Full disclosure: I’m a Realforce user. I tried the HHKB, and while my opinion is far from “it’s a membrane keyboard” I still don’t have great things to say about it. I don’t think there’s any reasonable way to justify the price tag, whether it’s in terms of raw materials or RnD or even the “experience”.

You could say that the HHKB uses a custom mold, but so do the alternatives. In fact the alternatives are sturdier and some of them even have metal plates.

It’s got a Unix layout, but I don’t see how that adds up to 250. The layout has been around for donkeys years. How much brain power does it take to go “oh, maybe add layers and function keys”? Any Embedded Systems intern can come up with that and implement it in one summer (heck maybe a week).

I was a little ranty, but that’s my honest opinion on the HHKB keyboards. If you think you’ll enjoy typing on it, then by all means. I think you can definitely enjoy it, I just can’t think you can justify the price tag.