AstonJ

AstonJ

Planck vs Preonic vs Subatomic (Keyboards)

I ended up cancelling my Moonlander order as I think it’s just going to be a bit too bulky for me.

I think the Planck and the Preonic (or Subatomic - whenever it surfaces!) are going to be much better for me, here’s my pros and cons of each - have I missed anything? What are your thoughts?

Planck

  • 40% Keyboard (4 x 12)
  • Aesthetically pleasing
  • Very ‘cool’/futuristic looking

OLKB Planck vs Planck EZ

OLKB Planck is available from Drop and the Planck EZ is available from ZSA, they have some differences:

OLKB Planck (from Drop)

  • More case choice (other cases also available, or order with none)
  • More switch options (sold without so order your own)
  • More keycap options (order without then buy your own)
  • QMK Firmware
  • Self build (tho only takes 15 mins and no soldering required)
  • Bit taller, think with keys it’s 33mm
  • No RGB lighting (keys)
  • 1 year warranty
  • Slightly cheaper (unless you buy ‘nice’ keycaps/switches etc, which makes it more costly)

Planck EZ (from ZSA)

  • Plastic casing
  • RGB lighting
  • QMK Firmware
  • Can use Oryx to configure your keyboard
  • Shorter, at only 28mm tall with keys
  • Less ‘bezels’ around side = smaller footprint and arguably cleaner look
  • Some might say better built
  • Pre-built
  • 2 year warranty
  • Less customisable at purchase (no keycap options, limited switch options)
  • More expensive compared to stock Drop Planck with same switches

OLKB Preonic (from Drop)

  • 50% keyboard - has an additional number row (5 x 12)
  • Created by same person as the Planck
  • Same casing and switch options as Drop’s Planck

Subatomic

  • First mentioned a few years ago but still not available
  • Created by same person who created Planck and Preonic
  • Same as Preonic but will offer 2 additional columns (5 x 14)
  • Currently not available and no updates on when it will be

Reviews

Planck EZ

Planck Drop

Can’t find one atm, but here’s the build guide…

Preonic

Why 40% (/50%)

Plastic vs Metal case sound

Most Liked

svilen

svilen

Author of Concurrent Data Processing in Elixir

Ordered a Planck EZ today, fingers crossed we can get our hands on them soon @AstonJ :nerd_face:

SmithyTT

SmithyTT

What can you actually use them for?

Well, a rotary encoder twists clockwise and counter clockwise. It lends itself to actions that you’d otherwise need to repeatedly press a button for, and to actions that have both a forward and a reverse direction. For example:

  • Audio control, to turn the volume up or down;
  • Scrolling, to scroll up or down a page or document with Page Up and Page Down;
  • Tabbing, to go to the previous or next browser tab with for example Control Tab and Control Shift Tab;
  • Window movement, to go to the previous or next window with Alt Tab and Alt Shift Tab;
  • History scrubbing, to perform undo and redo;
  • Scrolling horizontally by word, with Control Arrow Left and Control Arrow Right (if you hold down shift while turning the encoder, you can select words too!);
  • Scrolling through search results, with Find Next and Find Previous when you map the encoder actions to your text editor’s shortcuts.

Of course, you can program them to do anything. I’ve seen people program common text snippets so you can enter text with the simple turn of the encoder.

Korbin73

Korbin73

I have both the Preonic and the Planck. Between the 2, I prefer the Preonic mostly because I didn’t want to access my numbers with a layer (that was just personal preference). I bought the Preonic with a polycarbonate case which was not available with the Planck. I would recommend a super quiet switch like Bobas U4s due to how load the plank case is: https://www.rgbkb.net/products/rgb-silent-tactile-switch

I’m more partial to split boards since I find them far more comfortable, so neither one of my one piece boards will be my daily drivers.

Where Next?

Popular General Dev topics Top

AstonJ
There’s a whole world of custom keycaps out there that I didn’t know existed! Check out all of our Keycaps threads here: https://forum....
New
AstonJ
Last thread about mechanical keyboards for now I promise!! I learnt a new word in this video, Thock! A sound many enthusiasts strive for...
New
First poster: bot
One of the questions I often come back to is this: how much of our collective wealth is inherited by our generations versus created by ou...
New
First poster: kokolegorille
Seagate recently published its long-term technology roadmap revealing plans to produce ~50 TB hard drives by 2026 and 120+ TB HDDs after ...
New
First poster: bot
Ultra-high-density hard drives made with graphene store ten times more data. Graphene can be used for ultra-high density hard disk drive...
New
First poster: bot
A brief overview of IBM’s new 7 nm Telum mainframe CPU. A typical Telum-powered mainframe offers 256 cores at a base clock of 5+GHz.
New
AstonJ
I love my Kindle Oasis for reading, but unfortunately it’s not great for technical books as you often need to click on a link or do a qui...
New
Exadra37
I am thinking in buying one as the second monitor for my Thinkpad while I am travelling: Anyone has experience in using on...
New
foxtrottwist
I love my programmable, mechanical keyboards. Keyboardio Atreus, ZSA Moonlander and the Planck EZ. By far my favorite is the Moonlander. ...
New
CommunityNews
Shop Dell UltraSharp Thunderbolt Hub Monitor U5226KW. 6K ultrawide curved display, 120Hz refresh, & TUV-certified eye comfort​.
New

Other popular topics Top

PragmaticBookshelf
Write Elixir tests that you can be proud of. Dive into Elixir’s test philosophy and gain mastery over the terminology and concepts that u...
New
ohm
Which, if any, games do you play? On what platform? I just bought (and completed) Minecraft Dungeons for my Nintendo Switch. Other than ...
New
AstonJ
You might be thinking we should just ask who’s not using VSCode :joy: however there are some new additions in the space that might give V...
New
New
AstonJ
I’ve been hearing quite a lot of comments relating to the sound of a keyboard, with one of the most desirable of these called ‘thock’, he...
New
AstonJ
I ended up cancelling my Moonlander order as I think it’s just going to be a bit too bulky for me. I think the Planck and the Preonic (o...
New
Help
I am trying to crate a game for the Nintendo switch, I wanted to use Java as I am comfortable with that programming language. Can you use...
New
hilfordjames
There appears to have been an update that has changed the terminology for what has previously been known as the Taskbar Overflow - this h...
New
Fl4m3Ph03n1x
Background Lately I am in a quest to find a good quality TTS ai generation tool to run locally in order to create audio for some videos I...
New
xiji2646-netizen
Woke up to this today: Claude Code’s complete source code exposed via npm source map. Not a snippet. All 512,000 lines. 1,900 TypeScript ...
New