WTF?! Generally, there are two main types of keyboards: those with a numpad on the right, and the tenkeyless versions that do away with it altogether. But one company is taking a different approach by placing these keys above the letters, decreasing the horizontal length while doubling the height.
The C1000 from Chassepot / Royal Kludge came from the mind of a human-computer interaction engineer and passionate esports fan who was tired of moving between an ergonomic keyboard at work and the mechanical keyboard he used at home for gaming.
The employee wished for a smaller keyboard that allowed more space for the mouse but didn't want to sacrifice the numeric and other keys, making it ideal for work and gaming.
As reported by Engadget, the upper row of the keyboard consists of the numpad, the function keys, media keys, a dedicated calculator button, and hardware shortcuts for apps and folders. On the lower part of the device, the arrow keys are placed on the left rather than their usual spot on the right.
Following several revisions of the design, an early version of the C1000 appeared on Kickstarter last year. Despite passing its funding goal, the project was canceled by the creator to "upgrade" the product. But the new version, expected to go into production in June, has skipped crowdfunding.
Image credit: Richard Lai/Engadget
The C1000's specs include mechanical switches from Chinese manufacturer Outemu, the choice of USB Type-C wired or Bluetooth 3 (supposedly more stable than newer versions) connections, and a 1,850mAh battery.
The keyboard will be available in two versions: the $170 C1000Go which comes with a white backlight, and the $200 C1000RGB that features RGB lighting beneath the keys.