I’m considering the Deck Legend but I am on the other side of the world and freighting the keyboard back and forth (from Australia) is a very expensive exercise.

I’m not going to be gaming with this thing – I’m looking for something to actually use in the office. The #1 concern for me is feel – I want something that is clicky and not spongy, I detest spongy keyboards with a passion.

I’m wondering if anyone can compare the key feel to other keyboards – I’m currently typing on a G15 (membrane I think) and I regularly use my IBM Model M’s but they’re too noisy for work.. I do recall the key feel of the original Macintosh (circa mid 80’s), is the Deck Legend something like that perhaps? With the click being the plastic-against-plastic feel?

How about the resistance, is it similar to these original Macs? I’m actually talking about the original Mac keyboard (the short one without numeric keypad if anyone remembers those).

Unfortunately we don’t see the wealth of variety here so I can’t assess, first hand, a cherry linear switch variety keyboard for key feel; the Mac feel I quite liked, my two other favourites were the Wyse 50 series terminals (the very original ones circa early 90’s) and the original IBM XT with its lighter buckling spring feel (lighter than the Model M).

Also is there any difference in feel between the Fire, Ice or Toxic Legends? Or is the slight price difference just due to LED colour?

I’d be grateful for any feedback – I’m very keen to order one pronto if it’s close enough.

The price difference is based on the color of the LEDs - blue and green are more expensive.

The G15 you are using is a membrane board. Deck Keyboards are not, and therefore they are not 'mushy'. They do have a 'clicky' sound to them but only when you bottom out a keypress (i.e. there is no tactile response providing the click feedback). Most people do say that our boards have a higher resistance than your average membrane board but they do 'loosen up' after typing on them for a week to a month.

I will let the rest of the Deck community answer your question on what board feels comparable...I am only 24 and I have never even seen half the boards you mention so I cannot make a call on that (in fact I just used an IBM model M for the first time about a week ago...doesn't quite feel like one of those but closer to that than anything else).

Well I’ve had about 3 days with this thing now and I can say that it was roughly what I was looking for – it’s a bit springier than I’d hoped for, the spacebar is a bit of a concern for me (is it possible to lighten its action a bit?) but the key feel is pretty much on the mark, I just which it was a little less springy generally. I wouldn’t call it mushy, I just prefer a lighter action.

The home click is very satisfying, it was certainly worth the price and the effort to send half way around the world – the keyboard isn’t as heavy as I expected but it’s a very clean, solid build with very little key wobble.

Apart from the greater level of springy feeling I’d say that it has a lot in common with those earlier days of the Apple Mac keyboards – a bit like the one that was also on the original Apple IIe, remember these were very high quality build keyboards (cheap and nasty membrane was a thing of the future for many manufacturers at that stage).

I was wondering – does this have the gradient pressure variation that some others have (where outer keys are lighter and inner are heavier) that some like Das Keyboard claim to have?

Also does anyone know how to lighten the action of the spacebar itself or will it lighten up significantly with a bit of break-in use?

There is no gradient pressure variation. With Deck what you see is what you get.

Many people have claimed that the spacebar as well as other keys have "lightened up" after a break-in period but I have no data to back that up.