I would also love to see some options for different keyboards! Looks like I’m in good company with wanting Thinkpad-style buttons and a nub. I’d also like to see options for keycaps that aren’t island/chiclet style and have depth and maybe a spherical or conical dish to them. I’d be totally willing to have a much thicker laptop for a better traditional/conventional keycap style. I’d pay an insane amount of money for a laptop with old-school keycaps. Like, an insane amount of money. I’d sell my soul for it.
Also, it would be great to have a smaller touchpad centered under the spacebar instead of having it sit to the right—even with tech that theoretically rejects accidental palm touches, I’ve yet to use a newer laptop where my right palm doesn’t hit the stupidly-big touchpad and click around. I used to have an HP laptop circa 2008 that had a tiny button that turned the touchpad on and off. It was incredibly convenient for long stretches of typing.
All in all, I think there are lots of great additions/modifications that could be made for typists and traditionalists. There’s a gap in the market for sure.
Is there a plan to get a keyboard with full size arrow key for the Framework 16?
It is most likely a very niche need but as a left handed gamer, i prefer using the arrow key the move around and the small arrow key are just too challenging to the point where i need to buy and wireless keyboard and keep laptop screen even further from me.
Hi,
i had my new FW16 for a fortnight now, and i’m somewhat impressed with the keyboard’s typing feel.
Coming from Lenovo’s X220 with its traditional keyboard, that’s almost heresy, i know.
+ the key travel feels about enough
- the key springs feel weaker
- But those missing keys and double assignments!
IMHO,
INS and DEL is wide enough to easily be two keys (just try selecting a file in some Commander style file manager instead of deleting it, having forgotten fn …). If not, cut some of the width from ESC/FnLock.
PrintScr and ScrollLock i don’t miss actually.
Menu can mostly still be reached with Shift-F10, Ok
The wide Arrow keys i’d like to be reduced in width, to make 4 key columns instead of 3, enabling the following changes:
HOME and END in the upper left and right unused places
PgUP, PgDN a column to the right
I’ll try an ASCII illustration: home ^ end PgUP _<-__v__>__PgDN
Also, i’m really missing the Fn key grouping with extra space every 4th key, to better find keys without looking.
Touch typists may miss the raised ridges on F and J the Lenovo had. I’m not on that level, though, and don’t.
Hello, Framework 16 owner here. Does Framework have dimensional drawings of the Framework 16 keyboard? Or at least a template? This is to make my own keyboard stickers.
Hi,
actually, i discovered accidentally:
the FW16’s ISO keyboard has removable key caps (lift at back) and a scissors mechanism beneath, just about similar like my beloved Lenovo X220.
The keycap clips are easy to break. Framework probably doesn’t want to advertise them as replaceable because people who break their keycaps when replacing them would then be angry.
Ah i see.
Myself, i’m delighted to see such similarity to the Thinkpad traditional keyboard construction, if not the keycap shape.
Actually, on one of my X220s, i did break off one of the holding pins of the scissors of one key - darn nuisance, that.
But couldn’t one 3Dprint Caps as well as Scissors?
This. Even at the highest resolution, most FDM printers just can’t get that small. Maybe SLA could but that’s still doubtful in terms of strength. I really wouldn’t risk it.
On my FW16, the default Linux driver for the Touchpad has indeed virtual buttons in the bottom left and right corners.
Which i didn’t expect and was one of the hurdles to buying it.
As to that detail, here’s a happy camper now!
They aren’t meant to be repaired – but if they’re already broken, it doesn’t hurt to try repairing anyway and I would like to be able to buy official replacements. The product page would need sufficient disclaimers saying KEYCAPS ARE NOT INDIVIDUALLY USER-SERVICEABLE, and ONLY OFFICIALLY SUPPORTED OPTION IS FULL KEYBOARD REPLACEMENT, and similar.
I broke some of the scissor switches on my Thinkpad ~5 years ago. Eventually found some replacement keycaps and plastic scissors on eBay, and was able to repair it and get a fully-functional keyboard for $10 after tax+shipping and minimal waste.
This was available now when I checked the marketplace recently (Odd since shipping to Japan seems still not available). I used the stickers on the US Eenglish keyboard myself.
