RPi 500 arrives with mechanical switches, RGB LED backlit keys (thepihut.com)

I never got a pi 400 or 500, but this one looks interesting. basically an RGB LED mechanical keyboard but with a 16GB pi 5 inside, and a 256GB SSD

Manufacturer's WWW page discussed at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45370021 .

To mods: This is RPi 500+, not RPi 500. The title is quite editorialized too.

I've spent a similar magnitude of money on just a mechanical keyboard before, and from that angle alone it seems like excellent value.

Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45370304

It'd be great if there was OTG mode, it would be the perfect macro keyboard

I look at these things and think how amazing it would be to have one back when "home microcomputers" with TV as output were in their heyday.

But these days, I'm struggling to think of a use case. For casual users it makes more sense to get a regular mini-PC or laptop, and for hacking... well, what exactly would you be hacking on that makes this form factor preferable?

I tried it today at the Maker Faire. It was very nice - the Pi was snappy and the keyboard I wish I could just buy as a keyboard. Low profile but incredibly, gloriously, perfectly clicky! The framework laptop with the NVIDIA GPU looked nice too, but man that pi 500+ keyboard was soooo enjoyable.

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SUBOR SB97 looks fantastic because it clones IBM Model M. Most keys are white, but Esc is grey, and and F5-F8 are grey. And arrows are grey. And some other keys are grey. Keyboard is contrast, alive, full of sense. All such conventions that were taken for granted, and this RPi 500 is dull all white.