 This may be the most expensive keyboard we've ever tested. Individually addressable RGB keys? No? Cherry MX switches with custom keycaps? No? Thunderbolt 3 passthrough with triple OLED displays? No, it- no, it's got none of those things. It's the completely wooden, handcrafted in Japan keyboard from Hakoa, priced at nearly 1,400 US dollars. But is it at all worth it? Or does it get chopped by this $40 Chinese keyboard that we bought on Amazon? Speaking of things that are worth it by the way, TunnelBear. TunnelBear thinks the internet is better when everyone can openly access the same content. So try TunnelBear for free over at TunnelBear.com slash LTT. Available in either maple or walnut from responsibly managed forests, we're gonna start with a look at the illustrious Hakoa keyboard. Key meaning both wood and tree in Japanese. See what they did there? Simply put, it's a work of art. The 89 gently concave keycaps are cut from a single panel of wood with their relative position preserved such that the natural wood grain pattern is visible on the finished board. The keys contrast subtly with the chassis, which is one solid piece even on the back where they cared enough to carve a recessed bevel so that the board is easy to pick up off the desk. Turning now to the poop end of the stick, we've got the $40 Coolertron. Other than the fact that this board is indeed made of wood, its appearance is not that similar to the Hakoa key. Okay, hand-carved sustainable bamboo. Sure, I guess. But there's no cohesive color scheme and the keys, chassis pieces, and the media keys have no consistency in the direction of the wood grain. Then, making matters worse, at the top of the board, the wood motif is disrupted by an obnoxious Coolertron sticker and a nearly useless power indicator LED that I would gladly trade in for caps and or num lock lights, something Hakoa managed to include and in a way that actually enhances the look of the board. Let's go back to the Hakoa and look a little closer. The laser etched letters on the tree board have amazingly sharp corners, like they are perfect to the eye. The tactile guides are both elegant and functional, and the key caps are aligned in perfectly straight rows, one of the weakest points of the cheaper board's looks. On top of that, poor key stabilization makes the spacing between letters uneven, assaulting your eyes, and that impression is only made worse upon closer inspection, excusing even the corrugated look of the bamboo wood grain. The key caps legend is etched with a degree of precision that I could charitably describe as serviceable, except for this Internet Explorer looking key that won't be servicing me at all. When it comes to general build quality from a more keyboard-y standpoint, honestly, neither of them is the best we've seen. I mean, look at that flex, Hakoa! Though at least to their credit, all the key caps are aligned and sit at the same height. By comparison, check out Coolertron's ragged F-row and lowrider-style question mark. While we're at it, the edges are pretty rough, the F9 key is randomly darker, and the key guides, subjectively mind you, are a little too subtle to be really useful. Now, some have complained that the legend on this one can be difficult to see, particularly in the dark, but Coolertron claims that the symbols become easier to read after two weeks of use, presumably thanks to finger crud filling up the grooves. Mmm, yummy. So for build quality and style points, I'm giving it to Hakoa. It even feels and smells way more... woody than the Coolertron, which might sound inconsequential, but it's actually kind of the whole point here. It's wood. Alright then, what about the practical aspects of this showdown? The bamboo board, believe it or not, is actually surprisingly decent to type on, since it's one of those mem-canical keyboards, meaning that the switches are membrane, but a small lip on the key cap gives the stroke a more tactile feel. It's not as loud as a set of Cherry MX Blues, but it is louder than your typical membrane board. It's got a bit of a weird layout, since it's a full 104 keyboard with a numpad, but then with compact navigation keys, but I might even go as far as to say that I like typing on it. At least I would if it weren't for that astonishingly heavy space bar. Like, this stupid thing takes the force of Thor's hammer to press down, it's shorter than normal, and it sits left of center, leading some typists to accidentally hit the alt key instead. Alright then, but what about typing on a keyboard that is 35 times the price? Well, to put it plainly, this membrane is mush city. People who aren't accustomed to mechanical boards might not notice, but those who are, and who might be considering the Hakoiki, are barking up the wrong tree, so to speak. And this one's got a weird layout too. It's like Japanese, but with an English legend, which is great if you're Japanese and you want to type in English, but if you're used to a North American keyboard like I am, you will be annoyed by the shortened enter and backspace keys, you will have no use at all for the keys that Japanese speakers use to switch between their various alphabets, and you probably won't be a fan of the even stumpier space bar. Though, it should be noted that this one was actually easier to use, because at least it's centered. So which one's better? Well, truthfully, in spite of the awful space bar, the Bamboolertron is probably the better typer. So while you can get a real mechanical keyboard at this price point, the novelty makes it maybe a decent buy, especially since, unlike the Hakoiki, it's wireless. Then again, we couldn't even slide the little door shut without it breaking. As for the keyboard, I believe them when they say that each individual unit is made by a Japanese master craftsman in a labor-intensive process at a rate of just one per day. Unfortunately, that craftsman didn't spend any of that time on things that keyboard enthusiasts actually care about. To be clear, no one here hated it. I'm just a little disappointed that someone could spend so much time making such a beautiful object, then charge a sizable chunk of cash for it without even doing the requisite market research to realize that for $1,386, we expect a braided cable. So then, which one would I rather have in my home office? Honestly, neither of them. They're both kind of novelty items, though at least one of them is priced accordingly. I can't believe that we paid for this thing. I feel like a total sap. That was awful. But what's not awful is Ting, the mobile carrier that's focused on customer service and customer satisfaction first. When you call Ting, you do not speak to a robot. You get put through directly to a person, and you don't have to pay extra for that kind of service. You pay only for the airtime that you use, with the average Ting bill only $23 a month per device. And if you're stuck in a contract and switch to Ting, they'll even cover 25% of your cancellation fee, up to $75. They've got new lower mobile data rates. Data's now just $10 a gig beyond the first gig, and every single Ting customer will be able to reap the benefits of this new change. So head over to linus.ting.com and try out their savings calculator. It'll tell you how much you'll save. Then, sign up at our link to get $25 in service credit or towards a new device. We're gonna have that linked below. So thanks for watching, guys. If this video sucked, you know what to do. If it was awesome, though, get subscribed, hit that like button, or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured... in the video description. Also linked in the description is our merch store, which has cool shirts like this one, our community forum, which you should totally join, and if you're still hanging around the video for this long because you really think the Hakoa Key is that amazing, maybe we'll have an eBay link below, too, because I gotta get rid of this thing. $1,400 keyboard.