Japanese manufacturer XYZA has debuted its Tiny Keyboard Custom 2.0, which is a 3-key programmable mechanical keyboard with an attached dial wheel for precision interaction and LED lighting. It's priced at 3,980 yen officially, has a pre-sales Amazon.JP page at the time of writing, and most importantly for our U.S. readers, costs roughly ~$25 USD at the current transfer rate before shipping and other fees.
The mechanical keys in question seem to be Cherry MX Red switches or some other kind of Red switch (linear) variant. Even the key switches are removable and thus swappable, though, so the possibilities with these three keys combined with the easy-swap transparent caps really seem like a recipe for wider appeal. The dial also functions as a horizontal/vertical-toggle scroll wheel, which could be used as a look/move left/right function in-game, or a pan/zoom function on the desktop.
You could even probably play Doom with it, come to think about it.
XYZA Tiny Keyboard Custom 2.0 specs
- Weight: 70 Grams
- Default Key Type: Red Switches.
- Default Key Caps: Transparent Plastic Shells, BYOD.
- Dial Radius: Not Given; But width of shortest side (longer than dial) is 32 mm. So, likely mid-20 range.
- Keys (Programmable): 3
- Ports: USB-C Port (Power and Data); includes USB C-to-A cable
Overall, the sheer customization of this device seems to offset any concerns there may be about the ~$30-$50 a U.S. buyer would need to part with for such a specialized peripheral. Devices that let you replace so much this easily aren't that common. However, even the feel of the keyboard is easily changeable through swappable switches, so this seems like a mini keyboard with which you can do anything you like.
If nothing else, it seems like it has some utility as a Nintendo Switch Joy-con-esque hand remote uniquely suited for PC productivity and gaming due to its programmable functionality. For example, it can easily be used for macro functionality in image and video editing workloads, or for macros in single-player games and other titles where macros don't get you banned. The unique rotating dial also recalls the volume wheel on some high-end keyboards, so this could add this functionality to a PC that otherwise doesn't have it.
