Welder

Most keyboards stop at typing. Welder's pitch is that the keyboard and a second screen can live in one chassis. According to the maker, a 12.8-inch smart touchscreen sits directly above an 84-key mechanical layout, and the whole unit folds 180° into a notebook-like shape for carrying.

The screen

The maker lists a resolution of 1920×720 pixels, 80% NTSC color gamut and an IPS panel with full lamination to remove the air gap between glass and display. The campaign says it supports ten-finger touch, and that when connected to a USB-C laptop it works as a secondary monitor, for example to scrub a video timeline or swipe through reference PDFs while typing. A side-mounted knob adjusts screen brightness.

Typing and customization

Welder uses Satellite-style Sakura switches, a linear design with no tactile bump. The maker says they have a lighter actuation force and shorter travel than typical mechanical switches such as blue or brown types, and describes them as relatively quiet. The board is hot-swappable, so switches and keycaps can be replaced without soldering. The base layout is ANSI, with the campaign stating support for 6 languages; non-US layouts such as Japanese or German are selected in a post-campaign survey for an additional charge.

• 180° folding design with a CNC-machined aluminum enclosure
• 108 RGB lighting combinations from 18 modes, including Steady, Breathing, Rainbow and a driver-customizable Game mode
• Lighting toggled with FN+DEL and colors switched with FN+HOME
• USB-A OTG data port for USB drives and external SSDs
• One-touch power switch
• Windows, Mac, Linux and Android support; 1.5m USB-C-C and 1.5m USB-A-C cables included

The maker says basic functions, typing, touch and lighting, work without installing drivers, which would let Welder pair with anything from a laptop to an Android tablet.