HHKB Professional Classic Type-S Review: A Brilliant but Niche Keyboard

The integrated plate is so beloved that even the company behind one of the most high-end custom shells for the HHKB, Norbauer’s “Heavy Grail” case, designed and manufactured a custom injection-molded plastic plate instead of using individual switch housings.

Coding Layout

Photograph: Henri Robbins

The largest benefit of any HHKB is the layout. Right out of the box, this keyboard is designed to be intuitive and efficient for coding. The Function key can easily be accessed by the right pinky, and the Control key has been moved from the corner to replace the Caps Lock key. The function layer underneath has also been custom designed.

The most jarring part of the layout will likely be the lack of keys in the bottom left and right corners, but those keys are (supposedly) absent for a reason. In theory, it’s difficult to reach your pinky down to the corner while keeping your hand on the home row. Instead, the only key left in that row is the smaller Alt key, which can be reached by the pinky or thumb more easily. While I don’t necessarily agree with the choice to leave the corners blank, the trade-off of a Control key that is immediately accessible is worthwhile, and the blanked corners have become iconic enough with the HHKB that getting rid of them would be near-blasphemous to the community that has developed around this keyboard.

The Control key’s new location is also shockingly helpful in video games. Crouching (assuming you don’t immediately remap Crouch to “C”) is far easier, and in games like Helldivers 2, calling in support items will be just a bit quicker when you don’t have to reach your pinky down to the bottom corner beforehand.

Neither the switches nor the polling rate is particularly effective for gaming. The keyboard only operates at a 125-Hz polling rate, which is functional, but falls far behind much lower-priced gaming-oriented keyboards. The switches, being fairly slow tactile switches that take a good amount of time to return from being pressed, are not going to be the fastest option by a long shot. However, if you’re primarily focused on casual games or aren’t concerned about lightning-fast responses, the Type-S will pair fairly well with pretty much any gaming mouse to create a passable gaming experience.

Enthusiast Keyboard

Photograph: Henri Robbins

One of the benefits of the HHKB is its extensive aftermarket. Topre switches have a long history with enthusiasts, and there have been countless different modifications made available over the years, such as rubber domes with increased tactility, replacement sliders that allow for standard Cherry MX keycaps to be installed, and even entire aftermarket shells made from aluminum and brass. These modifications can let you really fine-tune your HHKB to your personal tastes, but they all have the same downside: Taking apart a Topre keyboard is not easy. And I say that as someone who has been working on these keyboards for years.