TEX Yoda II Mechanical Keyboard with Trackpoint Review
Lately, I’ve used MacBook, but I was a ThinkPad lover for a long time. TEX Yoda which is a mechanical keyboard with trackpoint released few years ago was a long-awaited one for me, but I couldn’t get it at that time.
Recently, I got a new version of TEX Yoda at last. Although DIY kit was sold at Massdrop I purchased it at mechanicalkeyboard.com.
First impression
Trackpoint is more sensitive than ThinkPad’s one. Maybe it’s caused by a longer pole because of the height of key switches and key caps. I configured the speed of mouse cursor to the minimum value but still there is a sense of discomfort.
One advantage of TEX Yoda II’s trackpoint is it’s possible to scroll horizontally. The current model of ThinkPad USB (or Bluetooth) keyboard doesn’t support it in Mac. In addition, the center button of trackpoint of TEX Yoda II doesn’t work as the click button, it just works for scrolling. Clicking by the center button was the most frustrated point in ThinkPad keyboard with Mac. In this point, TEX Yoda II is obviously superior to ThinkPad keyboard.
Customizing layout
Footprint of TEX Yoda II is almost same as HHKB, but location of some keys is quite different. It confused me initially. Fortunately, TEX Yoda II allows us to configure key layout super flexible. We can create a layout configuration file at the following web site:
At this site, we can customize all keyboard layout including combination with Fn key and also keyboard macros. Customized settings can be applied by copying a generated file to TEX Yoda II via USB.
Note that once generated file can’t be modified again at this site. However if you are signed in the site, you can save editing settings. If you want to repeat try-and-error for layout, I recommend sign-in before starting customization.
Look in depth
I chosen the red switch after serious consideration about the red switch and the brown switch. The red switch has light touch but you might feel it’s little cheap. Although I didn’t choose keyboard backlight it is choosable. The backlight model should have another key caps, so it might has different key touch.
Tilt legs are fixed with screw. Since they use rubber on the contact face and TEX Yoda II itself has much weight, it well stable on my desk.
An angled USB-C cable is bundled. We can put the keyboard on tight spaces.
In addition, 3 types of trackpoint caps are bundled in the package. It seems same as ThinkPad’s caps, so it will able to be replaced easily. I felt that the default cap is too tall a little because my finger touched it during typing. The low-profile caps might be better than default caps.
The only drawback of TEX Yoda II is that it’s not suitable for carrying because it’s much heavy for daily carrying and even the pole of trackpoint seems to have possibility to be broken if I put the keyboard into a bag directly and carry it. If you will carry this keyboard, you will need to do it carefully.
Anyway, mechanical keyboard with trackpoint is very rare, actually there is no choice except TEX Yoda II. If you are a trackpoint fan, definitely you should get it immediately.
