I believe it's the stabilizers used. People seem to prefer the feel of the Costar style.
mhhh well every vendor offers to fine tune those, its just a matter of how much time and money you want to spend on it... i agree that the default balancers from costar are better than the ones razer uses for example... though i have to say the feeling is the same and the only difference i see is that the balancers razer uses are really cheap and break easily... but i think they upgraded those since so many spacebar balancers broke?
but if you use cherry stabilizers, like us, it doesnt really matter what vendor makes the keyboard
I agree merely being made by the same vendor doesn't mean they're identical, but if everyone's taking the same OEM product and just adding their own flavour?
true... then again, theres good sides to it as well, it results in more competition pushing for lower prices, and it improved overall availability of these OEM designs worldwide
and theres still a lot you can do with a reference design...
different painting, rubber coating, different keycaps, different keycap material, backlight, partial backlight, different backlight color, different backlight modes, different function key shortcuts, windows keys or no windows keys, windows key lock or not, what kind of cable, what kind of keyboard feet, what key balancers... what switches... wrist rest or not...
and last but not least price...
so even a reference design CAN result in very different products based on the company that OEMs it... unfortunately most OEMs just slap their brand name on it and thats it... but im just saying, you CAN differentiate with a reference design as well and really turn it into something else...
besides, you got different support, warranty and quality control at each OEM as well!
and that makes a BIG difference as well... we got phone support, livechat support, email support and forum support and offer twice the warranty than others for example...
but i dont understand your "the sea of iOne keyboards" remark
dont you know how many costar keyboards there are? and many of the are all about the same too... i dont see a difference between ione and costar in this regard at all...
most oems are very uncreative when it comes to rebranding a product... its the same in every industry i think... and i dont see any relation between companies using one fab being more creative than others...
So I greyed out the aesthetic and software differences, since I acknowledged they were the only distinctions in the "sea of iOnes", my point was about what separated the keyboards apart from that.
why did you grey those points out? you make it sound like those points are all the same for keyboards from the same vendor...
and those points make or break the deal for many people...
As for what's left, the standard key layout and improved 6KRO is appreciated, as is the "different steel plate" if it does what you say it does, but I'm not sure many people would consider the Trigger's cabling solution preferable
so far we got mixed feedback about the cable, but most like it... we listened to the feedback and are are already revising this for future keyboards
btw, another point is that we use different stabilizers, razer used to have problems with those breaking a lot, especially spacebars, in the past... not sure if they changed it or not.
our stabilizers still allow ALL keycaps to be removed, to clean the keyboard...
with the standard metal bar stabilizers most keyboards use, you cant do this... those break easily when removing them, especially if you dont know how to, and its a lot of fiddling to put them back... on trigger you just pop them out and plug them back in.
and I'm also not sure how lacking a rubber coating makes a key "more durable" (though I certainly couldn't care less about it's existence).
the rubber wears off...
didnt you read frederiks qpad reviews?
qpad changed to a different coating as well since the rubber coating razer and others use wears off after a couple of weeks.
why is rubber coating being used? to make the keys feel more smooth and give them more grip... its hard to find the right coating for this... durable but good grip...
The USB hub is nice for some people too I guess. I'm really not aware of how many people actually utilize such a thing once they have it.
yeah, thats why we provided the dc power jack, but dont bundle the PSU, cause most people dont want to pay for this as they probably wont use the hub, or are ok with the shared USB power for the hub....
Yeah, I didn't mean people should copy their designs, just that they're an example of someone making slightly more dignified products. Hopefully they don't bastardize their next offering mechanically.
im pretty sure they wont after all the bad press they got for using rubber membrane keys on their "mechanical" keyboards.
i actually think having the numpad and the cluster over the arrow keys membrane is fine, i wouldnt care... if it helps make the keyboard more affordable...
what i didnt like is that they used membrane keys with tactile feedback, while they used red switched for the rest of the keys... so those keys feel completely different...
abnd they used membrane switches for keys i use frequently, macro keys and function keys...
but the worst for me, was how they reacted to the complaints and claimed they used membrane switches ON PURPOSE because their resistance and tactile feedback is perfect for those keys, and price didnt pay a role in their decision AT ALL...
sorry, sounds like i couldnt convince you to try trigger and see it as a nice product
but i really appreciate your feedback! thanks