OLKB Planck keyboard
Shares rank 11 of 13 mechanical keyboards by recommenders
A compact 40% ortholinear keyboard that people say cuts awkward hand movement and lets them do more with fewer keys.
A compact 40% ortholinear keyboard that people say cuts awkward hand movement and lets them do more with fewer keys.
5 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Less hand movement and awkward reaches
“switching to a 40% ortholinear was a huge change, it eliminated way too many awkward movements”
Comment from 7 Oct 2026 in “LLMs may have helped my RSI” “it's just so much less hand movement that it feels so much better to type on”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “I Like Small Keyboards” Does more with fewer keys
“Sometimes there is just no home row quite like a 48 key planck's.”
Comment from 30 Jul 2026 in “Keychron announces first open-source firmware for gaming mice” “it becomes surprisingly intuitive to do more with less”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “One Handed Keyboard” Recommended and restocked by fans
“I recommend you checking out the planck and preonic keyboards from olkb.”
Comment from 6 Jul 2026 in “I Like Small Keyboards” “Good thing I stockpiled on Planck boards”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Drop, formerly Massdrop, ends most collaborations and rebrands under Corsair”
Other mechanical keyboards people recommend
The four most recommended other mechanical keyboards, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Magic Keyboard mechanical keyboard | 55 | 11 | 83% | 3 | — | — |
| IBM Model M keyboard | 39 | 10 | 80% | 8 | 18 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| Keychron keyboard | 29 | 18 | 62% | 8 | — | — |
| Filco Majestouch TKL | 15 | 2 | 88% | 3 | 15 yrs5 owners | — |
| OLKB Planck keyboardThis page | 5 | 0 | 100% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
6 of the 7 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“switching to a 40% ortholinear was a huge change, it eliminated way too many awkward movements”
“Sometimes there is just no home row quite like a 48 key planck's.”
“it's just so much less hand movement that it feels so much better to type on”
“I recommend you checking out the planck and preonic keyboards from olkb.”
“Good thing I stockpiled on Planck boards”
“it becomes surprisingly intuitive to do more with less”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.