Norbair Seneca’s review: $ 3,600 luxury keyboard obsed for keyboard

Some people can tell great alcohol from OK wine. They go to the taste of the wine, take a wine tour. They spend more money on alcohol.

I am not among them. If you show me the bottle, I can tell alcohol with vinegar. I am only a bit obsessed with the keyboard, however.

I have spent typing in the last few months SenekaA completely custom capacitive keyboard that starts at $ 3,600 and may be the best computer keyboard ever. I have also formed a group of other people on it – people for whom the attitude towards the keyboard is slightly more utilitarian. My wife uses a mechanical keyboard because I put it on her table; If I took it, she would go back to her $ 30 Loditek membrane keyboard without any complaint. I put Seneka on her table. He said that it was fine. I took it away. She went back to her other keyboard.

The more normal about the keyboard, the more effective Seneka is. I am not normal about the keyboard, and Seneka is incredible.

Seneka is the first luxury keyboard Norbair & CompanyA company that wants to be for the keyboard is what is for lenk cameras, for the Porsche cars, or every for handbags and scarves.

The interesting thing about Seneka is that it is not expensive. It is easy to make something expensive. This is interesting because it is the product of a keyboard obsessive-decade-discovery, which is to create the best possible keyboard, which is at anticipated expense, to develop its own switch and stabilizers. It will be an attractive story, even if it fails.

You can read about Ryan Norbire’s visit so that we can develop Senca in another article published now. The brief version is: Seneca is a custom keyboard, descended Aftermarket housings Norbauer Topre was used for boardsExcept here it is not just housing which is a custom. The entire keyboard is made up of parts that you can’t find anywhere else, inside a metal chassis, a clearly built for unnecessary degrees, and lightly gathered by hand in Los Angeles by a small team of the famous keyboard Nard.

It is very heavy, unnaturally expensive, and is pleasant to type incredibly, in such a way that perhaps only the keyboard keyboard enthusiasts will only appreciate.

For lack of a better word, Seneka feels Permanent. It weighs about seven pounds and resembles a smooth concrete or worn stone. Case is milk aluminum, with one Plasma It has a hot gray texture look, but looks completely smooth. It is really difficult to take; There is nowhere to curl your fingers below it. It is going to go to your desk and live there.

The switch and stabilizers were developed by Norboard & Company and are exclusive to the company’s keyboard, which is still Seneka. They are the most interesting thing about the keyboard – the whole reason I wanted to test it. They are unprecedented.

The switch topre is a refuge on capacitive dome design (found most famous in the most famous hacking keyboard), but they are smooth and low wobbly with a deep sound. Unlike every other topre-style switch, they are designed around MX-style cakeps from the beginning, so housing does not interfere with cherry-profile kicaps. (This is a great deal as it may seem; it means that Seneca works with thousands of aftermarket keycap set, rather than bare fist that works with topre boards).

It took years to develop stabilizers like switches. They are hidden and put together, overgrowth, and they are without a doubt without the best stabilizers in the world. There is no rattle or tick in any stable keys, and although the spacebar has a deep thug than the rest of the keys, it is not much loud for my ears.

Typing experience is sublime. The keys have a large tangent collision at the top, a smooth downstroke, and a flap -tight upstroke. The people of my review unit are moderate weight, who are feeling similar to 45 grams of topre; There are light and heavy options.

The switches are silent, not silent; Silicon rings on the slider soften the upstroke, and there is a sponge between the switch and PCB that calms the downstroke and prevents the coil crunch. (Switch is compatible with third-party silenting rings; I tried an old silence-X ring, and it worked well).

The switch and solid brass are between the switchplates, and between the plate and the habitat; There is soaking material everywhere. The result is a darker, silence DashWithout a signal of ping.

Keyboard information page Says, “The soft sound of Seneka is often compared to rain drops. It consists of a soft vintage-sounding bowl, which stops without interruption.” Read that whatever voice you want. for what it’s worth, Ruckus Executive Editor Jake Custress, who did not read the information page, but heard the typing test below, Too Said that it looked like rain drops.

Whatever you compare it, it feels Seneka and feels great.

Seneka hai Now available for pre -orderIn the first version of about 100 to 150 units, starts from $ 3,600.

The unit I am testing is from zero – the first production run – which includes 50 which were introduced in a private sales in the last summer in the previous summer in the last summer, as well as something else for tests, certification and review.

The version, including my review unit, came up with zero cysts, closed-source firmware that does not allow for hardware-based key remapping, which, for me, is the biggest lapse. When Norboer commissioned the firmware half decades ago, he opted not to include rimpapability for simplicity. He considered the software to be sufficient remapping for a keyboard with a standard layout, which does not mean to move from computer to computer.

I do not share that opinion. I do the same function layer program in all my keyboards, and I am modestly angry every time I arrive for a shortcut on Seneca. But I have to accept that software remapping – I am using Karbiner element Povertoy Keyboard Manager on Mac and on Windows – is basically tolerant in short -term. But hardware remapping Is Important on the compact keyboard, such as the company planned to further. Norbair is working with Luka Save, aka Constable , For third-party electrocaptive PCB, boy-nine open-source firmware that will allow for remapping. This firmware will be available on Seneca, perhaps the first version keyboard ship, but was not yet available during my testing period.

There are some other quirks. Seneca’s custom cable uses USB-C at the end of the computer and a LEMO connector at the near end. It sounds great, and it keeps aesthetics consistent, but if Seneca is joining the rotation of other keyboards on your desk, it means that you have to swap cables every time. On the one hand, if you are buying 7-pounds, $ 3,600 keyboard, are you really going to take it away from your desk? On the other hand, if you care enough about the keyboard to buy it, you probably have a lot of good keyboards between which you want to roam. (Norboyar is working on a small lemo-to-USB-C dongle, but was also not ready during the review period.)

Seneka has a completely flat typing angle. Most mechanical keyboards are higher than the rear compared to the front, which has a typing angle between 3 and 11 degrees. Ergonomically, Flat (or negative) is betterAn alternative riser ($ 180, is made from native hard wood in South Africa) that gives it a three-degree typing angle. A whispering, I put it backwards, gave the keyboard a negative The three-degree angle, and now all my other keyboards look strange. This can be the biggest impact of Seneka on my life.

In the last one month, I have asked some friends and family members to try to type on Seneka. Most of them have desk jobs, and most use mechanical keyboards throughout the day, but they are not keyboard nard.

They have been moderately affected as a rule. Everyone thinks that it looks good, and everyone likes that it feels and feels, but they are not blown. This has not ruined them for their cycle. Most of them ask where the number pad is.

At a functional level, does nothing more than Seneca A $ 115 kicronIn fact, it reduces: there is no wireless, no backlighting, no volume knob, no hotswap switch, and (for now) no firmware remapping. As a machine for typing, it is peerless, but perhaps not in such a way that anyone but a keyboard is going to notice a obsessive notice or care. And that’s fine.

If you are selling a keyboard for $ 3,600, you have limited your audience to two small and overlapping groups. You should be able to explain the Picist Keyboard Nurds on Earth that there is something about your keyboard that they cannot find anywhere else. And you have to convince Nouveau Riche Coders and Status-Obsessed Desk Jockey that you have assured the keyboard Nerds and this keyboard is worth half of an entry-level Rolex.

Some small number of people who buy Seneca will definitely do it only Because It is beautiful and useful, and they can tolerate it. And it is as good as any reason. But mostly, it is a luxury keyboard for a very specific type of keyboard NERD. If your idea is the idea of ​​Nice is a heavy capacitive board, then Seneca is better than anything you can buy or make.

You do not need to spend $ 3,600 to get an amazing keyboard. obviously. It is very easy to spend $ 3,600 on the keyboard. You can have a great time with an off-the-chest board priced less than $ 100. For less than 10 percent of the price of Seneca, you can get a barebuilding kit keyboard, whatever switches and stabilizers and kicaps you want, and keeping more control over the final result you do with Seneca. (Strong support here for Classic-TKL and Bauur Light). You can get one Realforce Keyboard for $ 250 And all those years ago fell in love with a topr switch launched Norbair on the way to Seneka.

If you are smart, you will stay there. Or, if you are like me, you will find yourself with more keyboard after a decade, with more keyboard, half-solidaries to spend $ 3,600 on the best keyboard in the world.