8BitDo’s $100 wireless mechanical keyboard screams ’80s NES

Dekthro@lemm.ee to Technology@lemmy.world – 435 points –
8BitDo’s $100 wireless mechanical keyboard screams ’80s NES
arstechnica.com
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It looks pretty cool, but why is it missing a numpad? That's kind of a big deal, even for people who just want to play games.

E. g. Caves of Qud is designed to move with num keys. And playing a fighting game on keyboard is way better with them too.

It's fairly common for mechanical keyboards to come in different, smaller formats. Personally I prefer it for general usability—my 60% keyboard has no F keys or arrows or a numpad and everything can be accessed without moving my hands—but there is the odd use case that gets affected. People just have to decide how important they find it to have those keys available without holding down another key.

Agreed. I use to go full sized, but I only use my numpad for work. Otherwise it just isnt something I need, especially when playing the types of games I play. Also I need more desk space for the big button pad! Lol

Do you use exclusively the backspace key when attempting to correct a mistake? I use the arrow keys a ton for moving through text fields. Most small keyboards have function keys to hit arrows, but I hit the arrow keys a lot. Seems like critical feature missing. I'm also a big user of page up/down/home/end. I can't see giving all that up.

On my keyboard it's a function key plus:

  • ijkl for arrows
  • h for home
  • n for end
  • u and o for pgup/pgdown

So they're all very accessible. I find I'm much slower at using those keys on a full-size keyboard or on laptops than on my 60% keyboard. But it is an adjustment, and it's not everyone's preference, for sure.