Anyone who has spent time in the attractive world of mechanical keyboards knows exactly what they are looking for. Most prefer the cold, precise embrace of German engineering in the switches, but the market’s pulse is currently in the East. That is how we came across the OneBoard PRO+, a new mechanical keyboard that combines Cherry MX Black switches with a built-in Android computer.
2015 may be the year we see a marked acceleration in both the manufacturing and sale of mechanical keyboards. The offering at the last CES was impressive, and increasingly affordable options are slowly appearing that are by definition superior to rubber dome and membrane keyboards. Even so, such acceleration brings changes, which in turn lead to many debates about quality. As expected, the cheapest mechanical keyboards come from China, and many are betting on Cherry switch clones that retain a certain premium profile. Of course, that doesn’t mean Chinese keyboards are bad, but if something appears that seems above average, it deserves to be highlighted.
In this case, we have the OneBoard PRO+, a compact mechanical keyboard with an aluminum chassis and LED backlighting. The switches chosen for the OneBoard PRO+ are Cherry MX Black, known for their linear operation and popularity in environments like offices and point-of-sale terminals. The market has a fairly wide variety of backlit mechanical keyboards, but the OneBoard PRO+ also includes an Android computer with a 1.8 GHz quad-core chip, two gigabytes of RAM, 16 GB of flash storage, an SD slot, Wi-Fi n and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity, and two USB ports, one of which is exclusively for Android.
This is not the first time we have heard of such a keyboard. In 2013, the CoolShip appeared on Indiegogo, but it turned out to be a complete scam. The advantage of the OneBoard PRO+ is that it is not under a crowdfunding process. Asian online sales portals like Aliexpress and Banggood are already selling it at an average price of 290 dollars. It is expensive even compared to other mechanical keyboards, and many enthusiasts have said it would be more reasonable to modify a keyboard using a Raspberry Pi or an HDMI dongle, but if demand is high enough, the price of the OneBoard PRO+ should come down.
Source: Geek.com
