Top positive review
5.0 out of 5 starsNow a Great Keyboard
Reviewed in the United States on September 3, 2021
Update 01/15/2022: I am upgrading from four starts to five stars. See last paragraph * .
By way of benchmarking, I bought my first Das Keyboard, the MK4 Professional, in 2017 and loved it. The MX Blue clicky keys were the closest I had found to the all time standards for feedback, the IBM Selectric Typewriter and the very early Omni Key/102 from Northgate Computer Systems. The two USB ports added much-appreciated connectivity convenience, especially for my system that has the computer box some distance from the desk. The oversized volume control knob was icing on the cake. I still have the MK4 as my backup to this one, the X50Q.
Between then and now I have purchased/returned four other Das Keyboards (the German โDasโ translates to โtheโ in English, suggesting that Metadot considers its keyboards to be not just any keyboard but The Keyboard). These include the 4Q (I was too early, as the key programming support was only getting started); the Model S (MX Blue keys but two cables, the second to support the USB ports: Why?); and the Prime 13 (MX Brown keys but single cable with USB port and LED backlit keys). The Prime 13 I is my RVing keyboard. The tactile feedback on the keys isnโt the best, but the USB port and backlit keys make up for that.
The X50Q, purchased this Spring, is my current main keyboard. I miss the USB ports, and the Gamma Zulu โsoft tactileโ keys fall a little short of the MK4โs ideal resistance. It has the media control keys and the volume control knob, however, and I admit I find the changing color schemes for the LED keys linked to the app or program I have open entertaining. The build and materials quality is excellent. On the keyboard as a device and for basic, functional capability and usability, I have nothing but praise.
It comes with a set of pre-programmed applets, although many seem to me more whimsical exercises than truly productive assets. The support network for programming the keys has grown up a bit but nevertheless is my prime sore point. Itโs not the support network, as such, but Das Keyboardโs relationship, or rather lack of relationship, with the network. For this, it helps to know how the key programming works. Most simply put, the keyboardโs software monitors selected online sources, like email and information outlets, for flagged activity. When the software sees the activity, it flashes the key linked to the specific source. You can then check what came in by pressing the volume knob and the flashing key. This works fine for the pre-programmed applets and for any applet you create within the Das Keyboard system following the template Das Keyboard will provide for the asking.
* At the time this review was written, and as confirmed by personal experience and Das Keyboard support, this process didn't carry over to applets created outside the Das Keyboard system. According to Das Keyboard support, the powers behind the Q keyboards had โdeprecatedโ two of the major players in the support network, Zapier and IFTTT. You could use those two providers to create applets that link to the keyboard, that part worked. But you could not control what key flashes, and to see what came in you had to open a virtual keyboard on your monitor and then click on the virtual flashing key; the volume-knob-flashing-key method was not available. For my needs, this truncated capability was enough to justify keeping the X50Q by rationalizing that I might someday get around to writing an applet with the Das Keyboard system. But I urged shoppers looking to realize the fullest capability of the Qs to be aware of that limitation. This is no longer the case. An applet I created on Zapier now has full Q keyboard functionality.
