Short review of new Unicomp Ultra Classic + experience with company

[czarek]

We all know Unicomp shipping charges to EU are obscene (92 USD to ship 84 USD keyboard? really?), so when I saw Massdrop was offering Ultra Classic with 12 USD shipping, I couldn't resist. Yes, I would prefer it in Classic case and in beige, but whatever, I pulled the trigger.

It was shipped pretty quick. In meantime I ordered few extra keycaps, for my prefered layout - swapped Ctrl and Caps Lock, red ESC, and 2 blank keys to replace Windows and Menu labeled ones. They came a bit quicker than package from Massdrop so everything was ready when the keyboard arrived.

Quite honestly I fell in love with that colour scheme. Black case with brilliant white keys and grey modifiers looks out of this world, especially accented with red ESC.

It's my 3rd Unicomp. Previous ones were made in 2009 and 2011 so quite a while ago. Quite honestly, the quality of the new keyboard is miles behind the older ones. The case does not fit very tightly, it even allows some light to get through the bottom and reflect on my ESC key.

It's worth to mention that the keys are still 2 piece. Unfortunately though the bottom parts of keys are horrible now. They have mould marks all over, also in the bottom which prevents some keys to work properly, so I had to manually remove those marks from all of the keys to make the keyboard work properly.

Also to my surprise main assembly was missing couple rivets in numpad area which made top right keys register very hardly. I fixed it with partial bolt mod, but told Unicomp about this issue and they agreed to ship me a new main assembly for $42 including FedEx shipping. Not ideal, but OK. The new assembly is super tight and even feels a bit better than the previous one (which IMO shouldn't pass QC).

So after all the pain that I had to go through to get this keyboard working right, what are my feelings? Well, those fixing and modding steps should not be necessary, but I think it's part of bonding with keyboard. Now it feels like partially made by me. Of course it feels amazing to type on. It's similar to my older Unicomps, but somehow clackier, resembling older Model Ms a bit more in this regard.

I like it. I have used it for almost a month with the old broken (and partially bolt mod fixed) plate, and almost 2 weeks with a new one. Do I love it though? Not really, but it has something that I can't get in any other keyboard. Overall feeling of it. Kind of esoterical. It's a bond made by re-building it myself, it's the keycaps that feel absolutely fantastic. Really they are better than RealForce (which btw also has mould marks in numpad area), and you can get them with any layout you want. If there is some weird key you want, Unicomp will print it for you in any size and colour you want.
Feeling of clacky BS is there and somehow it's not as tiring as even 45G Topre in my HHKB (which forces me to bottom out).

I will keep using it for a while. I already got bored with it and swapped for HHKB and Filco while waiting for the new plate to come, but when I looked at it sitting on a shelf, I just heard internal calling: pick me, I'm your best and I quickly swapped back for the Unicomp. At some point I will probably rotate it for other keyboard, but this one is definitely here to stay. Truly, one of my best keyboards, and definitely my favourite BS keyboard (I already said I prefer Ms to Fs, and yes I do own many Ms from 1986 to 1994, and super smooth 1985 AT Model F modded to USB internally).

Oh and of course potato, non edited photo of this beast on my desk:

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[seebart]

I already said I prefer Ms to Fs, and yes I do own many Ms from 1986 to 1994, and super smooth 1985 AT Model F modded to USB internally.

Wow, well in that case congrats! Not often that someone likes the Unicomp Ultra Classic that much.

[Slom]

Maybe in that case he could sell me his F AT

[seebart]

Maybe in that case he could sell me his F AT

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[t!ng]

The keycap combo looks really nice, except for the off looking bottom row.

[emdude]

I will keep using it for a while. I already got bored with it and swapped for HHKB and Filco while waiting for the new plate to come, but when I looked at it sitting on a shelf, I just heard internal calling: pick me, I'm your best and I quickly swapped back for the Unicomp. At some point I will probably rotate it for other keyboard, but this one is definitely here to stay. Truly, one of my best keyboards, and definitely my favourite BS keyboard (I already said I prefer Ms to Fs, and yes I do own many Ms from 1986 to 1994, and super smooth 1985 AT Model F modded to USB internally).

I recently picked up a pearl Ultra Classic myself and I have to largely agree with your thoughts. The Ultra Classic is certainly one of the better membrane buckling spring keyboards I've used.

The build quality is pretty shite, but the keyfeel is great. The springs feel nice and crisp, and the sound is quite unlike any other Model M I've used. I would describe it as crunchy and not at all pingy like IBM/Lexmark Model Ms (Fs of course have a supreme ping). As much as I enjoy the light ping of original Model Ms, the sound of my Ultra Classic's buckling springs is very charming in its own way.

It's my 3rd Unicomp. Previous ones were made in 2009 and 2011 so quite a while ago. Quite honestly, the quality of the new keyboard is miles behind the older ones. The case does not fit very tightly, it even allows some light to get through the bottom and reflect on my ESC key.

Are these older Unicomps you refer to Ultra Classics as well, or plain Classics?

I've read that the build quality of at least the Ultra Classics were always very bad. But I heard from some that it had improved recently. I also convinced my friend to get a Unicomp Classic; although not quite as solid as original Model Ms, I was impressed that it had minimal flex and basically no creak.

This convinced me to get my Ultra Classic, as I hoped that the build quality did improve. This was definitely not the case. The Ultra Classic I got was manufactured in February of this year and boy does it creak.

[czarek]

Are these older Unicomps you refer to Ultra Classics as well, or plain Classics?

My previous Unicomps where EnduraPro and Spacesaver M, so essentially Ultra Classics.

This convinced me to get my Ultra Classic, as I hoped that the build quality did improve. This was definitely not the case. The Ultra Classic I got was manufactured in February of this year and boy does it creak.

In my experience, the quality degraded greatly over last years. That's sad, but true. I have feeling that if that state continues, we may be owners of last Model Ms ever produced as even now they barely work when they leave factory, soon it may not even possible to mod/fix them to make them operational.

As for my F... I had 2 more which I sold. I also have one (also F AT) which is i very sorry condition, currently disassembled, which I keep for parts. I don't want to sell nice keyboards because I miss them after a while, thinking I may actually like to use them daily, but when I have such nice keyboard (RealForce, HHKB, F AT, old M), and just use it for few minutes I remind myself what I don't like about it. That saves money in a long term

[t!ng]

In your picture the dye subs look quite sharp, comparable to the old IBM stuff. I remember unicomp keycaps blurry as fuck. On mine at least, and it's from 2008. Maybe they improved?

Also, look how all keys except the mods and F and J, are heavily yellowed. The yellowed ones are 1p-keycaps and ABS plastic. The non-yellowed 2p-caps have to be PBT.

[czarek]

No longer the case with the blurry ones. My friend has Spacesaver M from about 2 years ago and it's blurry like yours. They must have recalibrate their machines or something because the printing is no worse than IBM's. If you forget about alignment of course which as you can see on my photo, is not perfect. But on the other hand a lot of people (myself included) do complain about labels on RealForce keyboards too. In this regard I must say white HHKB keys are the prettiest. If they did this proper black (not dark gray like in older Eizo monitors) + crystal white alphas + grey modifiers, it would look even more amazing.

[emdude]

In your picture the dye subs look quite sharp, comparable to the old IBM stuff. I remember unicomp keycaps blurry as fuck. On mine at least, and it's from 2008. Maybe they improved?

Also, look how all keys except the mods and F and J, are heavily yellowed. The yellowed ones are 1p-keycaps and ABS plastic. The non-yellowed 2p-caps have to be PBT.

I'm not sure how those yellowed keycaps could possibly be ABS. For one thing, it appears that Unicomp used the old IBM/Lexmark dyesub stencils for the legends on those caps. Also, I don't think IBM nor Lexmark ever used ABS for Model M/F keycaps, except for Greenock spacebars.

Personally, I prefer these older style of legends, plain helvetica doesn't look great in comparison, the kerning especially.

[t!ng]

What else could it be? PBT doesnt yellow that much.

[emdude]

You also can't dyesub ABS, to the best of my knowledge.

It would be helpful if you could perform an acetone test on one of the keycaps.

[czarek]

Maybe some different composition of PBT?
Hopefully those crystal whites won't yellow, but even if they do, they will look like brand new white Topre
Also, I have to tell you that I'm already annoyed with this keyboard and now I'm using HHKB in its stock form (removed Hypersphere's rings and replaced white keys with dark grey ones, only mod is PBT space bar).

[cookie]

It's worth to mention that the keys are still 2 piece. Unfortunately though the bottom parts of keys are horrible now. They have mould marks all over, also in the bottom which prevents some keys to work properly, so I had to manually remove those marks from all of the keys to make the keyboard work properly.

Absolutely unaccaptable if you ask me. I'd return that thing in a heartbeat.

[seebart]

It's worth to mention that the keys are still 2 piece. Unfortunately though the bottom parts of keys are horrible now. They have mould marks all over, also in the bottom which prevents some keys to work properly, so I had to manually remove those marks from all of the keys to make the keyboard work properly.

Absolutely unaccaptable if you ask me. I'd return that thing in a heartbeat.

Agreed, I guess that's the famous Unicomp QC.

[emdude]

Is it the stems that are the problem? I own a number of Unicomp keysets at this point and have definitely noticed an issue where the bottoms of some stems aren't properly deburred and end up "grinding" against the spring itself! Not a pleasant feel. The issue can be fixed without much trouble, at least.

That said, Unicomp's QC seems to have improved to the point that their keycaps no longer have the ridiculous amount of flashing that so many others have encountered in the past:

Image-1 by flatterwhite, on Flickr

[czarek]

Yes the stems in 2 piece keycaps have those "skirts". That's not the worst though. They have them underneath as well which changes the feel and sometimes prevents keys from actuating. What I've got in this keyboard is a borderline. Normal people would definitely return the keyboard. I have cleaned the skirts with a razor blade and the keyboard works, sounds and feels great. This definitely should be done at factory though.

[dokyun]

My 08 vintage Unicomp has also started yellowing the in last year or so in roughly the same shade. Mine's doing it a bit less uniformly though, currently only affecting (if I'm remembering correctly off the top of my head) the Caps Lock, Spacebar, and Insert keys. Have been meaning to do the acetone test to see what the composition of the caps really are.

[emdude]

Do you have photos?

This is pretty surprising. I have shot an e-mail at Unicomp concerning this. If they really do use some different type of plastic that is prone to yellowing, I'll be really disappointed.

[dokyun]

Not on me, I'll grab some pictures tonight.

Edit: Pics time:

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My wimpy Iphone camera isn't enough to accurately photograph, but upon further investigation I've discovered that the sides on many of the alpha block caps are beginning to yellow in spots as well. All those are single piece, exception being my F and J which are two-piece and appear to be wearing unevenly to the surrounding caps. Take a look at this:

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My Unicomp was my only keyboard on my desktop for long time, this is a good 7 years or so of daily usage...the F and J keys are noticeably less shiny.

Seems to me Unicomp was using some sort of ABS and PBT mix that could still be dye-subbed along with making them single piece to save money.

[Entropia]

I've had a couple of Unicomps Ultra Classics bought some months ago and I ended up selling them. One of them had all the legends vertically misaligned (touching the edge of the keycaps in some cases). The other one had a stain in one of the keycaps. In both boards the case creaked with only resting my hands on them. In one of them I had to remove the spacebar and locate and find why it felt mushy. The bad quality of the moulding and the plastics does not only affects aesthetics but also the functioning. As you have said, I also had to fix many keycaps because their keys sounded like with a broken or wasted spring. The whole boards felt somewhat inconsistent. I thought brand new buckling springs would feel better but they don't. Performance wise, they are amazing keyboards (because of the mechanisms and the design of the board), but they look and feel cheap and really not worth the money.

[whm1974]

It is a real shame that Unicomp QC has been going downhill for some time. I almost brought a Unicomp and now I'm glad I didn't.

[emdude]

I've received a reply from Unicomp regarding my keycap plastic composition question:

IBM. Lexmark, and Unicomp use Valox 325 PBT resin. What has changed is the color.

I'm not sure what to believe at this point. The only explanation I can think of for the odd-colored keys is Unicomp just being Unicomp; I've noticed they have difficulty just keeping their keycap colors consistent, never mind matching original IBM colors.

[czarek]

Well it could be the colour additive that reacts with UV and yellows with time.

[Touch_It]

These issues seem crazy. I have a Unicomp from Dec 15. Hope the keys hold up with time. Not currently using it, but it is one of my favorite keyboards. Keys are so crisp in their clickiness.

[czarek]

Well I must say that with some work put to mine, it feels and sounds fantastic. It is a bit different than classic model Ms I have, probably due to different rubber material in the main assembly (it looks like thin, transparent silicone sheet, as opposed to thicker black rubber in Model M) - it almost sounds like there was no rubber inside it. That makes it much noisier than older keyboards, but I don't mind it really. It feels very sharp and precise though.

Also you may not believe it but I switched back to it from HHKB because it's actually less tiring to type on, at least with my style. HHKB forces me to bottom out every key. Tactility does not indicate where the key actuates so my muscle memory presses key to the end, making unnecessary travel and hard hit on the plastic plate - not as nasty as it sounds, but definitely not ergonomic (for me at least).

Buckling springs don't have this. They give sharp message exactly at the point of actuation so my muscle memory triggers it doesn't have to push more and it stops somewhere below point of actuation but still not bottoming out, kinda cushioned by the springs. So even though the actuation takes a bit more force, I don't press to the bottom and my fingers don't get tired as much.

Actually for me the most ergonomic switches seem to be MX Browns. They have enough tactility for my muscle memory not to bottom out and after actuation they become heavy enough to cushion fingers before bottoming out. Good luck finding a good batch or a flawless keyboard sporting them. In this regard, even Unicomp feels like great product. It looks the part, has awesome switches, pretty much best keycaps you can get. Yes Topre comes close, but you have to get PBT space bar separately, they're labels are also a bit misaligned, however on purpose.

Please note my typing technique is not very proper though. I don't type with my whole arms. I only type by moving fingers, with wrists on either desk or wrist rest (depending how high the keyboard is), with my fingers resting on key tops constantly and flowing between keys without actually rising them much. That also makes spherical keycaps pretty much useless for me.

[Elrick]

Also you may not believe it but I switched back to it from HHKB because it's actually less tiring to type on, at least with my style. HHKB forces me to bottom out every key.

Why not, also remember the IBM company started out making typewriters for typists so they've sat at those machines for up to 12 hours a day, typing all the company's documents.

Hence IBM had to design a keyboard that helps the typists, which most keyboards today do not. Whatever everyone feels about any IBM keyboards and typewriters, they are the ONLY company that built them for workers that needed comfort and speed for typing.

Today most keyboards are only built for gamers not typists.

[dokyun]

For what it's worth, the yellowing has only been observed so far on keyboards with one piece stems. Unicomp seems to have only done that for a short period of time, anything recent should be unaffected.