Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) Professional HYBRID in Charcoal with Printed Key Caps and Featuring Hybrid Connectivity - USB & Bluetooth Compatible with both PC and Mac, the 60-key HHKB Pro was designed with UNIX professionals and advanced. There is a computer keyboard, called the Happy Hacking keyboard (HHKB). It is a keyboard often loved by “hackers”, and is one of the most idiotic keyboard. Let me count the ways. Happy Hacking Keyboard model Professional 2. Happy Hacking Keyboard Missing 12 Function Keys. It lacks 12 function keys. TWELVE of them!

Input Devices

Happy Hacking Keyboard Keymap Tool. How to Update. Download the latest firmware as shown below. Connect your keyboard with USB cable, and run the 'Happy Hacking Keyboard Keymap Tool'(Windows) / 'Happy Hacking Keyboard Firmware Update Tool'. The Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2's non-traditional design will appeal to a sliver of programming pros and typists seeking a state of absolute minimalism in a high-quality keyboard. Jan 03, 2019  The Happy Hacking Keyboard is a conceptualized in Japan by PFU Ltd by highly reducing number of keys from standard 104 keys keyboard to mere 60 keys in its Professional keyboard series. 60 keys makes it small and compact still retaining each key to its full size. Jan 30, 2019  The Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2's non-traditional design will appeal to a sliver of programming pros and typists seeking a state of absolute minimalism in a high-quality keyboard.

• Pros

  • Sturdy build quality.
  • Capacitive switches.
  • Unassuming, no-frills design.

• Cons

  • Quite expensive considering feature set.
  • Steep learning curve.
  • No key backlighting or media controls (dedicated keys or shortcuts).
  • Won't work with KVM switches or PS/2-to-USB adapters.

• Bottom Line

  The Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2's non-traditional design will appeal to a sliver of programming pros and typists seeking a state of absolute minimalism in a high-quality keyboard.

I have been using the Happy Hacking Lite keyboard for two days now, which I think is an appropriate amount of time necessary to give an objective view about this keyboard. Now, the thing that makes this keyboard special and revered by some programmers and gamers alike is the amount of keys and how it is designed. With only 60 keys, compared to standard 101 keys, it is quite an adjustment when.

Simple elegance? A keyboard abyss? Looking at the Happy Hacking Keyboard (HHKB) Professional 2 is like staring into the epitome of both. The model received by PC Labs for testing is entirely charcoal-colored plastic, with black printed keycaps, rendering this 60-key abbreviated mechanical keyboard far more minimal-looking than most other boards. Fujitsu Computer Products designed the HHKB Professional 2 for Linux programmers, heavy typists, and others seeking to reduce wrist strain, making it easier to reach just essential keys. Thus, no frills: no media controls, no backlighting, no other whiz-bang features. The layout, though, is a learning curve harsh to negotiate in part because of its compression, and in part due to the one-color design. And its pricing—$241, in all of its varieties—tops that of many elaborate mechanical boards with similar switches. This is an ultra-specialty board at a high price.

The Art of Minimalism

You can get the HHKB in charcoal or white, and with printed or blank keycaps. Either way, the HHKB Professional 2's body is made from common ABS plastic; every keycap but the spacebar uses another kind, polybutylene terephthalate (PBT). I'll leave the differences between the plastics to the pros, but the gist is that ABS is ostensibly cheaper and more prone to wear, while PBT is more expensive and more durable, resistant to finger wear and the finger-polished shine that tends to accrete on keytops over the years. Using ABS for the body and PBT for the keycaps offers a compromise between cost and build quality.

Most folks will be able to feel the difference between these plastics. The PBT keycaps have a more solid feel than most. Instead of jiggling when they're pressed, or feeling like they're hollow, these keys have a certain heft. I can't testify to the keycaps' long-term durability or wear resistance, but the overall impression is one of an old-school mechanical board that feels like it ought to live forever. (Many of its kind, indeed, have.)

But enough about the keycaps. They make the first impression, but it's the switches underneath that determine if you'll want to commit to the HHKB Professional 2. The keyboard is outfitted with capacitive switches akin to those made by Topre. (The company makes another set of not-cheap keyboards, the Topre Realforce line, that uses genuine Topre switches. PCMag has a review of one in the works, too.) These non-contact switches are supposed to offer smooth, linear travel when pressed.

The broadest way to describe how these switches feel would be to compare them to the mechanical Cherry MX switches popular among many keyboard enthusiasts. To me, they feel like a cross between the linear Cherry MX Black and the tactile Cherry MX Brown. (See our guide to the best mechanical keyboards for more on the subtleties of mechanical switches.) They aren't quite as smooth as Cherry MX Black switches, which are popular with gamers because they offer minimal feedback and stiff resistance against mis-strikes, but they don't have a mid-press tactile bump like the MX Browns do.

I hesitate to compare typing on the HHKB Professional 2 to the feel of my own Logitech G Pro because many people think the latter's own-design Romer-G switches are too mushy for their tastes. They do feel similar, though, and people worried about that kind of keyfeel can rest assured that the HHKB's feel is a bit more solid than Logitech's. If you like the Romer-G, you'll probably like these. If you don't, you might like these more. But don't expect a gulf of difference.

The rest of the HHKB Professional 2 is unassuming. Two USB ports on the back panel serve as a two-port USB hub, with a third port (a mini-USB) as the connection to your computer. (A detachable USB cable comes bundled.) The keyboard's support documentation notes that the HHKB will not work with KVM switching solutions or on legacy systems using a PS/2-to-USB converter. The latter is a trivial quibble, but the KVM limitation is too bad; a compact keyboard like this one could be a good solution for use with multiple systems in some niche cases.

Two feet underneath the forward corners adjust to three different heights based on your preferences. The only branding is an HHKB Professional 2 logo in the bottom-right corner, so you don't have to worry about an ostentatious logo marring the minimalist design; this is pretty subtle.

Hackito Ergo Sum

The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) lists five factors that increase the risk of developing carpal tunnel syndrome: repetitive hand motions, awkward hand positions, strong gripping, mechanical stress on the palm, and vibration. Typing for prolonged periods, depending on the desk and the keyboard in question, can agitate all five of those factors.

Programmers and other such data professionals type more than most folks, and oftentimes in the same patterns. To allow them to do so more efficiently and with less risk of injury, the designers concentrated on a keyboard better suited to developers. The primary approach? Reduce the distance between keys so typists wouldn't have to stretch their fingers constantly. (Being able to adjust the keyboard's height can also help the wrists sit in a more natural position.) The HHKB's unique, minimalist layout allows typists to keep their fingers close to the home row at all times.

Here's how it works. Most of the non-alphanumeric keys have been removed and turned into modifiers for the remaining keys. You activate these additional functions by holding down Fn and pressing the appropriate key. Most keys have been replaced by this system, with the exceptions being customizable keys flanking the spacebar, the Alt keys, and the Ctrl key. (The last rests where Caps Lock would be found on a more traditional keyboard layout.)

Now, most consumer keyboards these days let you reprogram any customizable keys strictly via a software utility, but these customizable keys are quite different. They are controlled by six DIP switches on the back of the keyboard...

Various layouts via DIP-switch combinations are available—starting with HHKB Mode (for Linux users), Lite Extension Mode (geared toward Windows), and Mac Mode—that change the behavior of certain keys. That's part of the reason why the HHKB comes in versions with blank keycaps; that way, a user won't be confused if key presses don't have the expected result in a different DIP-switch mode versus what he or she sees on the keycap. You'll want to examine that PDF at the link, as the possible configurations and key shortcuts are complicated. Indeed, you'll have to be pretty motivated to decipher the possible combinations.

As someone who's suffered from varying degrees of wrist pain for nearly a decade (I spend most of my day typing), it's easy for me to see the HHKB Professional 2's appeal. It also doesn't hurt that removing non-essential keys gives the keyboard a small footprint that lets me bring my mousepad as close as possible to my non-mousing hand. Less distance between hands equals less back and shoulder pain while I'm gaming, at least for me. It also means less distance to go back and forth between keyboard and mouse in everyday use.

That said, it's no picnic actually getting used to the HHKB Professional 2's layout. Figuring out what combination of keys has to be pressed to have the intended result, even at the default settings, is hard when the black labeling on the charcoal keycaps is practically invisible except under ideal lighting. Too much light results in a glare that obscures the label; too little illumination quite literally leaves me in the dark because of the keyboard's black-on-basically-black color scheme.

Speed Typing: This Will Take Some Work

Suffice it to say my words per minute dropped as soon as I started using the HHKB Professional 2. The missing keys and unique layout effectively reset my ability to touch-type to prehistoric levels. (I couldn't even type quickly looking at the keys, either, because of their near-invisible labeling.) I've gotten more used to it over the course of a few weeks with the board, but only when it comes to writing. I still forget where the Ctrl key is, and I don't know most of the default Fn combos.

That assessment is borne out by the Aesop's Fables test over at TypingTest.com, on which I scored 117 words per minute with seven errors. All of those errors were caused by mistyped punctuation or, interestingly enough, capitalization mistakes. I suspect I would have fared even worse had I been asked to type any numbers. Still, these results aren't enormously far off the 103 words per minute and three errors I get with my G Pro.

But those results don't accurately convey the increased frustration I feel with the HHKB Professional 2 versus more traditional keyboards. I miss the cursor keys for correcting quick typos, the dedicated media controls for convenient volume adjustment, and the one-touch access to certain keys. Some issues can be overcome with prolonged exposure, as my TypingTest.com results show, but some are simply personal preference and creature comforts.

Gaming is not this keyboard's focus or forte, unless the games you play rely on little more than the alphanumeric keys. The capacitive switches might not be quite as responsive-feeling as linear mechanical switches, but they're no slouches. Mispressed keys were more the result of my getting comfortable with the layout rather than any failing on the keyboard's part.

The HHKB Professional 2 is equipped with N-key rollover, too, for those of you who like to mash all of the keys at once and have the keyboard send all the right signals. But again, twitch-centric gamers will likely get hives just looking at the layout.

All About the Letters

It's clear that the Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2 has a very specific audience in mind. The very name conveys that, as does the fact that you can buy it with blank keycaps despite its non-traditional layout. Coders and typists who think a smaller keyboard that requires minimal travel between keys will help them type faster and reduce lateral wrist strain could indeed find comfort and solace in this board.

The appeal outside that crowd is less clear. To be sure, it's rugged-feeling, clean in design, and quite different from what most people are used to. But the nigh-invisible labeling on the keycaps makes learning the HHKB Professional 2's layout even harder. The white version with black labeling could be an option, in case everything but the murky color scheme is compelling you to give the keyboard a try.

As for me? I prefer more bells and whistles. I wouldn't say I need RGB backlighting, but some kind of assistance seeing the keys in the dark is welcome. So are dedicated media controls, physical cursor keys, and a more predictable layout. I also think holding down Fn and stretching to press another key for secondary functions is actually less comfortable than reaching for the single key would be on another device.

There's no denying the HHKB Professional 2's quality. The PBT keycaps feel nice, I like the capacitive switches, and there was no 'pinging' or other distractions common to lesser keyboards. The question is whether that strong foundation supports a product that suits your needs, or if the underlying conceit simply doesn't mesh with them. I fell into the latter camp; I suspect many more folks will be on my side of the fence, especially once they ogle the price.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2

Bottom Line: The Happy Hacking Keyboard Professional 2's non-traditional design will appeal to a sliver of programming pros and typists seeking a state of absolute minimalism in a high-quality keyboard.

Real talk: when I first got the Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 (HHKB Pro 2 for short, ish) out of the box, I hated it.

Now, don’t get me wrong: it’s tiny and beautiful, but it takes a LOT of getting used to, and if you’re going to have to use another keyboard at work/home/ever again, you’ll want to think twice before springing for this. Actually, think twice anyway, because this thing is pricey — around £260.

After weeks of use and quite a lot of swearing, here’s our verdict on the Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2.

HHKB Pro 2 — looks

If Ikea made professional keyboards, they’d probably look like this (and cost about 95% less). The HHKB Pro 2 is tiny: its width is almost exactly the same as the length of an A4 piece of paper. Which is a handy measurement to use when trying to work out how it’ll look on your desk.

The diminutive size of the HHKB Pro 2 is thankfully not due to shrinking the keys: they’re proper, full-sized keycaps which makes the board easy and comfortable to type on out of the box. However, that only goes for the alphanumeric keys. Placement of everything else is… idiosyncratic, shall we say? But we’ll get to that.

Our review unit is Dark Grey, which is a very deep charcoal that you could be forgiven for mistaking for black. It has a textured matte finish, and the sublimated markings on the keys are also matte, albeit darker. This means from far away or in low light, the keyboard looks blank, which is presumably part of the intended minimalist aesthetic. However, it’s not great for accessibility, nor for getting used to the aforementioned key placements. If you’re a touch typist, hate unnecessary detail and intend to stick to this keyboard ’til you’ve mastered it, though, you’ll probably like the design.

Branding is unsurprisingly subtle, with the HHKB Professional 2 logo in the bottom right with the same darker matte finish as the key markings. All the extra functions of the keys are delineated on the front side of the keycaps, but since that throws them into shadow, they’re again quite hard to see — especially if you have the keyboard tilted upwards for comfort.

There’s absolutely nothing extraneous on the board: no backlighting, no LEDs to indicate what’s on or off, no arrow or F-keys (they’re secondary functions of the main keys). The board itself is solid and thick, with a wedge-shaped profile that measures 3cm at the top end and just under 2 at the bottom. Two-stage risers are included underneath so you can have the keyboard either completely flat, slightly raised or maximum height, which adds about another centimetre to the top end.

The only other thing on the bottom is a sticker explaining how to use the DIP switches, which we’ll come to shortly. Finally, the top keyboard edge (that faces your computer/monitor) includes said DIP switches under a slide-off panel, plus two USB inputs for adding a mouse and suchlike, and the USB-mini input for the USB cable that connects it to your computer.

Annoyingly, the cable plugs into the centre of the top edge, which means you can’t place the HHKB Pro 2 particularly close to anything else because there’s a cable and jack sprouting from it. I would have much preferred this to be on one side.

HHKB Pro 2 — key placement

We mentioned that the key placement on this board is somewhat unusual: let’s get into that in more detail.

For starters, Caps Lock has been replaced by Control (aka Ctrl — it’s just spelt out in full because it’s a bigger key so there’s enough space), as per keyboards of yore. Not many of us regularly use caps lock (grandparents notwithstanding) whereas we all use Ctrl, so the decision kind of makes sense — except that your hands are insanely used to Ctrl being where it’s supposed to be and it takes a really annoying amount of adjustment to get used to it being somewhere else.

There are still two Alt keys, one on either side, and a function key to the far left (you’re going to need this a lot more than you do on other keyboards). There are also two CMD keys on either side of the space bar (also marked with a diamond for language input), which is blessedly large, and the Enter key is rectangular rather than the L-shaped one you find on larger boards. It’s also labelled ‘Return’ rather than Enter (or just an arrow), which is one of several throwbacks to simpler computing times on the HHKB Pro 2 that seem designed to appeal to us old techies.

As we mentioned, you get no separate F keys or arrow keys, with those functions being absorbed by the number and punctuation keys respectively. We got used to that, eventually, but what we absolutely could not hack was replacing the backspace key with old-school Delete. “Aren’t they the same thing?” the whippersnappers ask. Well, no, Sonny Jim — in the old days, the Delete key got rid of things to the right of the cursor, whereas backspace, as you might expect, goes backwards one space (to the left). If you’re used to Macs, you’ll know the backspace key as Delete, but it still functions as a backspace.

Most modern keyboards still have a Delete key, but they also have a much larger Backspace. Getting used to the loss of this key felt like having a digit removed, so we quickly gave in and adjusted the settings so the Delete key became Backspace. A quick Google search shows we’re far from alone in doing this, and it makes the HHKB Pro 2 FAR more usable out of the box.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 — typing experience

Key placement aside, this keyboard is an absolute joy to type on. The ‘Happy Hacking’ bit of the name is spot on: it’s so deliciously clicky and quick that you really do feel like a bad stereotype in a sci-fi film typing ‘DELETE THE MAINFRAME’ into a bright green command module, which then causes everything to explode. And isn’t that the dream?

It’s noisier than you’ll be used to if you don’t currently use a mech keyboard, and that can be an issue in shared rooms and offices. Remember the days of the typing pool, where analogue typewriters clacked like a cacophony of woodpeckers? Well, it’s not quite that bad, but if you had a few of these — or introduced one to an otherwise quiet room — you’d notice.

To get technical for a second, the HHKB Pro 2 uses Topre switches. That means it’s not quite a mechanical keyboard, but somewhere in between one and a standard rubber-dome keyboard (and nothing like those low-profile chiclet keys on your laptop, ugh). The keys travel a very satisfying 4mm before bottoming out, and make a really enjoyable CLACK when they do. It’s not as loud as most mech keyboards, but louder than a standard non-mechanical board. A happy (hacking) medium, if you will.

The ‘actuation point’ (aka when the keyboard considers that a key has been pressed) is quite near the top, so you don’t need to press them all the way down if you don’t want to. But you will want to, because it’s fun.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 — changing the settings

The HHKB Pro 2 has a set of six little switches (known as DIP switches) hidden underneath a panel on the top edge beside the USB inputs. These are not the most user-friendly, but if you can flick them with something like a hairclip or pen, you can change the settings without messing about with software or apps. Which is kind of nice, though it’d be better still if they could be operated by, you know, a finger.

This not-so-simple guide on the back of the board tells you what each switch does:

For instance, we flipped the third switch to turn Delete into Backspace. It’s not terribly intuitive how this works: the switch is ‘on’ when it’s at the top. There is a little guide to show you, but it’s TINY, and we missed it the first couple of times. Also, don’t expect the keyboard just to adjust itself once you flip the switch — we had to disconnect and reconnect to our PC to make the change happen.

This is also where you’ll find the Mac mode, which you’ll need if you’re not on a PC, and other formatting options. Honestly though, backspace is the big one.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro

Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 — our verdict

Happy Hacking Keyboard Mac Command Key

The HHKB Pro 2 is a compact, beautifully minimalist keyboard that feels wonderful to type on. However, you will have to make some significant changes to your typing style, and that can be really jarring at first. Getting used to the new placement of Ctrl and Backspace, plus managing without a proper F-row and arrow keys is a steep learning curve, but when you’ve mastered it, typing on this board is fast, comfortable, and satisfying. It really pays off the name.

The question, really, is whether you want to spend the best part of £300 for a keyboard that’ll make you considerably change your hard-won muscle memory. If you work from home, or can have the same keyboard at home and work (your poor bank balance), then you’ll adapt and probably be a faster typist as a result. But if you type on a normal board at work and then come home to this, you’re going to have to make those adaptations constantly, and you’ll be swearing as much as we were on our first couple of days with the HHKB Pro 2 every day. After having paid lots of money for the privilege.

Happy Hacking Keyboard Mac Mode

Ultimately, then, this is a keyboard for the typing hipster: for someone who really appreciates the Topre switches, the full-sized keycaps, the minimalist aesthetic, the small footprint, and all the purist-friendly throwbacks to keyboards of yesteryear. It’s not for the mainstream, and it’s not intended to be.

Mac Happy Hacking Keyboard Images

The Happy Hacking Keyboard Pro 2 is available now for £259.99.