacks. So the ducky that has options for blacks, blues, browns and now even reds, kinda wins on availability for choices of switches. Anyway i think i’m happy with both keyboards, but i hope to mod the cherry mx blacks to ghetto reds :X
Summary:
On a scale from 1 to 10, 10 being the best, and 1 being the least, here is a summary of my ratings for this board.
- Key print type: 10
- Cherry switches: 5
- Casing build: 8
- Condition of keyboard: 9.5
- Features: 8
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