A good fraction of you readers would have come here directly, having skipped the pages in between, and to those I request that you take the time and go through the entire review in order if possible. Of the many products I have reviewed over the years, this one is going to be easy to dismiss by the way of a quick glance, as one for rich hipsters or art snobs. At the same time, there are others who may have read the whole review and are curious how this price tag is justified if all Datamancer is doing is taking another keyboard and putting a case on it.

I give Datamancer credit for the typewriter-style keyboards that have come out in the past few years, and in a sense for having kickstarted a niche market for such products. While the majority of the competitors have gone with reduced quality goods to hit a price point, this one is on the other end of the scale, wherein the keycaps themselves cost $125. As to knowing about the WASD V2 base here, it helps provide further context to the pricing. WASD sells the V2 at $150 in the USA, and that adds up to $275 (likely less given contracted pricing and the lack of a plastic case). The other $225 are due to the cost of the case's materials, manpower in the application of the brass ornaments and inset jewels and, of course, a certain profit margin.

As with any other product category, bang-for-your-buck goes down drastically the higher up in absolute pricing you go. With no functional advantage here to quantify, it really comes down to whether or not this is a must-have keyboard that suits your art style. It is a pricey path to follow as you now have to match other components to this, and Datamancer does of course have some options there too. The average end user is going to be interested in this or dismiss it immediately, and that is before the price comes up. Hopefully, this review has helped make that decision for you. On my end, this is not my cup of tea, so I do not see myself paying $500 for it.