Being a beloved blue eulipotyphla with the speed of a race car, all the gold rings, a friend like Tails, and even a few hit feature films makes you feel like you can do anything. That includes typing on a truncated mechanical keyboard with no letters, numbers, or other legends written on the top of the keys.
Higround, known for gaming gear, is today releasing a trio of 65 percent mechanical keyboards made in collaboration with Sega, as noted by Nintendo Wire, as well as other Sega-focused gear, including keycaps and mouse pads.
Photos of the brand show a trio of keyboards come to life with colorful details that deliver nostalgic images from everywhere, depending on the keyboard, loops and rings of the Green Hill Zone in 1991‘s Sonic the Hedgehog’ to the contrasting profiles of Sonic and Knuckles from 2001 Sonic Adventure 2 to the rainbow-colored arrow keys that mimic the buttons of the console controller in tribute to Sega’s last globally released console, the Dreamcast.
The PBT, dye-sublimated keys on the keyboards are 1.5mm thick, according to Higround, digging informational legends on their tops in favor of an artsy look when viewed from top to bottom. But from a typical seated position you should be able to see legends printed on the side on the front of the keys. You don’t have to be a touch typist to use the Sega keyboards, but if you aren’t, they will be harder to use than the typical keyboard at first.
Sonic needs to go fast, so it’s fitting that the keyboards use Speed Silver linear mechanical switches from TTC. They’re spec’d for about 3.4mm of total travel, with a 1.08mm actuation point and 45 grams of force to actuate (if you’re not sure what that means, check out our mechanical keyboard guide). Those numbers make them a bit shorter to operate and come out than the regular Cherry MX Red switch (4mm/2mm/45gf); though Higround could have been shorter with low profile mechanical switches to fit the speed theme even more.
The mechanical switches have a Sonic-blue-like housing.
If you’re looking for a quick way to fill out those spreadsheets, the Sega keyboards aren’t suitable because they don’t have a numpad.
Ultimately, you’ll need a combination of Sega and linear typing and the ability to work without a numeric keypad (some touch typing skills wouldn’t hurt either) to ensure that these keyboards are something that can help you increase your productivity, rather than than an interesting collector’s item.
But the keyboards aren’t as polarizing as they could be… at least they don’t let you type Elvish.
