Thursday, July 20, 2017
I Now Own an NKRO Laptop!
My old Lenovo Helix is getting alarmingly long in the tooth, so I bought an Alienware 13 for about $1,000 on Amazon two days ago. It arrived last night, and this morning I tried it with Plover for the first time. Sure enough, its keyboard has proven to be fully NKRO! Woohoo! Obviously it requires quite a bit more force than my Infinity or even my StenoMod (which is about the size and weight of the Alienware's ridiculously massive power brick!) but the keys are nicely flat, and I find that I don't actually notice the staggering all that much. I used it to converse a bit with friends on the Plover Discord during my break and found it surprisingly comfortable! It'll be a real asset when transcribing on the subway, at the very least, and while it'll never replace a professional machine, it'll let me use Plover more often for casual computer use, which is excellent. All in all, I'm quite pleased that truly NKRO laptops are actually a thing now, even if they tend to be a little on the pricey side. These are all just first impressions, but so far I must say I recommend it!
ReplyDeleteHello Mirabai,
That is really, really, really cool! Can’t believe a steno laptop is already a reality, and already tested by a professional! Could you give the number, exact specifications or link of the model you brought? Is Alienware 13 all I need to know if I decide to buy one?
Hey, Paulo. Sorry for the delay in publishing your comment; comments are moderated before posting now, due to the terrible spam problem we've been having.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is is the Alienware 13 I got: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N2WJXFE/ref=od_aui_detailpages00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
It was the cheapest one, but I believe all models in the 13 line have the same keyboard. The various price levels are just based on processor speed, I think.
ReplyDeleteThat’s good to know Mirabai, I thought I was having problems with my connection (again!!!).
But I really liked that model and doesn’t seam so big like the other gaming computers. Would you consider making your review about it after, say, one month of use? I guess a steno laptop has never been used before!
I ordered the least expensive nkro keyboard from the list provided, however the steno key pads i ordered to go with it never arrived. Any suggestions on reaching plover customer service to track my order?
ReplyDeleteThank you,
Eager to learn
Danger: using Plover routinely might raise your expectations to the point where typing regular ol' qwerty begins to feel like an imposition. One letter at at time - oh, the humanity!!! I'm on a train right now from Albany to New York City and if I had one of these bad boys I could be flying like a plover (see what I did there?) through this post.
ReplyDelete