ZDNET’s key takeaways
- The Naya Create keyboard is on the market now beginning at $500, with extra modules offered individually.
- It’s extremely well-built and well-designed, with a breadth of customization choices that allow you to go as deep as you need.
- It is costly, and the training curve requires dedication.
I’ve examined a couple of cut up keyboards over the previous yr, and so they all have one factor in frequent: You actually should be dedicated to the trigger. Rewiring your mind to an all-new keyboard format requires time, endurance, and slightly bit of labor.
But it surely’s simpler than you suppose, and there is a marketplace for it. Loads of shoppers are searching for ergonomic, different options to the flat, plastic keyboards we have all been hammering away at for our complete lives.
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The most recent cut up keyboard I’ve examined, the Naya Create, is each a deconstruction of the standard keyboard setup and one thing solely new. It is a wired cut up keyboard that may be positioned in unconventional methods, together with at an angle, or spaced far aside, permitting the consumer to maintain each arms impartial in entrance of them.
The result’s a keyboard that appears and feels extra like a tactile management heart than the usual keyboard/trackpad setup we’re all accustomed to. That is very true with the boards angled, which lets you relaxation your arms on the desk with out having to carry and rotate your wrists.
When you begin attempting to sort, nonetheless, you understand you possibly can’t stare on the display screen whereas your fingers fly. In truth, throughout my first few days utilizing the keyboard, my eyes had been glued to it. But it surely would not take lengthy earlier than you get to an operational threshold.
Wanting on the machine’s bodily kind, one of many largest modifications is the extra, customizable buttons that do not exist on an everyday keyboard. Additionally, either side function an area bar (it seems most of us truly solely use the identical thumb to hit the area bar whereas the opposite one simply… hovers there). This fashion, you possibly can make the most of area on each palms.
The remainder of the keys on the far proper and left sides of every board do have some logic to how they’re mapped out, however they don’t seem to be the keys your muscle reminiscence remembers, so that they demand an adjustment.
You will additionally discover the keyboard is constructed to accommodate some ambiguity. Not each key’s clearly outlined, and that is on goal. Naya desires you to customise your machine by mapping keys to your preferences within the Naya Circulate software program. Thankfully, the method is easy: Simply drag and drop a key’s operate to its place on the board.
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This was an fascinating experiment for me. Initially, I did not love that there was no Backspace key, as that area was occupied by the 0 quantity key. However I remapped Backspace to the far proper multifunction key subsequent to the area bar and was stunned how straightforward it was to adapt to this modification. Certain, it took a while, nevertheless it wasn’t as laborious as I assumed.
Going deeper on this idea of customizable key mapping, you possibly can take into account every structure to be a separate “layer”. For instance, you may have your common, on a regular basis QWERTY keyboard structure that is optimized for regular utilization.
However you possibly can change to a different structure for gaming, the place the WASD keys are arrows on the left board, and the precise aspect is a quantity pad. Under that layer is a “System” structure, the place every key’s mapped to controlling a separate LED model or operate for the keyboard’s RGB lighting.
Moreover, you possibly can deal with every key such as you would a trackpad or mouse. A single faucet of a key might be mapped to at least one factor, whereas a double faucet, or a maintain, might make it do one thing else.
Additionally: I tested a split keyboard made for gamers, but I’d use it in the office just as much
Talking of, the Naya Create is not only a keyboard; both sides of the keyboard has two slots for added modules: a trackpad, a ball-style mouse, and a dial. The modules could not be simpler to make use of; they only snap into place with a strong magnetic repair, and so they join mechanically with the pins.
The trackpad, or Naya Contact, is absolutely customizable with all of the gestures you’d anticipate: one-, two-, or three-finger faucets, double-taps, spreads, and so forth. The dial is nice for customers who spend quite a lot of time dragging sliders in Adobe Photoshop or scrubbing video tracks in DaVinci Resolve.
General, the keyboard’s construct high quality feels superb. The hinges are extraordinarily sturdy and do not transfer in any respect once they’re positioned on the desk, which permits for a excessive diploma of precision when adjusting the boards, as they’re going to keep precisely the place you place them. Even with sustained, focus strain, the board would not budge.
Apart from all the important thing customization, the machine itself is totally loaded with RGB lighting results. The sunshine beneath the keys themselves and results on the modules aren’t solely surprisingly brilliant, however ostentatious sufficient to please essentially the most diehard avid gamers. Personally, I do not thoughts the extra subdued lighting, however the rotating prismatic results aren’t for me.
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If the Naya Create appears like one thing you can get into, there is a very lively Discord neighborhood the place customers share configurations, templates, and setups, in addition to supply troubleshooting recommendation and, most significantly, professional suggestions for embrace the training curve. The top end result, from individuals who have caught with it, say they cannot ever return to a “common” keyboard.
ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation
The Naya Create keyboard is probably the strangest premium cut up keyboard I’ve gone hands-on with. Its construct is surprisingly strong, and the customization runs deep. With the flexibility to load totally different layouts, you possibly can swap keyboards relying on what you are doing, and a number of capabilities per key based mostly on single, double, or long-pressing keys permit for limitless experimentation.
The largest downside is its value. The keyboard alone is $500, which places it firmly in area of interest luxurious tech territory. The touchpad is an extra $80, the trackball $100, and the dial $170. When all is alleged and finished, you are near $800.
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One factor is for certain, although: This machine requires suggestions from the consumer. You have to be engaged within the studying course of, and the customization continues as you employ the machine. The top end result, nonetheless, has the potential to be an absolute game-changer for productiveness.
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