Photos and Features

Now that we have the Infinity Keyboard we can actually take a closer look at what it is all about. You might notice that in the photos below the keyboard doesn’t have the black PBT keycaps that it ships with, our original set had some defects that I wasn’t a fan of and it also came with the wrong sized spacebar. When they shipped out the replacement keyboard there was a communication issue and we didn’t get a set of keycaps. Sadly with Signature Plastics working double shifts to do the Granite Keycap Set that Massdrop did a drop on (13890 buyers!), so Massdrop wouldn’t have extra black PBT sets until closer to the next drop shipping. Lucky for us Signature Plastics actually sent over a set of their Deep Space keycaps for another project we will be working on soon and the set had everything needed for the Infinity.

Before we jump into the keyboard completely I just want to talk a little about its unique form factor. For those of you who aren’t huge into keyboards you most likely have only seen full sized keyboards and TKL (TenKeyLess) models. As a reader you may have also seen the ErgoDox here on LanOC as well. That said the Infinity is similar to the TKL in the way that it doesn’t have a number pad. This form factor is called a 60% where a TKL is an 80% keyboard. To get to a 60% they drop the direction pad and all of the page up, page down, insert, ect keys. The entire top row of F keys is also gone. What you are left with is all of the standard alpha keys that you use all of the time and then typically with a 60% you can use the function key to get all of your F keys and everything else that is missing. The Infinity is a little unique though compared to a normal 60% like a Poker is that they have slipped in a few additional keys but I will talk about those later.

Unlike most traditional keyboards the Infinity doesn’t have a big bezel around the edges, most of the case manufactures as well as Massdrop on their new cases all keep things thin to keep the size down. This also means that the edge doesn’t come up around the keys as well so from the side profile we can see right under them. This does give us a look at the backplate that we painted black and our semi-transparent Gateron switches. So not only is the keyboard layout small but the space saved around the edges make this a very minimalistic design.

While we aren’t using the same keycaps that the keyboard comes with, we are still using the same DSA profile. The Infinity’s DSA keycaps give you a flat profile when you look at them from the side where most keyboards have a slight curve to the key profile. I personally love the DSA profile for a keyboard like the Infinity because with all of the customizing that you can do with where each key is you need a keycap that isn’t locked into being in one specific row only, DSA caps allow that. The keycaps that come with the keyboard are blank so you won’t have to worry about that to much. From the side profile we can also see the angle that the case puts us at. The original Tex case that we used put us at a similar angle when using the larger rear feet and from what I can see the upcoming Injection Molded cases for the new Infinity drop has this same angle as well.

I mentioned earlier that Massdrop does include a USB cord for the Infinity. Well just like the ErgoDox you might as well plan on ordering a longer cord right out of the hole because the cord is amazingly short, like 2 feet maybe. The current Infinity design uses a Mini USB 2.0 connection but there have been talks about in the future switching to the new USB 3.0 C port that is smaller and also can be plugged in upside down or right-side up. The plug is on the back edge of the keyboard on the far right side.

For the most part the key layout of the Infinity uses standard sized keys all across the keyboard. The main exception to this is up in the top right corner where you would normally have a 2u wide backspace button as well as down at the right shirt where they slipped in an additional 1u button. The basic key layout that the Infinity ships with puts the pipe/backslash key up in the left button next to the = key. For me I really prefer to keep my key layout as close to normal as I can so I actually reprogramed the Infinity to have the backspace then delete next to each other with the backslash in its normal spot. For the shift key I didn’t program the button next to it to anything because I was worried I would bump into it. It is a nice place to be able to switch to another key layer though if you are interested. Like I said for me I preferred to keep things simple so I avoided layers all together to start, but I might change that later on. On a side note, the Deep Space keycaps helps a lot here with me being able to see what each key that I changed does.

Earlier we saw the back of the acrylic Tex case. The Vortex case for our second build was a little different. We can see how the four pin header on the bottom of the PCB is recessed. The middle of the case also has a location for a tag should you want/need to put one on. Sadly it didn’t come with the feet that the Vortex cases normally have. To keep it from sliding around I used the extra small feet that the Tex case came with but hopefully I can find feet that fit it better in the future.