Datacomp DFK515 Review

Vintage keyboards are a fun rabbit hole to dive into. They all tend to come from an era where there were no widely accepted standards like today, and many companies came out out of the woodwork seemed to have their own wildly differing ideas on how to best engineer these things. One such less known company was Datacomp, and among their sizable lineup of IBM PC peripherals, they put out this ugly monstrosity called the DFK515. Color me surprised - it's actually really, really good.

Datacomp isn't really a familiar brand to most users, at least here in the States. They are a Taiwanese manufacturer of PC peripherals that was founded in 1980, specializing primarily in keyboards. I don't know if they ever sold their products on the consumer market - it appears they only served business customers and some of their keyboards occasionally have been sold under different brands. Based on their website, that still largely appears to be the case today. 

Back in the 80s though, Datacomp was firmly in the exploding market for IBM PC peripherals along the likes of BTC, Keytronic, and Focus - to name a few. While they primarily seemed to dabble in simple clones of the XT and AT Model F patterns of keyboards, albeit with different switches, that all changed when IBM released the Model M and the soon to be standardized ANSI layout in the mid-80s.

Their site looks like it hasn't had a major update since the 1990s.

Since IBM more or less created the industry standards; being the most successful computer company of the era, everyone gradually started pivoting to making ANSI layout boards - or at least ANSI adjacent ones. For whatever reason, Datacomp seemed to decide they needed a product that bridged this transition from XT/AT layouts to ANSI, and the 1986 DFK515 appears to be the result of that.

This keyboard seemingly combines design elements of both the ANSI and AT layouts, creating a weird hybrid. It's more or less just an AT layout with the elements moved around to mimic ANSI, with an early nav cluster added between the main keys and numpad.

One of the weird byproducts of this design choice is that the DFK515 only has ten function keys, like an AT keyboard, despite having enough room for at least the usual twelve. Another weird element is the dedicated lock button and light for the nav cluster. It's as if Datacomp thought people were going to be so afraid of using it, they gave them the option to completely disable it, as opposed to y'know, just not touching it. 

Also, look at how the arrow keys are placed right up against the nav cluster. Gross! Not to mention the absolutely random control key located above the numpad and the absolutely haphazard placement of command keys that would normally find their home on the nav cluster. I understand trying to cater to both ANSI and AT users, but this is different enough from either that I can't imagine who it possibly appeals to. None of it makes any sense.

The perspective is deceiving, but a Model M does sit fully within the DFK515's footprint.

All of this results in a keyboard that just looks plain ugly. Okay, I guess it still looks somewhat cool in the same way most things of a certain vintage tend to after some time baking in the nostalgia oven, but between the weird layout, and the ridiculously gargantuan size, it's clear this was not something designed with even the slightest bit of elegance in mind.

The case measures out to 20 inches wide, 8.5 inches deep, and almost two inches tall. It also weighs five-freakin'-pounds. Even the cable is this massive, 5 mm thick coiled thing at roughly five feet in length. Yeah, this keyboard is actually bigger and heavier than an already chonkin' huge Model M, even though it only has roughly the same amount of keys. It's comically oversized, and they really did not utilize the available space very wisely to say the least.

But, as seems to be the case with most keyboards weighing as as much as a fully loaded oil tanker, the DFK515 has excellent build quality. The top casing is thick ABS with a steel bottom cover. And if that wasn't metal enough for you, it also sports a steel switchplate beneath the PCB. Datacomp even went though the effort of putting heat set inserts in all of the standoffs, just to really hammer in the point that they really intended for this keyboard to chisel granite, not so much for typing.

The weakest part about the whole build in my opinion (apart from the yellowed plastic, which is just a fact of life for almost all ABS that's at least old enough to drink), is the flip out feet. They flip out with the twist of a knob on either side of the keyboard much like the XT and AT Model Fs, but they just feel a bit thin and not super reassuring given the weight they have to support. Still, as someone who likes to have a good typing angle, I'm glad they exist.

The keycaps are relatively thick, doubleshot ABS - about 1.3 mm for the most thin walls and some as thick as 2 mm, especially for the bigger modifiers and function keys. They have razor sharp fonts on them that are easy on the eyes and they just feel really nice. They have a fine texture to them that I can't imagine is going to be super forgiving with wear, but mine feel fine despite their age and the beige color makes it pretty hard to tell if they shine up anyways.

Pop off the keycaps and... oh, would you look at that?

That's Alps SKCM Blue, which is widely considered to be one of the most legendary keyswitches ever made, right up there with IBM buckling spring and beam spring in terms of providing one of the most pleasant audible and tactile typing experiences in the world. They're also coveted as hell, so finding a keyboard with them for anything less than an arm and a leg is no small feat.

Three of the switches weren't working so I actually got the opportunity to tear into of the coveted little clickers and see how they work. SKCM Blue is a part of the first-generation "complicated Alps" lineage which is distinct from the later generations and clones that further simplified the design for the sake of manufacturing costs - and evidently to the detriment of typing feel. Crack open a complicated Alps switch, and yeah - they live up to the nickname.

At it's core, Alps SKCM and SKCL work by using a slider to depress a leaf spring which forces the two halves of a tiny membrane switchplate to connect, closing an electrical circuit and registering a keypress. The clicky and tactile variants differ from the basic linear design by the addition of second "click leaf" that generates the extra feedback. In the case of my malfunctioning switches, they just needed the primary contact leaf to be adjusted, so it now generates enough force to trigger the switchplate. One of them actually had a cracked housing, so I also had to glue it back together.

Compared to something like Cherry MX Blue, which comprises of a total of 7 parts, a fully disassembled Alps SKCM switch has anywhere from 10 to 13 parts. SKCM Blue has a reputation for being very clicky, tactile, and extremely smooth. The latter is in large part to a dry lubricant applied to the sliders that later Alps generations lacked. As a result, many users report the feeling of SKCM Blue switches to feel superior to the unlubed SKCM White switches and especially the later, further simplified SKBM White switches that are still being made today.

That's all neat, but does it actually add up to a switch that's worth all the glowing praise people heap on it?

I would say; yeah, the hype is real. This is just an extremely pleasant keyboard to type on. The keys have a really deep sounding click to them with a meaty "thock" on bottoming out. The actuation has a nice, crisp break to them and the action is very smooth with virtually zero binding. It is quite noisy though; something high quality Alps keyboards are well known for, but there's no denying it's a pleasant sound - at least for the person doing the typing.

I hate to say it, but I actually ended up liking the typing feel of this DFK515 more my bolt-modded Unicomp Model M. The tactility and key registration isn't nearly as well synced on the Alps switches as it is on the IBM buckling springs but to me, the DFK515's keys feel more snappy, even though they're evidently weighted about the same at 70 grams. I think the shorter pre-travel distance of slightly over 1 mm has a little bit to do with this, but the heavier weighting makes them less prone to accidental keystrokes. They also just sound better; more full bodied and less pingy than the buckling springs.

My biggest complaints with the keyboard are primarily because of it's layout. The weird AT/ANSI hybrid layout screws with my muscle memory just enough to where it gets a little annoying to use, especially the positioning of the modifiers, the big-ass enter key, and the hopelessly tiny backspace key. That, and I also make frequent use of the Windows and menu keys in my day to day use, which this keyboard simply doesn't have unless I use third party software to remap them to other keys.

There is also this extremely perplexing feature: a beeper. If you have this turned on, the keyboard will chirp every time you press a key and not only that; it will repeat continuously if you hold one down. Thankfully, you can turn it off by pressing "Ctrl + Pause", but this is still just such a silly feature to include on a keyboard that's already as loud as this one is.

This makes no goddamned sense.

Another pretty glaring fault has everything to do with Datacomp's implementation of the nav cluster and how it ties into num lock at the hardware level. When you press the "Cursr Pad" button to unlock the nav cluster, it also turns on num lock and disables the "Num Lock" key. What happens next is super weird. Instead of sending the normal nav cluster scan codes, they send out "Shift + Shift + Numpad", which - apart from the inexplicable extra "Shift" scan code, is how you use the numpad nav keys when numlock is on.

And half the time? They don't work.

For example, the arrow keys work just fine in text documents, but if I try and use them them on something like the search bar on YouTube, I can move the type cursor left and right, but I can't move it up and down to scroll through results - yet that seems to only be exclusive to YouTube. Using the normal "Shift + Numpad" commands work just fine, and it's not even an issue in other search bars like a browser address bar or search engine. Also, because Windows 11 search doesn't recognize the "Shift" key, pressing the nav keys in the Start menu will just enter in their respective numbers. It's complete madness.

Honestly though, my criticisms of the DFK515 are pretty minor when stacked against how good the typing experience and build quality of this keyboard is. Were it not for the layout and stupid implementation of the nav cluster, I'd have probably made it my daily driver keyboard. It really does just feel that refined, and it's got me pining for another Alps SKCM keyboard in the future - ideally blue switches, but I'd really like to try out the supposedly less refined white switches just to see how they measure up.

With the DFK515 though, Datacomp put together one hell of a keyboard. If you can tolerate the looks, the layout, and you're an infrequent user of the arrow keys, I have a good feeling you'll really like this thing - assuming of course you can even find one as they don't appear to be very common. But if you do stumble across one, give yourself plenty of room to park it, and it'll leave you grinning from ear-to-ear any time you get to hammer away at it.

What's Good

• God-tier typing experience courtesy of Alps SKCM Blue switches.
• Fantastic, heavyweight chassis build quality.
• High quality doubleshot ABS keycaps, interchangeable with other Alps keycaps.
• The beeper is hilarious (and fortunately, can be shut off).

What's Crap

• Unconventional AT/ANSI hybrid layout with dysfunctional arrow keys.
• Freakishly big for a standard 101 keyboard.
• Blue Alps might be too noisy for some users.
• Needs an adaptor to work on modern systems.

Verdict

An absolute dream to type on, complicated only by it's ridiculous size and weird key layout.