One year after getting my #HHKB (Happy Hacking Keyboard) I'm still not sure whether I like it or not. I stand by my original opinion that the keyboard is good, but wildly overhyped.
Pros:
- looks great
- topre switches
- mac-friendly layout
- no caps lock (it's left control)
Cons:
- Questionable layout choices (no dedicated arrows, ~ in an absurd position, \ and Del swapped)
- Tiny alt/opt keys
- No right control (there's definitely space for one)
- No advanced remapping capabilities (think QMK)
- I constantly have to wake it up and the sleep interval is not configurable (why doesn't any key press wake it up???)
- the battery hatch is ugly
- it doesn't switch to USB-C automatically when you plug it in...
- rarely it loses connection with my computer (e.g. once per 6 months) and I need to redo the setup
It's a good keyboard for sure (any keyboard with Topre switches is pretty good by default), but in some ways it feels like a step back from my beloved Leopold FC660C that it replaced. My guess is that mostly people hype the HHKB mostly because they've never touched another Topre keyboard or are more forgiving about poor layout choices and configuration options than me.
If someone makes a real modern keyboard with Topre switches I'll likely immediately dump the HHKB.