Graduated in Software Engineering, a specialized IT researcher in machine learning. Also a maniac for keeboards.
Thank you for the question, I tried a more circular low angled thumb cluster (you can see it on the top left plate) and it has its pros and cons:
As you stated the pro is the confort because our thumb movement are circular and not linear;
On the other hand the angled linear solution i found gave me the chance to fit a magnetic disc under the thumb cluster and felt more aesthetically pleasing, also because this keyboard is inspired by the little nine-nano by bsag (that has a linear thumbcluster)!
So i found that in good balance between confort, aestethic and functionality!
You have mentioned two keyboards that took your attention the Piantor and the Moonlander.
So let’s breakdown them, and let’s see the major benefits:
If you have to travel a lot and dont want to spend much to try a new cup of tea, you should go for the piantor; it’s cheap, really easy to build (thanks to the diodeless feature), tentable (see on the community for tentable case) and portable!
Instead if you don’t need to travel and you are sure that you want to switch go for the moonlander; Despite it’s high price it has a really large community and it’s built to make the average user feel at home. With the number row, tentable, full-size mx switches; it’s a really good option if you dont have to travel that much!
If you want a middleground of those, I can suggest the Sofle, it is a very popular keyboard too and has a number row;
This is the beauty of this community, everyone has it’s preference and we love to build keebs on those!
Let us know what will you take and your feedbacks!
Yeah, they look and sound good af; still i want to try the crinnacle zero