Gear G2101 keyboard review (Tai-Hao semi-mechanical)
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- Опубликовано: 22 окт 2020
- Skip to 12:49 for a typing demonstration.
Today I present to you an absolutely awful keyboard that I'll be swearing at liberally. Hope you enjoy the video! :)
Intro by Kyle Carter
Outro by Facundo Cabanne
My keyboard reviews: bit.ly/1TbOtft
My switch teardowns: bit.ly/2C1QGHz
My TOP X videos: bit.ly/2FmpZfd
My XL typing demos: bit.ly/2OoAW3w
My tutorials and featurettes: bit.ly/2OrkLUh
My unboxing videos: bit.ly/2TSrr0m
I'm Thomas and I do videos and reviews on mechanical keyboards ranging from the most sickening modern RGB gaming keyboards to vintage hardware relics, or sometimes keycaps or keyswitches ranging from Cherry MX to Alps SKCM to IBM buckling springs and anything in between.
Follow me on Twitter for updates on my keyboard videos! / chyrosran22
The practice sentence was: "Hello my name is Thomas and I'm typing on a Gear-baged Tai-Hao Clicker. Yeah, I think you guys knew I was going to say that. Well, hope you enjoyed it!" 
Наука
Oh man, that typing demo. I can hear the anger in keystrokes.
You know its a uniquely bad keyboard when Thomas has to spend most of his time explaining just how bad it gets that he doesn't actually end up swearing all that much until much later in the review. You really have to wonder if anyone at Tai-Hao even bothered to test the keyboard out before signing off on it for production. It's like the keyboard equivalent of Big Rigs.
Except there's 0 charm in this keyboard
BIG RIGSSS
Not to mention the lack of "HHHIDEOUS" or "in imperial" quips. This board is definitely unique in its bad design.
The only reason they made them was to be the lowest priced supplier. I'd be surprised if that keyboard costed more than $2 a piece in volume.
*AVGN PTSD ENTERS CHAT*
After reading semi-mechanical, I knew exactly what was about to flash on screen.
Already know this is gonna be a good one, going to get my beer and popcorn.
Smart man
I feel like switches are getting so simplified, at some point they will be nothing but a rubber dome and a..... spring.............
*o h .*
Or ... if you're Apple ... glass.
Switches becoming simplified are not a bad thing, if done well. Look at optical switches. four parts: Top and bottom housing, spring, slider. They're amongst the smoothest I've tried even unlubed. However, some companies simplify switches just to save on costs. That's when the shit hits the fan. Or the finger hits shit, to be more exact
@@jo_naash Moreover, engineers loves simplifications. It reduces cost and size, increase durability, reparability, mutability and more. When it is even worst than a cheapo 3 part rubber dome you know that they are just engineering to the marketing team's specs of "it's mechanical" and "it's budget", not simplification
At least they’re not just a Naked membrane on glass.
I just want to say how much I appreciate that even though Thomas utilizes a vast and intricate treasure trove of curses, swears and expletives, he never uses any words that demean people's race, gender, sexuality, disability etc. It goes to show that you can conjure swearing hilarity like a stand up comic without being an actual asshole. Thank you Thomas for all the laughs and great reviews.
So, in short, this keyboard is not just bad because of the keyfeel, it's bad from a basic switch design perspective. It's like mixing Acer switches with Amstrad spring over membranes, but with all the shitness of the Amstrads and none of the advantages of the Acers.
Actually Tai-Hao in Chinese means ' too good'...
wouldnt it be taihaola then? its just very good
@@LZ58840 thats awesome! Thanks for the hanzi!
ruclips.net/video/35ntRVYiOUg/видео.html
Dang the last time I was this early to a video Thomas was still making switch top 10 lists
Watching the typing demo elicited such a strong emotional anguish in me that it actually manifested as physical pain. Yes, this is the first time I've ever experienced actual physical pain from watching someone type on a keyboard. It was like watching a loved one being stabbed over and over again - slowly, sadistically, and unrelenting.
It types like a bag of loose teeth.
The letter C popping back up is perfect comedic timing. God I love the WANING series of reviews
We sell gear branded stuff in our store, I recognize the logo.
However, they make phonecases now. I guess they just get generic manufacturers and put their own brand on it?
WANING: you have been waned
That waning gets him an immediate like. 🤣
Don't encourage him!
Oh, alright then, do.
Shouldn't it be WARNING, not Waning, its spelt wrong ! Waning is what the moon does as it fades from the sky.
Waning: non-rhotic spelling?
@@covlinuxguy you may not need the woooosh but your comment certainly do
8:04 perfect timing
That looks like a good enough keyboard to deserve a typing demo XL
That's exactly why I stopped doing those videos :p .
Early morning here. This voice is great to hear any time of the day.
8:05 Whee! That was fun!
W A N I N G
Perfect for Halloween. That keyboard flex was a horrific nightmare.
Are they actually worse than MX type switches?
Bruh, MX switches are mediocre at worst. These things don't even function at all as key switches.
these might be worse than cherry MY, so yes, they are
oh yes. time to start my weekend off with a spicy keyboard review
...I have three of these, that's right three, buying them was the price for also being able to buy a rare model F terminal board from the same seller...
...i saw that they had double shot alps caps so i agreed to it...
...out of curiousity, i grabbed a screw driver and took one apart at Southern Cross Station train platform in Melbourne...
...the springs and leaves exploded everywhere...
this is his most calm video honestly
I used to have one of the double full size leaf spring versions, strangely the other leaf spring appears to be copper. I don’t recall anything regarding the keyfeel, but I assume since I took it apart and took the click leaves to mod a tactile Alps board, I wasn’t too fond of it.
he went all in on that waning joke
How ironic is it that these kinds of rubbish boards are usable nowadays with a convertor, but some of the actual cool and interesting boards haven't been successfully converted yet. Poor Thomas and his painful (but oh so amusing) hobby :D
Hearing the scratchiness gave me goosebumps
I wonder, are the click leaves and springs at all compatible with actual Alps switches? Maybe they could be a decent source of potential replacement parts.
I have one of these APC things, with 2 click leaves, exact same construction branded "Dalton" (/EDIT). That was so fun when I opened it, immediately scattering a cubic foot of spings & leaves & sliders all around. All in all, after cleaning the dust and soaking sliders in PTFE WD40, it's not that bad. Well, squeaky and rattly, with an inconsistent key click, maybe a bit too light for my taste but still... ok, 2 click leaves just mean half the sh|t you described, but at least keys do not get stuck (yet...)
Holy crap those Alps keycaps you showed at the end. I managed to de-yellow all my OmniKey caps for a while but they're re-yellowing fast. Plus I think one of the numpad-5 keys maaaaay have gone down the drain.
I got 3 of these keyboards from my school yesteryear, and i can confirm that they suck a lot. Especially in the condition they were: some click leaves were corroded and some were stuck. I tried replacing them, but i failed and in the end i dropped 2 of them in the trash, and the one that is in the best shape is here with me.
I mean they couldove glued the springs to the mebranes and slider, and glue the clickleaf to the top housing
Hey could you do an update of the Top 5 Tactile Switches, if there are any you want to add to the list? I’m currently in the market for some of the best tactile/clicky switches that are extreme in their categories. Thanks!
The rage reviews are clearly the best reviews
Hey thomas, can you try out the new cherry viola switches ?
Don't think I've ever been this early before!!! Where could one get a board with Tai Hao switches?
So this switch vs. Smith Corona leaf spring?
I wanna hear what that double click leaf board board sounds like....
would you take this board or the Smith cornona lol
@Chirosran22
Hi mate! I know it doesn't relate at all with the utter trashbin of a keyboard you've just reviewed (how do you keep your sanity while dealing with that botched arseproduct, it's beyond me), but I'd like to ask you a technical thing:
"Do Mathias switches have the same pin arrangement as Cherry MX?"
The reason is quite simple: I have a Cooler Master SGK4070KK, Italian Layout, equipped with MX Reds. It's almost 3 years old now and it's starting to give out a lot of bad input on the letters O and E, despite regular cleaning and care. I've also opened the switches to get rid of the issue, but to no avail, so I was thinking about changing them to the Mathias Quiet Linear Red. Is that a good idea or I'm risking a botched transplant? And are there factories selling custom (as in "I can replicate the Italian Layout on them") ALPS-like caps?
Thanks for your time, mate :)
The pin arrangements on Matias switches are, unfortunately, not the same as in Cherry switches. The dimensions of the switches themselves are also different, so it would be hard enough to transplant the switches anyway. That said, Matias said in 2013 on a keyboard forum that they were working on trying to make custom projects easier, and I believe there are some companies that still make custom ALPS-mount keycaps. Hope this helps.
The conductive membranes remind me of my (broken) Model M. The conductive material (varnish with iron particles?) is quite prone to corrosion. Lousy, ain't it?
Top 10 best burning Switches please
I notice now you press enter with your thumb. Nice👏
(since you mentioned the laser key"board") I still want to see your take on the Waytools TextBlade… SOMEONE GET THIS MAN A TREG UNIT!!
the typing demo made all the hair on the back of my neck stand up
missing imperial units conversion
But it is worse than the Smith-Corona leaf spring?
3:35 Unironically kind of want to have something like that in the modern day. I'm a tactility nutcase.
My wrists are aching from just watching this video!
When you hear the typing at the end with the combination of all the bad things this keyboard gets :
OH MY EFFING GOD UGGGGHHHHH
DEAR LORD HAVE MERCY ON OUR SOULS
7:16 I just can't hold the laughter before he even starts making insulting joke.
Nice
On the up side, it does have a big-ass enter key.
I made the mistake of watching this while eating lunch in my car...
...and now, most of my lunch has been blown onto the instrument cluster.
Talk about sadistic!
Tai Hao does pretty solid Alps clones for cheap as heck. It's wild that they would do this. The Acer switch is a genuinely pretty good switch for being non discrete, so there's a decent blueprint for them. Basically make the Alps but actuate with a membrane. But if you aren't, then just smash a rubber dome. Why bother with all the crap?
Does it feel like an Amstrad spring over membrane? Is it another "god of spoon" summoner?
BTW, can this can of shit be a donor of click leafs for switches that have _mantis foot_ clicker or switches that can fit the large ones?
The one time I'm okay with sacrificing a board
@4:50 Springs going sideways hitting other things are a Good Thing™. And anyone saying otherwise can expect a whack with the old Model M.
I had the same thought.
what's the switch used for your intro?
I know I'm late, but they're blue Alps, his favourite sounding switch
wouldn't buckling spring design be cheaper and easier to make at this point?
1) tolerances 2) patents
Well damn I’m rather early to this one
Neat
*W A N I N G*
A mark of an excellence video
i didnt know something could be scratchier than browns
Very keystroke from the typing test feels like an ice pick entering my eardrum
8:09 I C what you did there :} Nice timing though!
Congrats on 100k! I must wan you to not let the fame go to your head.
edit: the FUCKING THING SOUNDS LIKE WHEN YOU ROOT AROUND IN THE LEGO BIN FFS
At least the Razer Ornata *functions* as a keyboard. This thing is as if they forgot to put a backplate on the damn thing last minute.
If anyone isn't Thomas, he or she would have just harvested the click leaves because that's the only good thing the board had (besides it's servicability)
i have been waiting for the day that a keyboard sucks so bad that you interrupt the typing demonstration to destroy it
Have you tried the new model f keyboards yet?
I don’t remember seeing one, but Thomas has reviewed the original Model F.
It’s here, if you haven’t seen it before: ruclips.net/video/uKOWVKJRFX8/видео.html
@@XalphYT good review, I wonder how the new models compare to the original.
ITS TIME...
Sees "WANING"
Ah, I should go get a snack.
Let's all go to the lobby;
Let's all go to the lobby;
Let's all go to the lobby
To get ourselves a treat.
Just for reference, are these switches somehow worse than Apple Scissor Switches?
A warning of waning? No signs of you waning, Thomas :)
Strip the keycaps and take it to the recycling center. At least it'll get ground up and never have to hurt anyone again...
EDIT: I just realized that, with the exception of the bottom row, these caps could cover my KB5981 with Montereys...
Great review as always. Honestly you have so much patience to review this tortutre tool of the middle age...
oh my
you should put the keycaps and the chasis in a hydrogen peroxide bath with UV light.
*cherry mx browns are some of the most tactile switches ever made!*
you speak such good french!
every time i see one of the typing-demos, i realizie, that i _never_ use the right shiftkey :D
HOLY SHIT I NEVER REALIZED THAT THESE WOULD BE *THIS* BAD ARE THESE WORSE THAN SMITH CORONA LEAF SPRINGS
god that typing demonstration though
Moreeeeee. Moreeeeee.
Chyros, seasoned old lady shaker and keyboard reviewer ;)
Stuck key: "I've fallen and I can't get up!"
0:30 - Hello and welcome to this *sighs* review...
11:05 why did I laugh at that
Today I learned it was possible for my testicles to retreat into my body for their own protection after listening to you type on that keyboard.
Chyros sounded more sympathetic in this review than angry. I think he felt bad for the poor board's existence.
10:45 the squeak is louder than my grandparents having sex
I wonder who would win in a swearing compaction chyro or Gordon Ramsay
waning
Ha, I have the exact same one, total crap...was considering trowing it for plastic recycle :D
uh oh
Bro I'm just dying when he's like when you Flex it and makes it terrible creaking noise like an old lady's skeleton😂😂😂😂😂😂
so where would this place on the "worst switches of all time" list?
Judging from how he described it, probably top 5 easy if not top 3
@@dfkman between 3 and 2 I think, possibly even WORSE than the smith corona leaf springs because at least I think THOSE stay put in their place(At least, I THINK they do).
This is a great question to ask because, to answer it properly, Thomas would have to dig out all the former contenders and subject himself to the torture of trying them all again to compare them with the G2101.
That's probably a two jenever bottle job.
"waning"
waning: even when he swears the 'f' word, I really thought it was a legit keyboard term lol.
so he made a typo in "waning" coz the reviewed keyboard is so bad at typing. I get the reference
Not really, it has become a staple of this channel.
It was initially the intro to his Top 7 WORST-SOUNDING switches of all time video. Later on it stuck on as a gag whenever a bad keyboard appeared and he was about to swear a lot.
@@mhammadalloush5104 ok ok I get it
@@hax0rz36 r/woooosh
@@mhammadalloush5104 r/woooosh
Two dislikes already? I mean, he *did* give you fair waning.